Catalyst [ECD] - New Found Glory

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Average
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	A terrific album of bouncy pop punk fun .
Disadvantages:	If you dislike nasal vocal performances then you probably won't like this .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

'Catalyst' is a brilliant album from New Found Glory and one with which the bands sound comes blasting out right from the word go. It's the bands fourth studio album and was released through Drive-Thru Records/Geffen back in 2004. The album consists of sixteen tracks which therefore provides for a fantastic 50 minutes of music. The albums introductory track 'Intro' is incredibly hard hitting in its approach, the guitar playing is powerful in its approach whilst the drum sound also is incredibly fast and furious; after the initial explosive introduction the band does however go back to what it does best and puts to record fifteen excellent pop punk anthems.

The bands front man Jordan Pundik possesses a very distinctive vocal tone, his vocal performance is quite nasal and this is something that you'll either love or hate. Personally I'm a huge fan of his vocal tone and with every passing album his vocal talent just seems to get better and better. After the 'Intro' the first real track we find here is that of 'All Downhill From Here'; it's an excellent track and possesses a highly infectious pop punk chorus also. Despite it's ominous title it's actually an incredibly bouncy and uplifting pop punk track, it's great fun to listen to and really begin the album well here. From here the band then bounces through to 'This Disaster' and this is another absolute highlight from the album. Once more the track is in possession of a hugely effective chorus and it's a great little track to sing along to. Despite a fairly negative title the track is again hugely bouncy and fun to listen to.

My absolute favourite track from this album has to be seen as 'Failure's Not Flattering'; the track makes great use of synth sound and the vocals are greater than ever in their tone here. The vocals are really cleanly sung out and once more the music is absolutely excellent to sing along to; you can't help but sing along to the track as you listen in fact, the music is highly infectious and never is a dull moment provided. It's a great bit of bouncy fun and every single member of the band does their bit here to make this an exquisitely fine piece of music. The guitar riffs are excellent, instrumentally I fail to find fault with the track actually and vocally also the music always has much to offer. This is my absolute favourite track from the album, there are a couple of others that are excellent also, but for me this is the absolute highlight of the album by far.

'I Don't Wanna Know' and 'No News Is Good News' are two further favourites of mine from this album and with both of these tracks the band shows itself to be exceptional. Both tracks have brilliant choruses, and the slow pace with which the band progresses through 'I Don't Wanna Know' truly is absolutely excellent to hear. The music is very well worked and always here the bands sound is supremely pleasant to listen to. The music moves along well and both of these tracks really do stand out when listening to the 'Catalyst' album. They're both excellent pop punk tracks and for anyone interested in the genre then I'd definitely recommend listening to them. 'No News Is Good News' has a little more urgency about it than 'I Don't Wanna Know', it's still quite a slow one however and once more the bands reasonably slow tempo comes across incredibly well here.

'Who Am I' is the track that brings this album to its close and once more it is one of the bands slower efforts from this album. It's a great track to end the album with and one that really does come across powerfully here. It's a fine piece of music and ends the 'Catalyst' album in absolutely fantastic fashion. It's certainly not the best track on the 'Catalyst' album, definitely not a bad one to end it with though and it does sit well as the albums closing effort. The vocals are finely sung out as ever and instrumentally the guitar sound comes across with great bite. The instrumental side of things offers the track a powerful backbone whilst the vocals are light, fluffy, and incredibly approachable. It's an excellent contrast and really does work well here providing for a fine closing three minutes of fun for the album.

From start to finish this album is packed full of energy and the fine vocal tone of Jordan Pundik is I feel what makes the music stand out so strongly. The bands sound is full of fun and the way that New Found Glory bounces from track to track here always is absolutely excellent to hear. To date I've never found myself disappointed with any album that New Found Glory has released and 'Catalyst' is certainly no exception to this rule. 'Catalyst' is a great pop punk album and if you love the genre or are looking to listen to more bands of this sort then New Found Glory is most definitely one I'd recommend you to put onto your 'to listen to' list. It's not a perfect album, it's certainly pretty good though and so long as you like the vocal tone of Jordan Pundik then you should absolutely love this one. Public pinion seems to be pretty evenly split on the voice of the bands lead vocalist Jordan Pundik; his vocals are a little like Marmite in that you'll either love them or hate them and for that reason I'd recommend trying the music of New Found Glory before you buy. 'Failure's Not Flattering' would be the number one track to sample from this album, others I'd recommend listening to before you commit to a buy would be 'All Downhill From Here' and 'No News Is Good News'; listening to all three of these tracks will give you a good idea of the range of songs available on this album and if you like what you hear then definitely take the plunge and buy this album/download it from a source such as iTunes.

'Catalyst' can currently be found at Amazon.co.uk for the mere price of £9.98 which makes the album well worth the investment.