New Found Glory fight pain with hope with some of their best songs in years – and you’ll grin till your face hurts.
New Found Glory are looking for the sunshine as a means to survive. Since releasing 2020’s Forever x Ever Infinity, guitarist Chad Gilbert was diagnosed with cancer, and half a decade later, it’s still with him, after it spread from his adrenal glands to his spine and lungs. Between ruthless rounds of chemotherapy, he was in the studio with his bandmates, where music became an escape from waiting rooms and doctors’ phone calls into a realm of joy. They’re doing this because they needed it – but in times like these, you might well need this record too.
The Florida pop-punk legends’ 11th album is relentlessly positive, but not without shadow and nuance. In fact, part of their stance involves punching back against anything that wants to hold them down. Opener Boom Roasted is a bouncy takedown of the forces in the world ‘making money off their sadness’, while Treat Yourself asks ‘All you hear is how everyone hates this world / But what other options have they got?’ before gleefully throwing itself into its mission of getting anyone listening to give themselves a break. Later, the galloping Frankenstein’s Monster doesn’t just stare Chad’s cancer in the face but smiles through it – ‘I just want to feel alive again / Get up, get out, live free, be who I am.’
For the most part, they’re sweeping life’s pain and anguish aside in favour of celebrating the better hands life has dealt them. The triumphant 100% boasts not only a high-energy fighting spirit but stacks of chunky, raw riffs and A Love Song is a gushing ode to a love interest (of course), but perhaps the highlight is Beer & Blood Stains, a vividly and lovingly painted trip back in time to NFG’s salad days in their scrappy local hardcore venue. There’s even an uproariously silly ‘Florida!’ sing-along, but it goes without saying that, like everything on this record, it’s catchy as hell.
Ultimately, New Found Glory can call this one a silver lining. Though born from tremendous personal challenge, it has emerged as the best that they’ve sounded in years.
Verdict: 4/5
For fans of: Sum 41, Bowling For Soup, The Offspring
Listen Up! is released on February 20 via Pure Noise.
