Lights and Sounds

Hey everyone,

Well I recently purchased the new album by Yellowcard, Lights and Sounds. So I decied to write a blog about the album and how I feel about it.

First off, how does Lights and Sounds compare to Yellowcard's last release, Ocean Avenue? From a musical standpoint, the album is slower in nature. The songs aren't nearly as driving or as "punk." The things that origianlly attracted me to Ocean Ave. are all but missing from L&S. The album is not that catchy, it doesn't have that really different sound that Yellowcard had with Ocean Ave. While the songs are slower in general, there are still a few songs that tear it up. The title track, for instance, really grabs listeners with catchy beats and clever lyrics. Unfortunately, this album won't bring in new listeners as readily. Ocean Ave. was filled with songs that are great and grab you. L&S is a solid album musically, but much slower and more depressed in general.

Perfect segeway into an evaluation of the lyrical content. While Yellowcard has managed to stay above their peers by not putting profane lyrics in their music, just like everyone else, they have managed to maintain the status quo by writing a myriad of depressing songs that won't fill you up, but will let you down. One thing that I really liked about Ocean Ave. is its consistently positive vibe that it put out. No such luck with L&S. One depressing song after another. In fact the message of one song is, "Grey skies clouding up the things we used to see with wide eyes. Maybe everything was meant to be this way. Will it ever change, but are we stuck here on our own? It's all gone grey, It's all gone grey..." (Grey). Then they have their token, "anti-war" "anti-Bush" song sporting lyrics like, "...And then your heroes say, that miles away, "We lost another one that we sent with a gun." They're gonna miss him he was two weeks from twenty and there's still no shame, From the man to blame..." (Two Weeks From Twenty). This song clearly demonstrates Yellowcard's position that Bush is to blame for the death of "young people with bright futures" and then incinuates that we are to blame because we elected Bush.

On the flip side, the album is actually pretty good overall. It fun to listen to, you just can't listen to it over and over. Plus it has an awesome song called "How I Go" on it. This song is basically about family and how legacies are passed on. The thing that caught my ear was the verbage stolen right from Tim Burton's film Big Fish. It actually uses the stories that the father tells as examples. Here's the final verse of the song, "Son I am not everything you thought that I would be, But every story I have told is part of me, Son I leave you now but you have so much more to do, And every story I have told is part of you." I love that song.


All in all, the album was disapointing. Those Yellowcard fans looking for another Ocean Ave. are going to be in for a major let down, but the album stands well on itself. I wouldn't anticipate a ton of new listeners for Yellowcard because of L&S, but it holds its own. Definetly not a sophmore slump.