Album Review: Yellowcard - 'Lift A Sail'

Yellowcard are a band that, like many early 00’s pop punk groups are surrounded by claims that they are a bit past their use-by date. People tend to believe that these bands have lost their relevance, that they should pack up their bat and ball and head home, or that if they do continue, they should simply stick to ‘playing their old shit’.  ‘Lift A Sail’ is an album that stands against these claims, refusing to dwell in the past, and instead choosing to embrace a form of maturity that ten years ago, we wouldn’t have thought possible from Yellowcard.

The celtic violin that leads the intro track, ‘Convocation’, is simply beautiful, and when we are introduced to the pounding drums of ‘Transmission Home’, we can immediately see that Yellowcard have made a conscious decision to explore new territory, having traded in the pop punk/alt rock style of previous records to create a straight up rock record. Add to all of this the sheer dynamic mastery displayed in songs like ‘Crash The Gates’, and you can see that the band is really onto something special here.

The group steps well into ballad territory often on the full-length. Take for example ‘Madrid’ and lead single ‘One Bedroom’. The former takes a stripped back, bare bones approach, focusing purely on an impressive vocal delivery from vocalist Ryan Key, wrapped in a neat package of reverberated chordal guitar parts, while the latter sees the band working through a build up that, while maintaining the feel of balladry the entire time, manages to close out with just as much energy as any Yellowcard track that comes to mind.

The album peaks towards the back end, with title track ‘Lift A Sail’ and ‘MSK.’ ‘Lift A Sail’ again embraces a much more ‘rock’ feel, while also delving into some modern musical concepts, using the aid of electronic elements to add subtle, yet noticeable differences to the soundscape, while ‘MSK’ features some of, if not, the best violin work that we’ve ever seen from Sean Mackin that really has to be heard to be understood.

Say what you will about Yellowcard. There are always gonna be people who will think of them as that band who play ‘Ocean Avenue’ - that’s their loss though. ‘Lift A Sail’ is a record that proves not only that you don’t need to falter with age, but that you can go on to do far greater things.

1. Convocation
2. Transmission Home
3. Crash The Gates
4. Make Me So
5. One Bedroom
6. Fragile And Dear
7. Illuminate
8. Madrid
9. The Deepest Well
10. Lift A Sail
11. MSK
12. My Mountain
13. California