Sticks and Stones is the third studio album by American rock band New Found Glory. The album was recorded in February 2002 after the band relocated from Florida to San Diego, California and producer Neal Avron, who had previously produced the band's self-titled major-label debut album, returned to produced the album. Released on June 11, 2002 through Drive-Thru Records and MCA Records, Sticks and Stones peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 chart. The record spawned two singles: "My Friends Over You" and "Head on Collision".

Following the success of the album, the band headlined the 2002 Warped Tour and later saw the album certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Background

New Found Glory released their self-titled second album in September 2000 as a joint release between MCA and Drive-Thru Records. MCA had a distribution deal that allowed them to acquire Drive-Thru Records' bands over a period of time. Lead single "Hit or Miss" received heavy airplay rotation from the US's biggest rock radio stations. By April 2001, the band had been moved to MCA. Shortly after this, guitarist Chad Gilbert moved to Los Angeles, California, while the rest of the band moved to San Diego, close to their manager and their label. Appearing on the Warped Tour and featuring in the film American Pie 2 (2001) helped increase the band's profile.

Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus was highly impressed by New Found Glory's self-titled album, By September 2001, the group were making plans to release a new album by mid-2002. At the end of the year, bassist Ian Grushka got married. with Neal Avron, who acted as producer. Sessions took place at DML and Signature Sound Studios in San Diego, California, Larrabee West Studios in West Hollywood, California, and NRG Studios in North Hollywood, California. He was assisted by engineers Sam Bukas, Mike Harris, Juan Jose Ayala, Ted Regier and Mark Kiczula.

Several members of contemporary bands contributed to the recordings: Rusty Pistachio and Toby Morse of H<sub>2</sub>O (backing vocals on "Understatement"), Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 (bass on "Something I Call Personality"), Bane and What Feeds the Fire (backing vocals on "Something I Call Personality" and "Belated"), and Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano of Alkaline Trio (backing vocals on "Forget My Name"). In addition, Chris Georggin of the group's management team Rick DeVoe Management added backing vocals on "Something I Call Personality". Bolooki, who initially started out as a guitarist, contributed a few ideas that Gilbert or Klein would build a whole song around. The group wanted a track that would match the popularity of "Hit or Miss"; they came up with "My Friends Over You". Similarly, the four bass notes that follow were done by Bolooki. Following this, the band performed at Skate and Surf Fest. Sticks and Stones was released on June 11 through MCA and Drive-Thru Records. The UK edition, which was released a week later, includes the bonus tracks "Anniversary", "Forget Everything" an acoustic version of "The Story So Far". On July 9, the band appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

On July 16, a music video was filmed for "Head on Collision" on the Universal Studios backlot. The video, directed by the Malloys, features the band on a 1930s movie set. While the video progresses, the group realize they are on the wrong film set, before taking the stage and beginning to perform. On August 27, "My Friends Over You" was released as a single. While the track was doing well at radio, the president of the group's label stopped funding the track, and decided to reinvest the money in Shaggy. In October and November, the band went on tour across the US alongside Something Corporate, Finch and Further Seems Forever. On November 12, the band performed on Last Call with Carson Daly.

On November 26, "Head on Collision" was released as a single. On the same day, Sticks and Stones was reissued with an extra CD consisting of the group's contemporaries. In January 2003, the group went on a tour of Japan with Good Charlotte and the Starting Line. On April 7, a music video for "Understatement" was posted online. In August, the band played the Summer Sonic Festival in Japan, before supporting Sum 41 on their headlining Australian tour. To coincide with the Australian shows, the album was reissued in that territory with a bonus disc. It included radio performances of "Head on Collision" and "Something I Call Personality", and music videos for "Head on Collision" and "Understatement".

| rev2 = Alternative Press

| rev2score = 8/10

| rev3 = Chart Attack

| rev3Score = Unfavorable

| rev4 = Kerrang!

| rev4score =

| rev5 = Melodic

| rev5Score =

| rev6 = The Morning Call

| rev6Score = Unfavorable

| rev7 = NME

| rev7score = 7/10

| rev8 = PopMatters

| rev8Score = Unfavorable

| rev9 = Rolling Stone

| rev9score =

| rev10 = Ultimate Guitar

| rev10Score = 10/10

<!-- Automatically generated by DASHBot-->

Sticks and Stones charted at number four on the Billboard 200, after selling 91,000 copies in its first week. On July 30, 2020, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for combined sales and album-equivalent units of over one million units in the United States.

