Speaking of Coming Home...I saw someone on IG share Steve's new Christmas song. I decided to check it out and it reminded me a lot of Coming Home.
Oh I totally love makes me sick and feel like there were definitely some elements of coming home on there. I guess i meant committing a full album in the style of coming home.
Definitely loved coming home from the moment it was released. Probably my most revisited album from them. I do enjoy all of their albums though, even the latest
Agree completely. They even admitted that they didn’t want to be labeled a pop punk band so they had more of a harder sound to Catalyst so I can definitely see them trying to write songs that were more in line with what other similar bands were doing. I do think it’s funny how hard they tried to distance themselves from pop punk back then and now they embrace it so much. I really like Coming Home and liked it at the time it was released and wish they continued on with that sound and style moving forward as the other album I really liked since was Makes Me Sick and found the other albums pretty forgettable (Resurrection was bad and their latest album awful) outside of a few songs here and there.
Each album of theirs has had a few songs that have stuck with me, but I don’t think there’s anything from the latest record I’ll ever have much of a desire to come back too. Even the songs I kind of like have such unbelievably corny lyrics that I tend to just pick something else from their catalogue if I find myself in an NFG mood.
I’ve said it before but musically I dig the new album, I like the energy, but the lyrics are so bad in some spots that it’s tough to listen to.
That’s my draw back too. An album can fun without being silly. I thought with FYSTYS being silly (music videos) they’d get that out of the way and make a more serious record.
Makes Me Sick is easily the closest they’ve come to Coming Home and it’s the most i’ve enjoyed something from them since.
I find Makes Me Sick was “doing something a little different”, but I never found it to be like Coming Home. There’s still a silliness in some songs o MMS, probably keep it fun and for a certain section of the fan base. Prior to Coming Home, the band had a lot of boy likes girl stuff, and with Coming Home it felt like it was more above being in love or in caring relationships with another with a person. It’s was a more mature view of what they had been doing. Considering their collective ages and where they were in life it made sense. I think some of the younger audience maybe didn’t relate to the slight shift in subject matter because they weren’t in the same place or didn’t listen to the band for that kind of lyrical contend. “You’re my oxygen” is a pretty heavy statue to out of the gate. The band had done a few more serious songs like Sonny, and I feel like Coming Home sort of took that path. I’m glad they did and I would like them to feel bold enough to try it again. I thought their last record would have been the right time. I think that more than ever now of Infinity.
Coming Home is definitely my favorite NFG record. At the time it came out I was so happy that one of my favorite bands just so happened to be evolving with my music taste, but as I got older I did start to think that the style change may have been a deliberate attempt to stay relevant. The irony being that it commercially was the beginning of their decline. I still blame that on a poor single choice. It's Not Your Fault is the weakest song on there. They would've killed with either Oxygen, Coming Home or On My Mind as the single. I also love Makes Me Sick, but I wouldn't really compare it to Coming Home. Definitely experimented more with their sound, but still feels very much like a fun pop punk album.
As for the newest album, it's definitely enjoyable when you don't pay close attention to the lyrics. But when you do, woof. I still keep Greatest of All Time and The Way You Deserve on my gym playlist. Also, interesting to see that December's Here hasn't even been out a month and already has more than double the streams of most F&E songs. Well deserved, I think I prefer that song over 95% of the new album.
It’s kinda funny that they probably see the new Christmas songs as silly but it seems like fans on here prefer that over the new album.
It’s Not Your Fault is like the fence line between previous NFG singles and Coming Home. It’s not as strong or punchy as other singles had been and there are better songs on Coming Home that fit the tone of the album. That said, I still really like the song. I can see why it didn’t “hit” home for as many people as a song like My Friends Over You. It’s more of a slowly gets stuck in your head with the piano on the intro, chorus and woahs
Christmas songs play well to silly. I think if they worked with another lyric writer or had a mentor or producer who pushed their lyrical content it would be a good thing for the band. This is why I was hoping they’d work with Will Pugh and/or Ryan Key on the album in some capacity. The FYSTYSIII sounded great. But those are other peoples words.
I really feel like that On My Mind Coming Home Too Good To Be Love and Pain Are not far from what they were doing. The song structures are very much in the vein of classic NFG songs.
They weren’t reinventing themselves. Just kind gave themselves room to do stuff a little different while still being NFG. Like Too Good To Be just holds it back a little instead of going for a big pop punk moment, and allows an opening for that little guitar solo.
What I honestly find more frustrating is that they have never really tried to incorporate a few songs from that album into the set list. They could honestly “cover” any of those CH songs and it would go off.
Don’t think any of the details in there are really new. Remember reading all of that not long after the story initially broke.
They paint him in a really positive light too. An expert during the trial said that the girls could have been as young as 9. This now states 14-15. whatever. At least there’s closure on this now.
What I don’t really understand is, if the victims have never been identified, how do they know how old they were?