Yellowcard is one of my favorate bands of all time. Some people will degrade them by saying that they are "annoying" or "emo" and such. That's fine with me, because we all have opinions. But mine is that this band is great and people should really give them credit for being great musicians and innovative thinkers. With that said... On with the review.
Ryan Key: Vocals, guitar
Sean Mackin: Vocals, violin
Ben Harper: Guitar
Warren Cooke: Bass
Longineu Parsons III: Drums
1. Star Struck - This song is a great opener for the album. No violin in this one, but still a great song. In my opinion, this song sounds a little on the angry side. The chorus usually gets stuck in my head after I've listened to it once. Not a bad thing because it is a little catchy. 8/10
2.Drifiting - Not a bad song. It's really nothing special to me, but pretty interesting none the less. It's a little slow, but I think what might have really taken it out from me was the lack of emotion in Ryan's voice. It sounded like he was just singing lyrics that ment nothing too him. However, it doesn't ruin the song for me. 7/10
3. Something of Value - This song really slows it down. This acoustic song tries to put you too sleep for a while, but wakes you up again with a very strong and beautiful string feature. It almost brought tears to my eyes when I first heard it. One of my favorates... 9/10
4. Trembling - This song is ok. Definatly not my favorate on the album, but quite a worthy attempt. It grabs your attention with a dark sounding accoustic solo at the beggining then pushes forward with this intence feeling to it. This song was tons of potential but makes poor use of it. What I didn't like was the out-of-tune vocals especially. It makes me wonder if they were in a hurry to record it because some notes are horribly out of tune. 6/10
5. Sure Shot - This song was nothing special for me either. It has a pretty weak entrance and then almost changes style for the chorus. It goes into this kinda funky sounding thing. This is my least favorate track on the album. 5/10
6. Big Apple Hearbrake - Here's an interesting song. I can't help but love the way this song sounds. It's very, very catchy, especially the melody in the guitars at the beggining of the song. The only problem I had was the (with all due respect) stupid lyrics such as "So put your mouth on my bloody knees". I find that kinda gross, cause I wouldn't put on my mouth on someone's bloody anything. Ryan sounded a little whiny when singing this song. Mix that with the ridiculous lyrics and the vocals truly mask how great this song could have been. Beside that, it's still one of my favorates. 8/10
7. Cigarette - Here's another mellow accoustic song. It sounds quite a bit like Something of Value, however the string section, in my opinion, is much stronger and much more moving. Most people don't like this style of music, but it takes a person with a real love for music to appreciate how beautiful this song is. My personal favorate 10/10
8. October Nights - This song reminds me of Big Apple Heartbrake in the way that it has a catchy melody and weak lyrics. However, it's not so ridiculous in this song. I kind of felt that it went off with the "I wanna watch you dream some more" section a little too long, but it's nothing major. 9/10
9. Rock Star Land - Here's another great song. I get this sort of creepy vibe from it, but it vanishes as soon as the vocals come in. This is another one of my favorates. 9/10
10. For Pete's Sake - This is an ok song. I don't really like it too much, but I can't exactly put my finger on what it is that I don't like. However, I love the introduction to this song. It has the guitar gently playing a broken chord while the violin plays a lyrical melody. Suddenly, the guitars play two big hits, but afterwards, it just goes on gently again as if nothing happened. Then finally builds up to the main melody which I don't seem to like too much. 7/10
11. A.W.O.L - This is a nice closer for this album. It has a 6/8 time signature which really isn't seen alot in our time. I really like the way this song seems a bit epic from start to finish. I enjoy listening to this one over and over again.
Hidden track. Rough Draft - This song is accoustic and has this hawaiian sounding guitar riff in the backround. This is a very good song. I'm surprised about how much I sing this when I'm alone. This is probably one of the most memroable songs I've ever heard Yellowcard play. 10/10
All in all, this is a great album that is often over looked. It shows that maybe Yellowcard wasn't exactly the award-winning band that we see today, but they definatly had the potential. I beleive they made great use of that potential which led me to become a fan. I hope you find this review useful. Keep in mind that it is my first. So give me your constructive critisism and I'll make sure that my next review is tons better then this one. Take care and rock on!
