I hated Coming Home at first, but it grew on me and Its become one of my favorites of theirs. NWAF was spinning a long time with me and I came to realize its...meh. There are some really good tracks on there though. Radiosurgery is something I wish they would continue with. I really loved that album and the bonus songs are awesome. I definitely wouldn't mind if they mixed a little Radiosurgery with Coming Home at this point in their career. Resurrection is an album I was really digging when it came out. Stubborn and Selfless are some of the best tracks in their catalog. I appreciate the album as a 4 piece. I also think the re-release of it with extra songs brought the album back to life for me.
There is something to be said about "aging gracefully" when you discuss NFG. In 2014, Yellowcard and NFG released their newest albums (Lift a Sail and Resurrection respectively) on same day, and it couldn't have been a more interesting contrast between two bands from the same era and how they are making music as they age. Yellowcard continues to push their sound forward, NFG never really did. When they tried (Coming Home), they immediately ran back to their comfort zone for their follow up. Every post-Coming Home album has a few good songs on them, but mostly they range from underwritten to boring to down right embarrassing to listen to from a lyrical perspective.
I'm surprised no one else thinks Catalyst is their best. I think "All Downhill", "This Disaster", and "Truth of my Youth" are so awesome. The second half of the album is kinda average though. And yeah, I agree with everyone else saying their last two albums have sucked hard.
Catalyst is terrible, as a whole. There's some great songs, but there's such a huge chunk of that album that is completely forgettable and meh.
What?! That's so wrong. The only bad song on Catalyst is "I'd Kill To Fall Asleep". The rest is great.
I made a playlist awhile back of what I wish Catalyst was: 1. All Downhill From Here 2. Truth of My Youth 3. Failure's Not Flattering 4. At Least I'm Known for Something 5. This Disaster 6. Intro 7. I'd Kill to Fall Asleep 8. Your Biggest Mistake
I'm not gonna say Catalyst is like a perfect record or anything, but I don't think I'd remove a single song from it if I had the opportunity to. I like some songs more/less than others but on the whole I just really loved that entire album a lot when it came out and I think to erase any part of that would make it simply (and obviously) not the same. The darker/weirder songs make that record what it is. And yes, I understand this same argument can be made for literally any album haha.
Over the Head, Below the Knees is one of my favorite songs by them..it's darker but they chorus is lovely.
I dunno, I like Catalyst more now than I did initially haha. Not that I listen to it often, but I love the first half of that album a lot. Back half eventually grew on me. I think it was one of the last two songs that I was soured on for the longest time.
I couldn't really rank the others, but Radiosurgery is my favourite. It's probably mostly because it was my first NFG album but none of their other records are so consistently great - every single song on that record is the best it can be. If it had a better closer than "Map of Your Body" (the only weak song outside the bonuses IMO) it would be a must-listen, but as it stands it's still one of my favourite albums of all time. It saddens me that the band seem to have never really liked it - they barely played half the album live and now they just stick Anthem For the Unwanted in the setlist and call it a night. (Resurrection's a good 4-star album that would have been a great 5-star album with a better producer.)
Catalyst is probably my favorite tbh Resurrection is... I don't remember liking it much at all. But I probably haven't listened since the first couple months it was out
I mean, I can break it down pretty easily: BANGERS Selfless Resurrection (The Enemy) Ready and Willing One More Round Vicious Love Stubborn GOOD The Worst Person Persistent Stories Degenerate On My Own BAD Angel Living Hell I've come across many, many albums with worse good/bad ratios than that. If they'd gotten Avron again to cut out the chaff and record Jordan's vocals properly it could have genuinely been fantastic.