Album Review - NEW FOUND GLORY - “Listen Up!”
Written by: Angela Croudace | Monday 16th February 2026
“It’s not quite a reinvention, neither a collapse. It’s a band choosing hope and even if you prefer your pop punk bruised and bleeding, you can respect that.”
Listen, I don’t need to convince anyone I love pop punk. It’s in my bones. I was there at 11, memorising lyrics, tying my identity to songs that felt like secret diaries. I remember exactly where I was when I first heard My Friends Over You and fell headfirst into the world of NEW FOUND GLORY. They weren’t just part of pop punk’s explosion – they helped build it. So when a new record lands, I’m not a casual listener, I’m weighing it against a lifetime of feeling. Having the chance to review their latest work feels like a rite of passage for me, I couldn’t wait to see what direction the band had tapped into with this one.
Firstly, a little summary; Listen Up! is positioned as a purposeful, meaning-driven album. It’s optimistic. It’s reflective, and unmistakably shaped by the hardships the band have faced in recent years with Chad Gilbert’s battle with cancer serving as a defining cornerstone of the record’s emotional weight and perspective. Boom Roasted kicks the door open with classic early 2010s energy. It’s short, sharp, and instantly catchy. It’s the kind of riff that feels sumptuously ripped from their glory years. Lyrically, it takes a swipe at the industry and the commodification of heartbreak: making money off sadness and packaging it for singalongs. It’s a strong, punchy introduction.
100% doubles down on that formula. The riff is pure 2000s pop punk goodness, rather infectious. The lyrics are okay but don’t dig particularly deep. It’s fun, but not revelatory.
Laugh It Off is where things start to shift. Heavier. Slightly darker. More pensive. There’s a clear BLINK-182 flavour in the structure, especially in the shouted-back bridge that begs for a crowd. Even as someone who gravitates toward sadder, emo-leaning lyricism, this one works. It lingers. It loops in your head. The positivity feels somewhat earned here rather than forced.
A Love Song brings strong guitar work and golden-era nostalgia. Instrumentally, many of these tracks are near-perfect pop punk blueprints with tight drums, crisp riffs and huge choruses. That’s what makes the lyrical approach stand out more starkly. The band is leaning into brightness and resilience. Admirable? Absolutely. But for listeners who connect to pop punk through clever, cutting emotional depth (the kind that feels like poetry in motion) that poignant complexity feels dialled back. It’s a stylistic preference, not a flaw. Still, there’s a sense that balancing darker honesty with hope could have made the record overall hit harder. But we’re not all the way through, let’s see if they redeem that balance in the tracks that follow.
Then comes Beer and Bloodstains, arguably the standout. A grungier intro, classic drum work, and a chorus that feels like it was born in the mid-2000s Warped Tour circuit. The nostalgic lens is strong here - not just for the band’s journey, but for the kids who grew up with them. The breakdown is heavy. The shouted lines land. “How did we make it out alive?” holds genuine weight. The “best days of our lives” refrain feels bittersweet because the best days were chaotic, messy, formative. For many of us, those reckless years shaped everything. This track really captures that duality.
Medicine offers some of the album’s more profound lyricism. It’s reflective and personal, and it works emotionally. The melody is solid. It’s catchy and lighter, even a little Weezer-tinged in its warmth, but I can’t help wishing it leaned heavier instrumentally. With a more forceful composition, it could have been one of the album’s defining moments.
Treat Yourself is fast and punchy, veering into skate-punk territory. There’s a clear nod to THE OFFSPRING in both pacing and vocal energy, in my humble opinion anyway. It’s one that I think will translate brilliantly live. The positivity in the lyrics again pushes forward, even if it doesn’t fully resonate for those who prefer grit over gloss.
Dream Born Again slows things slightly. It’s sweet, reflective, and one of the more lyrically cohesive tracks. “You were the dream I thought was lost” lands with sincerity. In many ways, this feels like the true love song of the album, understated and emotionally aligned with its softer composition.
You Got This opens heavy and hooky. Lines about focusing on positivity and moving forward feel pointed, possibly reflecting Chad Gilbert’s own journey through illness and public scrutiny. There’s an undercurrent of boundary-setting here: no more doom spirals, no more performative sympathy. Just forward motion. Whether or not it’s autobiographical, the sentiment is clear: survival doesn’t always need to be miserable.
And then there’s Frankenstein’s Monster. Fast. Skate-punk urgency. A clever metaphor that likely nods to Gilbert’s cancer battle; feeling poked, prodded and rebuilt in a way that is different and slightly off. Lyrically, “I just wanna feel alive again” carries genuine emotional weight. This is where the album’s optimism and its darker realities finally feel balanced. It’s vulnerable without wallowing. Hopeful without sounding naïve. It’s one of the record’s most meaningful and strongest tracks.
As a whole, Listen Up! sits in an interesting space. The instrumentals are airtight and the guys still know exactly how to construct a flawless pop punk foundation. What divides opinion will be the lyrical tone. They’ve chosen uplift over anguish coupled with resilience over rumination. That’s brave, especially given their history. Is it entirely for everyone who grew up clutching sad, cutting lyrics like lifelines? Maybe not. For some of us, pop punk’s magic lives in its poetic melancholy. But growth matters just as surviving matters. And there are genuine gems here, particularly Beer and Bloodstains and Frankenstein’s Monster that deserve a place in the rotation.
It’s not quite a reinvention, neither a collapse. It’s a band choosing hope and even if you prefer your pop punk bruised and bleeding, you can respect that.
Listen Up! is out February 20th on Pure Noise Records.