The group celebrated the album's 10th anniversary by playing it in its entirety on two separate US tours, one in 2012 and the other in 2013. They played it in its entirety again on a tour in 2017 to celebrate the 20th anniversary since they formed. Cassie Whitt of Alternative Press said "Understatement", "My Friends Over You" and "Head on Collision" had become "staples across a couple generations of pop-punk fans—and bands, too." All Time Low and the Story So Far took their name from songs on the album, "Head on Collision" and "The Story So Far" respectively. In 2016, Gilbert ranked Sticks and Stones as his fourth favorite New Found Glory album. Cleveland.com ranked "My Friends Over You" at number 12 on their list of the top 100 pop-punk songs. Alternative Press ranked "My Friends Over You" at number 32 on their list of the best 100 singles from the 2000s.

Accolades

{|class="wikitable"

|+Accolades for Sticks and Stones

|-

! Publication

! Country

! Accolade

! Year

! Rank

|-

| BuzzFeed

| United States

| 36 Pop Punk Albums You Need To Hear Before You F——ing Die

| rowspan="2"| 2014

| style="text-align:center;"| 11

|-

|Rock Sound

| rowspan="3"| United Kingdom

| The 51 Most Essential Pop Punk Albums of All Time

| style="text-align:center;"| 9

|-

| Kerrang!

| 51 Greatest Pop Punk Albums Ever

| rowspan="2"| 2015

| style="text-align:center;"| 3

|-

|}

Track listing

All songs written by New Found Glory.

New Found Glory

  • Jordan Pundik – lead vocals
  • Chad Gilbert – lead guitar
  • Ian Grushka – bass guitar
  • Steve Klein – rhythm guitar
  • Cyrus Bolooki – drums

Additional musicians

  • Rusty Pistachio – backing vocals <small>(track 1)</small>
  • Toby Morse – backing vocals <small>(track 1)</small>
  • Mark Hoppus – bass <small>(track 4)</small>
  • Chris Georggin – backing vocals <small>(track 4)</small>
  • Bane – backing vocals <small>(tracks 4 and 11)</small>
  • What Feeds the Fire – backing vocals <small>(tracks 4 and 11)</small>
  • Matt Skiba – backing vocals <small>(track 7)</small>
  • Dan Andriano – backing vocals <small>(track 7)</small>

Production

  • Neal Avron – producer, recording
  • Jay Baumgardner – mixing
  • Sean Bukas – assistant engineer
  • Mike Harris – assistant engineer
  • Juan Jose Ayala – assistant engineer
  • Ted Regier – assistant engineer
  • Mark Kiczula – assistant engineer
  • Tom Baker – mastering
  • Tim Stedman – art direction, design
  • Marco Orozco – design
  • Justin Stephens – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+Weekly chart performance for Sticks and Stones

! scope="col"| Chart (2002)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

|-

|-

!scope="row"|Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)

| 21

|-

!scope="row"|Europe (European Top 100 Albums)

| 30

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|-

|}

Year-end charts

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+Year-end chart performance for Sticks and Stones

! scope="col"| Chart (2002)

! scope="col"| Position

|-

!scope="row"|Canadian Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)

| 188

|-

!scope="row"|Canadian Alternative Albums (Nielsen SoundScan)

| 60

|-

! scope="row"| US Billboard 200

| 157

|}

Certifications

References

Citations

Sources

<!-- This is a licensed stream for the album, which is allowed under Wikipedia polices -->

  • Sticks and Stones at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)