1. New Found Glory
I actually reviewed their self-titled, major-label debut for a Long Island newspaper, but that's not the reason why these guys are here at number one. For my money, no other band has captured that magic alchemy of the pop-punk formula better than New Found Glory. They blend '60s harmonies, '80s melodies, and early '90s chorus shout-alongs into a perfect package. Not only does their lineup boast twice the guitarists of most punk bands - and, therefore, twice the punch - their songwriting has a supernatural attention to detail, particularly their lyrics. In "Sonny," one of my favorite songs, they describe the loss of one of their friends by noting "an empty chair at all the tables." Having also lost people close to me, I can corroborate that this is one of the first things you notice when someone leaves. Then, on "Map of Your Body," the last song of their last album "Radiosurgery," they gleefully shout, "I prefer apologies on greeting cards with underlines." One of the things my family does at every holiday is send cards to each other with certain words underlined for emphasis. I think I first noticed their knack for lyrics though with their first hit, "Hit or Miss," from the aforementioned album I reviewed: "Remember the time we wrote our names up on the wall/Remember the time we realized 'Thriller' was our favorite song." That was the same time I fell in love with the band. If for no other reason, though, you can judge a band best by their drummer, and Cyrus Bolooki is simply the best drummer in the business today. He doesn't merely keep the beat - he can switch a song's tempo on a dime and still make it sound natural and organic to the song. I've seen them three times now (and yes, at the last show, I was the oldest person there who wasn't a parent), and luckily their live energy matches their studio sound seamlessly. Lastly, if you have any interest in this genre at all, you need to buy "Sticks and Stones," their (say it with me now) best album and one of my favorite albums of the 2000s.
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