Review Summary: This is a worst version of Catalyst [and yes it is possible]. All of the songs sound alike, all the beats sound alike, they are all love songs, and the lead singers voice hasn't improved.
"Something Real/Make It Timeless/An Act of God And Nothing Less Will Be Excepted/So If Your Calling Me Out/Count Me Out.- Taking Back Sunday
Well at least they tried to make there's timeless. Taking Back Sunday's "Louder Now" and Matchbook Romance's "Voices" are the perfect examples of doing something new and making it work. You actually have to change your sound a bit to make it work you can't have the same exact sound as the last album. New Found Glory thought this change was to instead of whining about relationships for half an album you can do it for a whole album and this is the album "Coming Home".
"Coming Home" is no different from "Catalyst" and when I say Catalyst was a whole lot better than this your first reaction is that "you have to be kidding me". When I say this album is a whole lot more repetitive than Catalyst you say, "You Have To Be Kidding Me". But ladies and gentlemen the truth is that this albums singles, opener, and sound is a whole lot worst than "Catalyst". The acatul albums sound is very basic which is one of the problems with it. They only switch styles from electric to acoustic once, and sounds like they are making the music forced to match the singers voice. The conclusion to the album "Boulders" is kind of a song where Jordan's voice sounds a little bit deeper than usual which is a treat. But there is nothing drastically new in this album. In Catalyst there was some piano work in between the songs, there really is none of that on this album. On some of the songs the band try's to force the chorus in to make the song great. New Found Glory are actually decent at writing choruses, but once you get to much of that particular chorus it starts to get old, the intro didn't have this effect but the song following it "Hold My Hand" does the chorus is repeated at least seven times in that song and even though the song. These are some of the things that make this album seem not so great. This album has potiental if the band would take out the repititivness of the songs.
The whole idea of "Coming Home", is kind of a college student coming home to see his girlfriend and writing songs to her. These songs deal with many subjects such as being far away, hoping they last forever, and making love to her. But a problem is that while the songs remain catchy they have no momentum since they are all about the same thing. A lot of famous bands have this problem were all there songs are about relationships but they change up the beat. On this album it sounds like New Found Glory are singing the same thing to you through the same beat of the song "Oxygen". So that also subtracts from this albums potiental, that I think it has. If you want me to compare the album to one song off "Catalyst" I would compare it to "I Don't Want To Know" soft and about a relationship kind of sounding like generic pop.
The album has it's highs and lows. The highs are defintely the first three tracks which seem to be high in emotion and the songwriting fits the songs beat perfectely. Jordan's voice sounds ailen to you and you think the band could be moving into the right direction. "It's Not Your Fault", has the potiental to be as good as Catalyst's singles but this is acatully a song were the chorus is not repeated enough for it to be a great listen. "Hold My Hand", is repeated so much that when you get the feeling that it is going to be great and the chorus is repeated so much you want to give up on it. This is New Found Glory's problem they sample there songs for a limited audience they get a great reaction and go in that direction for the whole album. The rest of the album is a lesser version of these three songs. The positive is Jordan's voice in these songs especially "Boulders" were you can really see his improvment, but in the rest of the songs it is still annoying. If you've gotten used and like his old voice don't get mad that it's changed a little bit, it still sounds like the old New Found Glory.
The whole album seems like a collection of songs. I think this could have been a whole lot better if New Found Glory who have used this as one of the disc. The Early November released a album just like this but just used it as one of there disc and it was sucessful. There album was all about relationships [the second disc] but it was a mix of acoustic and hard stuff. New Found Glory should have no shame in learning from a band younger than they are and mixing all of there songs together in one. You get the sense that there is a concept to this album like The Early November's but there really isn't a story developing in here. I think if there was a little bit more time and production I would change my whole opinion on this album. I like the idea of the album seperated into two or three disc and this being one of them, but I don't like this being the only disc presented.
Ahh, so I tried to like this album. I really did, after one and a half songs I had a surprising amount of hope for this album. But then I realized that the chorus in "Hold My Hand" was getting repeated a little bit too much, it sounded just like the previous song "Oxygen" and they had the same subject manner. Then I realized this album is even worst than their 2004 release Catalyst. This album is just horrible but it seems to be the direction the whole genre of pop punk is going. The band releases a good album in whole with a really poppy single that everyone loves. So they decide to make a whole album of these songs sounding exactly alike, and they are even somehow worst then that single that the band released. This isn't just to describe New Found Glory it has happened to other bands such as A Change Of Pace and Rufio to give recent examples. But New Found Glory has gone pop so much their last albums they should just be considered pop and not even pop punk. They should team up with Justin Timberlake and Beyonce to make an album; maybe they fit in better in that kind of atmosphere.
Pros:
Jordan's Voice sounds a bit better.
Cons:
All of the songs sound the same.
They are all love songs.
Jordan's voice is still annoying.
Tracks I wouldn't download but if I had to:
Oxygen
Hold My Hand
Too Good To Be.
1.6/5
