The band’s forthcoming acoustic album, MAKE THE MOST OF IT (Revelation Records), tackles the last year head-on with their most emotional and cathartic collection of songs to date. Written in the wake of Gilbert’s cancer diagnosis and mixed by Mark Trombino (blink-182, Jimmy Eat World), MAKE THE MOST OF IT is a rumination on what it means to grieve, to live, to approach every day with appreciation and a sense of fulfillment. There’s gratitude for the CPR Gilbert’s wife performed on him (“Mouth To Mouth”), for the doctors who got him back on the road in time to celebrate the landmark 20th anniversary of Sticks & Stones (“Get Me Home”), and for life in general – the opportunity to wake up every day in this beautiful, messy, heartbreaking world (“Kiss The Floor”).

“Even though the songs are sadder, they’re still hopeful,” Gilbert says. “You hear so much online about mental health and fear and anxiety. I feel proud that we can release an album with joy and honesty in a way that will hopefully make people less fearful of life. A lot of times we punish ourselves for things that might never happen. I’m going through something that did happen, but doing it with hope and joy and a greater appreciation.” Gilbert and his bandmates – vocalist Jordan Pundik, bassist Ian Grushka and drummer Cyrus Bolooki – are all husbands and fathers, and as elder statesmen of the pop-punk genre (though still able to incite a circle pit with ease), MAKE THE MOST OF IT finds the quartet contemplating the future, what they hope their loved ones will hang on to and how they’ll be remembered. It’s all there on “Watch The Lilies Grow,” the record’s centerpiece dedicated to Gilbert’s daughter, Lily, and the most poignant New Found Glory song ever. (A percentage of proceeds from the record will go to The Pheo Para Alliance, the longest standing internationally recognized leader in advocacy for, and awareness of, pheochromocytoma.)