New Found Glory crashed into the over-crowded bus of blink-182 sound-alike bands in 2000 and actually managed to carve out for themselves a small, but promising place in the future of the post-punk revival. That promise is severely diminished with their newest effort Catalyst their forth major label record in almost as many years, however.
It is an album steeped in cliché and full of hackneyed, misplaced aggression. Not even the rambunctious punk-meets-hair-metal lead single "All Down Hill From Here" can save a collection of ill-advised tracks better suited for the debut of a newly formed garage band than a group of now seasoned post-punkers.
The group would do well to take the cue from those blink boys and perhaps try to move beyond a sound that they no longer have the credentials to replicate.
Is there anything more pathetic than a bunch of men jumping around acting angry and subversive all the while telling some poor unfortunate woman to go screw herself? I think not. Do not just skip this one, run from it, far, far away.
New Found Glory Catalyst
