New Found Glory - Listen Up! (February 20, 2026) • Page 3

cj · Sep 30, 2025

kind of a bummer to see someone's first ever post about something they are obviously passionate about get so easily dismissed but thats the internet i guess

WadeCastle · Sep 30, 2025

cj said:

kind of a bummer to see someone's first ever post about something they are obviously passionate about get so easily dismissed but thats the internet i guess

dang you right , I clicked his profile and that’s his only post on here.

wisdomfordebris · Sep 30, 2025

I did feel bad posting the meme but I can’t help it when I see a post that long, it was the perfect opportunity. I’m sorry!

manoverboard365 · Sep 30, 2025

I’d argue that the band isnt begrudgingly “returning to form,” but rather choosing to do so willingly. If anything, albums like Coming Home were made because of external demands, and not the other way around.

For the record, Coming Home is my favorite NFG album, but there’s no way they weren’t forcibly nudged by their label to make it and capitalize on the Dashboard Confessional/The Fray etc cash cow that was happening at the time.

NFG is great at making fun pop punk tunes. Laugh it Off is a great pop punk tune.

Greg · Sep 30, 2025

cj said:

kind of a bummer to see someone's first ever post about something they are obviously passionate about get so easily dismissed but thats the internet i guess

Kind of a bummer people think they can just drop an essay out of nowhere to a bunch of strangers with zero context to who they or the audience is.

Greg · Sep 30, 2025

Sorry, I stopped reading halfway through again. I just got a really awesome DM on an unrelated matter.

Dog Fish · Sep 30, 2025

aboutnoskcam said:

I think I have bit my tongue on this for long enough. I have long been a lurker on this website, but never felt compelled to post until now. I can recall back in the AbsolutePunk days the buzz of excitement I would get seeing a new post from one of my favorite bands. Discovering new artists, and finding a community that shared the same interests as me. I feel like we are at that cusp again with the resurgence of our favorite bands of the past.

New Found Glory has and always be my favorite band. I remember spinning Catalyst to absolute death back in my '03 Honda Civic. So much so that it started to skip on the back half of the album and I needed to go out and buy another. I retroactively discovered Sticks and Stones, self-tilted, and NGCS. To say I was a fan, would be an understatement. Hearing them take risks with Coming Home and FTSTYS2 was unlike any other band I was listening to at the time. Going to see them on the NWAF tour with Bayside, it solidified to me that they could write incredible music and perform it a caliber I had never experienced.

To me, NFG always felt strongest when they took their big swings: Coming Home, Radiosurgery. And felt complicit when they shelled out a "return to form" album like NWAF (in retrospect) and Resurrection. Sure they had a little bit of a band member shakeup, but they were at the peak of their game with Kill it Live's 3 song EP after taking some big changes to their core song writing.

Connect the Dots could have been as big as any single off Sticks and Stones or Catalyst. Blending the hardcore with the melodies they showcased on Radiosurgery, they had a lot going for them as they ventured into their next album. Writing their memorable hooks, choruses that begged to be sang, and bridges that made the place erupt when performed live.

What we got was another back to basics album with Resurrection (again, acknowledging the lineup change) and more or less "We are NFG and know how to write hardcore pop-punk." Some good ideas, but extremely forgettable in their catalogue up to that point. No risks, no innovation. Simply NFG for the sake of more NFG.

Makes Me Sick saw another attempt at a swing, but they couldn't get it to click in the same way Radiosurgery did with the big hooks and pre-choruses they are known for. Aside from Happy Being Miserable, they really didn’t reach the same heights with earworms like they did on albums past. The lukewarm promotion and reception probably resonated with the band as they ventured into their next LP.

