Coming Home is their most interesting, and best, album. It's not my favorite of theirs, but I firmly believe it's their best. It's not even that radically different from where they'd been. The instrumentation bent a little differently and they finally found Jordan's sweet spot vocally, but the songwriting isn't even that drastically removed from something like Catalyst. A shame they went into self-preservation mode after the tepid response and have been mostly toiling there ever since.
Could the lower sales numbers of the album also be attributed to a time when people were starting to not buy physical music as much and pirating was much more prevalent?
I just discovered that all of the b-sides from the album are on YouTube! I think it's strange that they have a song on the album called "Make Your Move" and then b-sides named "Make it Right" and "Making Plans".... How confusing lol
No, because if that were the case it still would've charted high. It debuted at #19, while the two prior albums debuted at #2 and #3. I can't find the sales numbers on a quick search, but I'm pretty sure Coming Home sold like 50k in its first week. Crazy how that was considered a flop just 15 years ago
HA kinda like how the Dangerous Summer have a song Come Down and another Come Along on the same EP. I dont think I've ever heard any bsides from Coming Home, gonna need to do a deep dive on these today!
2005-2007 seemed to be a dark period for bands of this genre that hit major success in the early 2000's and were on a major label. I was around for the Sticks and Stones release build up, but somehow missed the drop of Coming Home. I only got into it because my college roommate at the time loved the album and went to their show in Chicago during. He sent a photo to me on my Razor phone and it was of him, Jordan, and Steve hanging outside of Virgin Records in Chicago. He randomly ran into them before the show. He said they were really cool and nice. They talked about him going to the show and how much he liked the new album. I remember him talking about how bummed they were that fans weren't really into the album at the time so they weren't going to play a lot of new stuff at the show. I will never forget that story haha. Anyways, Coming Home is awesome. It's probably their most dialed in album album musically and lyrically. IDK what my least favorite is from them. It's between Resurrection or Infinity. Probably Infinity because the lyrics are hilariously atrocious and its not as leaned out as Resurrection. Resurrection has some really strong songs that makes it stand it out a bit more. Infinity has the energy I like though.
I suppose you’re right. And according to Wikipedia, it sold like 83k first week. That would be super high these days!
My only hope is that the band, who are now in their 40's, decide at this point in their careers to take another chance on a record with the sound they went for on Coming Home. I do think they have it in them. They just have to take the leap and do it.
Obviously, they've found what works for them all, but I always wonder what NFG would sound like if Chad didn't write everything.
I’d like to see them work with another lyricist/writer/guest vocalist for a song. Ryan Key. Will would be cool too. I’m sure they got lots of different people we could all mention too. Even if it’s just a one off single.
Said it before and I'll say it again- would be so fun if they did a multi-volume release of their b-sides/extras. They've mentioned the possibility of it in the past. I wonder how their involvement in several labels has complicated that potential endeavor.