New Found Glory - Hits (2008)

New Found Glory rose out of Coral Springs, FL in the late '90s/early '00s near the top of the pop-punk mainstream invasion, ultimately making their way onto the TRL countdown and into various MTV spring break appearances. With Jordan Pundik's recognizably nasal croon at the helm, the group successfully combined hardcore's aggression and breakdowns with sweetly addictive choruses, huge guitar hooks, and pages-ripped-from-diary lyrics, hitting a tender nerve with teenagers. And though the band never had the massive success of blink-182 -- coming off in the mainstream as their less offensive younger brothers -- their influence on the crop of pop-punk bands forming in their wake is evident. Even so, it's a bit strange for a band like NFG to release a greatest-hits record, seeing as they never had any number one hits, and fan favorites vary widely from person to person. That said, all of the predictable songs are here -- 12 tracks pulled from 2000s self-titled album up through 2006's Coming Home, including "My Friends Over You," "Dressed to Kill," and "Head on Collision"; the beloved "Hit or Miss" is present, but sadly, it's not the original version from 1999's Nothing Gold Can Stay, sufficiently leaving that record in the dust altogether. Two bonus tracks appear in the form of "Situations" (its chunky guitar work and singsongy chorus previously only available for a limited online stream) and "Constant Static," a bonus cut from the Japanese version of Catalyst. However, besides having the allure of being semi-unreleased tracks, both could have easily been swapped out for better songs. Collections of this nature are generally geared to casual fans, and as such, Hits delivers all the NFG that those people will ever need. It's sad that nothing is present to represent Nothing Gold Can Stay or the fun From the Screen to Your Stereo EP (c'mon, where's "The Glory of Love"?), but hey, that's a greatest-hits album for ya -- you can't satisfy everyone. But as a very general overview of a band that has a lot more memorable songs than people may realize, Hits easily hits the mark.