Additionally, on those last 2 albums, something else started to emerge as a trend. Cramming pages of nonsensical lyrics into the shortest amount of time possible. Look, I will be the first to admit that NFG's lyrics aren't anything special, but they at least let their songs "breathe" when appropriate. Go listen to Head on Collision or Don't Let Her Pull You Down. Something about the care and consideration of the arrangements made the lyrics easier to belt out at concerts than say a single off their next album, Greatest of All Time. Speaking of Forever and Ever times Infinity, we see another "return to ghosts of NFG past." Tons of songs, tons of lyrics, nothing memorable. All of that coming with a marred production quality. Go listen to the demo version of Puzzles on FTSTYS3 and then listen it again on the deluxe album of Forever and Ever. Every instrument is turned up the max and sounds extremely washed out. Not one of these songs sounds like a veteran pop-punk trying to innovate and reinvent the genre like I know they are capable of doing. All I can hear is "People can't forget about NFG and the fact that we are a band so here is us phoning it in… again."

Let's gloss over Make the Most of It and December's Here for obvious reasons. (Only thing worth mentioning is More than Enough on Make the Most of It which deserved to be redone as a full band).

Before we get to the newest songs, let me also say that not all the songs on the last 3 full band albums are bad. There are glimmers of hope, but for a band coming up on 30 years, they are batting about 10-20% which makes no sense.

Where does that leave us for today? Listen Up! Is going to be there next LP after 6 years. And the first 2 songs are about as by the books as we have come to expect. 100% sounds like a Resurection b-side. Again, cramming in every word they can think of into the verses while having a chorus that I wouldn’t scream even if someone paid me. It has this jarring jump from the verse into the pre-chorus which sounds like someone accidentally cut a full 4 seconds of off the final take, but were too lazy to put it back in. The guitar riff lacks any real finesse, while the drums sound like a weak attempt at imitating the likes of Neck Deep and The Story So Far (both of them having tremendous efforts in the last year with their LPs).

Laugh it Off attempts something in the verse that relies heavily on the influence of their current touring guitarist from Four Year Strong. It’s a welcome change but doesn’t seem like its executed properly once we get to the chorus. It fizzles out before it says anything for itself and is muddied by an overly long intro and outro. The same problem with the lyrics applies here as well. Unmemorable words backed by a more forgetful guitar.

To summarize, we need someone in the band to take a stance when the last decade of albums have felt stale and overly repetitive. To quote the making of Radiosurgery with Neal Avron from Wikipedia "…However, Avron was not overly impressed, stating the songs were "okay, but I don't really think they're that great." The band responded by completing a new set of six tracks, but no avail, as the producer was still not convinced. This left the band frustrated, as they believed the new material to among the best songs they had written. Gilbert was persistent though, and after recording another eight demos that went back-and-forth with the producer, the band announced in November that Avron had agreed to produce the album…"

My ask is to find this New Found Glory again wherever they may be. I know they are capable of writing better songs, and we should hold them accountable as a fanbase.

Fitting avatar.

Taketimeandfind · Sep 30, 2025

I will say something that I agree with in that post is about the lyrics. It’s not so much that they are bad (not Forever bad) but they are very wordy and kinda hard to sing a long to. The lyrics themselves could stand to be arranged a little better or flow easier

Jason Tate · Sep 30, 2025

I love the EP version of "Puzzles" and really like that whole EP actually. And you could pay me to scream some songs live for sure. I dunno, I hated the last album and am really excited about this one based on what we've heard so far.

slimfenix182 · Sep 30, 2025

Laugh It Off is ridiculously good. Trying to figure out how they wrote that album of absolute clunkers in between Makes Me Sick and these two new songs

MattNCheeze · Oct 1, 2025

Maybe I missed it but where we seeing that Dan's recording with them?

cricketandclover · Oct 1, 2025

He was in a lot of the IG studio content

MattNCheeze · Oct 1, 2025

Oh got it.

Dudes a riff master, my interest is defiantly more peaked now.

333 GANG · Oct 1, 2025

He’s listed as performing but doesn’t have writing credits on the new songs

morte · Oct 2, 2025

Really fun video, made me enjoy the song more. So ready for this album!

ClarkGriswold · Oct 3, 2025

The more I play this song the more I like it. Maybe it’s the posters in the video playing tricks on my brain but this song sounds like a perfect mix of Catalyst and NWAF. Loving the breakdown, the gang vocals and the sound of the drums. 2/2 on the new songs for me.

WadeCastle · Oct 8, 2025 at 4:34 PM

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