Review Summary: Maybe if I could change, you'd get out from under the sun.
Aging gracefully is an underappreciated art. Being able to adapt to your changing surroundings while still retaining what makes you uniquely "you" - that takes a special kind of talent you don't often see in something as ever-changing and ever-evolving as the music industry. I recently did a writeup on The Offspring's
Let the Bad Times Roll, an unbearably tone-deaf slab of nothing from a band that's continually proved themselves unable to adapt or change their dated sound for the last fifteen-plus years.
Let the Bad Times Roll doesn't suck because The Offspring's getting old, it sucks because they've been stubborn in their old age and have refused to reinvent themselves in any interesting or meaningful way.
While this is a common sickness that comes down upon artists in the punk-rock / pop-punk field in particular, it's really cool to see Yellowcard frontman Ryan Key not only refuse to succumb to these commonplace symptoms of drain-circling irrelevance, but bother to try something
different. Case in point:
Everything Except Desire, an album defined by dreamy electronics and ambience coming from a man that had spent the 2000's crafting pop-punk bangers and the 2010's honing in on acoustics, ballads, and folk tracks as Yellowcard's time drew to a close.
Everything Except Desire is assuredly a break from the Ryan Key norm, an EP defined by the sound of a genre outside of Key's field of experience and expertise. It could have fallen flat on its face or just passed under the radar, and yet, Key continues to impress and reinvent himself in his middle age, because
Everything Except Desire is shockingly good in spite of its simplicity and in spite of Key's inexperience with electronic music.
To open the EP with a five-minute vocal-less ambient track is a bold and risky move from a guy that specialized in crafting straightforward, unpretentious tunes that put his voice and pensive lyrics front and center. Conceptually (for Ryan Key, at least), "The Swim Back" is a surprise in and of itself; for it to be the best track on the record is an even stronger surprise. "The Swim Back" is drop-dead gorgeous, coasting by on a lightweight, ethereal wave of lush synths, faint, haunting pianos, winding strings, and a submerged drum machine that gently steps its way through the compositional dreamscape surrounding it. It's an achingly pretty opener, one that wouldn't sound out of place on something like the ambient mastercraft that is C148's Minecraft OST. I found myself longing for more long after the track was finished, and the album kept delivering.
It's delightfully surprising how enjoyable and likable each of the five songs on this EP actually are. "Face In A Frame" is like Coldplay, Owl City, and Gotye in a hazy, delicate blender, with Key's echo-heavy vocals drifting through a colorful, woodsy soundscape of rising and falling synth arpeggios. The reversed-piano intro of "Brighton" segues perfectly into the steady starlit beat of the tune, with heavily-reverberated drums, subtle keys, and headphone-saturating bass painting a gorgeous backdrop to Key's melodic, harmonized vocals. The string pads and nostalgic, bitcrushed melodies of "Heavens" add a wistful texture and color to a simple four-on-the-floor rhythm and Key's poppy, bittersweet vocal line, and when the rollicking drum machines and call-and-response vocals come swinging in during the chorus, everything ties together into a neat, digital bow. And the album ends perfectly with "Union Chapel", a beautiful ballad carried by a warm, muted piano that steps in time to the step of Key's graceful, light tenor, an effective duo occasionally seasoned by effervescent synths and harmonious string sections that make "Union Chapel" feel classy, calm, and contemplative all at once.
Everything Except Desire is short, sweet, and superb. I legitimately struggle to find an issue with it - the EP doesn't overstay its welcome and hones in on a quality-over-quantity mindset that works in the album's favor. Perhaps it's all a little same-y, but not only is the record short enough for it not to be an issue, the individual tracks have enough subtle, discrete color and character to call their own. Even the lyrics are as simple yet effective like always - Yellowcard's bittersweet lyricism had always been one of their strong suits, and that carries over into
Everything Except Desire with lines like "
a grim hotel with empty rooms to spare" and personal favorite "
I travel there, my head stays here" adding resonance, warmth, and meaning to Key's synthesized soundscapes. Simply put,
Everything Except Desire is very, very good, using its simplicity and unpretentious nature to its advantage and putting forth a quintet of songs that just
work. If there's one thing that Ryan Key seems to have mastered above all else, it's the art of aging gracefully.
