Review: New Found Glory - Radiosurgery

 Floridian pop punk quintet New Found Glory are one of those bands who despite the height of the popularity having passed a while ago, are still a band who seem to be riding high in the world of music. The group used to be more in the public eye during the pop punk craze of the early 2000s with 2002 single My Friends Over You reaching Number 5 on the Billboard modern rock chart. However pop punk faded out of the public eye, replaced by indie rock. However, the band have maintained a sense of relevance and popularity with a devoted following who see them as defenders of traditional pop punk, while Blink-182 and Sum 41 got too serious and other groups split up. After this New Found Glory found themselves influential figures for a new rising of pop punk figures during the later part of the decade like Fall Out Boy and All Time Low. But the devoted NFG following were never too keen on these bands and continue to at their favourite band to deliver golden-era pop punk as it should be. And that's the essential way to define seventh album Radiosurgery.

 Radiosurgery gives listeners a healthy dose of fun catchy and hooky pop punk that New Found Glory are adored for. There's very little dwelled upon in the way of negativity. The songs are nice short and sweet with the overall musical sound creating a sense of fun and fancy-free. Of course the crunchy and jagged punk riffs serve as great music that one may jump around and headbang to, similar to what you'd see in the My Friends Over You music video, with perhaps a greater influence from the early works of Green Day and NFG's favourite group, The Ramones, which would make sense following a set at the Bamboozle 2011 festival which was a full tribute to the California punks and featured Marky Ramone on drums. Certainly the album does manage to keep the spirit of early 2000s pop punk alive. And at that point you really need to ask yourself how good a factor that really is.

 See, Radiosurgery really doesn't have much of a highlight, apart from maybe the more memorable closer Map of Your Body, however there's very little variation between songs. It's just a straightforward collection of 2-3 minute punk songs. To say it threw me overboard with excitement would be a total lie.

 So though Radiosurgery is hardly the most dynamic album around, it at least demonstrates New Found Glory's ability to create infectious hooks and write sincere lyrics of young love, freedom and having fun that many can relate too, and the songs are really catchy pieces of pop punk. Really, it's a sign that New Found Glory won't be moving off of the pop punk throne any time soon.

 New Found Glory's Radiosurgery is out on Tuesday via Epitaph. The band will tour the UK in February with Sum 41, letlive. and While She Sleeps as part of the Kerrang! Tour 2012 Sponsored by Relentles Energy Drink.