New Found Glory: Sticks And Stones : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

I'm sick of smiling/and so is my jaw" is how singer Jordan Pundik begins Sticks and Stones, and he stands by that glum declaration throughout the album. Pundik's lyrics -- always delivered from the top of his snot-packed sinus cavity -- focus on pretty much the same stuff as they did on the first two New Found Glory albums: girl woes and crumbling friendships. And his band's cheery pop-punk confections still seem like power ballads with an orange dye job. It doesn't help that New Found Glory are often indistinguishable from their Warped Tour brethren. Blink-182's Mark Hoppus plays bass on "Something I Call Personality," and the sound remains the same. The album gets some much-needed adventurousness with the loss-of-a-loved-one theme in "Sonny" and the electro intro to the daft punk of "Singled Out." Beyond that, Sticks and Stones is just generic kiddie fodder.

Peter Relic
(RS # 901 - July 2, 2002)