Here They Are Alive: California Emo Pop Punks Yellowcard Bring The Nostalgia
ALBUM REVIEW | YELLOWCARD – BETTER by Craig Harston
When Yellowcard called it a day almost a decade ago, it didn’t exactly come as a surprise to most. While the Californian band put out some of the best emo pop punk albums of the early 21st century, including their 2003 magnum opus, ‘Ocean Avenue’, it was clear the creative juices were no longer flowing by the mid-2010’s. ‘Lift A Sail’ was an extremely divisive album amongst Yellowcard’s fandom, especially coming only a couple of years after the excellent ‘Southern Air’, and while the bands self-titled swansong was an improvement, it was the right decision for the band to call time.
Fast forward to 2022 and the run up to the 20th anniversary of ‘Ocean Avenue’ and Yellowcard were back! Playing the album in full across a series of dates in the US as well, as at Slam Dunk Festival, throughout 2023, they followed up with their first new music since 2016 with fantastic EP ‘Childhood Eyes’, cementing that Yellowcard had truly returned!
‘Better Days’ is absolutely drenched in nostalgia, from that classic Yellowcard sound, catchy early-2000’s pop punk hooks and even in the video for the title track, featuring the band rocking out in a video store, dressed as characters from classic movies (such as Top Gun, Back To The Future and The Karate Kid). The song itself captures that feeling well, with a great guitar riff throughout and a nice big sound on the choruses. Most recent single ‘Bedroom Posters’ continues the nostalgic trend later in the album and is pure Yellowcard, featuring a melodic riff throughout, lyrics about letting go of the past while at the same time feeling wistful for those days, plenty of ‘woah’s’ and a fairy tail quality to it’s bridge. It’s sure to go down well live!
Much of the rest of the album follows in the same vein with plenty of bangers that slot in nicely with Yellowcard’s back catalogue. Second track ‘Take What You Want’ is a harsher, spikier song featuring relatively bitter lyrics about being taken for granted in a one-sided relationship (“I give all I got, you still ask for more”) while ‘You Broke Me Too’ and penultimate track ‘Barely Alive’ mirror this a little, both power ballads with the former focussing on a relationship gone wrong that goes huge on it’s choruses and includes guest vocals from pop princess Avril Lavigne while the latter contemplates a relationship that may have run it’s course but the prospect of moving on alone is too scary!
‘Love Letters Lost’ is a super fast song, all chugging guitars, plenty of bass and thundering drums and features Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba on it’s second verse while ‘honestly i’ includes an old school pop punk sound and races along, putting it’s focus into finding the strength to move on. A couple of songs show Yellowcard are willing to expand their musical horizons, though not always in a good way. ‘City Of Angels’ gets it’s 80’s pop on, all synths and soaring guitars alongside some haunting violin and evokes thoughts of dusky nights on the beach. It may be because of the presence of Travis Barker, who produces as well as drums on the entire album, but ‘Skin Scraped’ sounds like a rejected ‘modern’ Blink-182 song – it’s not terrible by any means and is a little post-punk but it stands out amongst a sea of great Yellowcard songs.
Ultimately, Yellowcard have crafted a record that is equal parts nostalgic and contemporary and providing hope that their resurrection will be just as good as their first time around!
‘Better Days’ is out now!
