My brother said to me this morning that I would give a CD of New Found Glory farting in the bath the full five stars. Of course I laughed at him. But I think that kind of proves how big a NFG fan I am. Both of their full-length records are great, their covers EP is legendary and they are one of the best, if not the best, live band that I have ever seen. So, how would their very first release fare, bearing in mind even the band slag it of?
Well, let’s get this straight, this is their worst release. It’s just not very good. It’s rawer than the NFG we now know and love, the production is a lot rawer, Jordan’s vocals are not very good and the songs are just a shade of the one’s they have written recently. And the best bits are probably the ‘Ferris Bueler’ quips. I’m not painting a very good picture here am I…
‘Shadow’ kicks us off with a Green Day-esque riff. Jordan’s vocals aren’t very good, infact it’s amazing how much he has improved as a frontman. The song itself is very average, generic, dull, not particularly catchy…I could go on. As a fan it pains me to have to slag this off, but it just sucks. His voice is even worse on ‘My Solution’. It sounds way too high in pitch and way too forced. The words ‘strangling’ and ‘cat’ really do come to mind. Musically it’s average again, certainly not something that will stick in your head and have you humming along for the rest of the day.
‘Scraped Knees’ is actually pretty good. Until Jordan opens his mouth… Ok, he’s not that bad, but he really would have Anne Robinson bellowing out “you are the weakest link” if he ever decided to appear on her gameshow. Scrap the vocals and you have a half decent song. Again, nothing brilliant but this is worth another listen. ‘JB’ however isn’t that good. There’s no pace and no structure to the song; it just meanders its way through to an inevitable conclusion. The drumming rocks, but the songs itself just lacks cohesion.
‘Standstill’ ends the EP on a bad note. Turgid, nu-metal sounding churning riffs, no melody… guy’s what’s going on? When the song kicks off it sounds a bit better, but to be honest I was bored after two minutes. Not good.
The band don’t play these songs live anymore, I think that is testament to how much they’ve improved over the years. It is ‘punkier’ than their later releases, and it does show a tiny hint of what was to come, but this really is for absolute die-hards only. Hit Or Miss? Definitely the latter…
Paul Savage