Ocean Avenue
Yellowcard
Producer: Neal Avron
Capitol/EMI Records, 2003
1 CD
Catalogue #: 39844
EAN: 0724353984403
UPC: 724353984403
You save: 20%
This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Yellowcard: Ryan Key (vocals, guitar, bass); Sean Mackin (vocals, violin); Benjamin Harper (guitar); Longineu Parsons (drums).
Additional personnel: Alieka Wijnvelat (vocals); Rodney Wirtz (viola); Christine Choi (cello); Peter Mosely (piano, bass).
Recorded at Sunset Sound, Hollywood, California between February & March 2003.
This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Yellowcard's major-label debut is that rarity in latter-day punk-rock--a nuanced, almost subtle collection of distinctive songs with lyrics sensitive enough to reference moonlight, the ocean, and DEATH OF A SALESMAN, amongst its more usual expressions of post-teen angst. (And, by the way, they also have a violinist.) But, far from consigning them to the ranks of the irredeemably nerdy, OCEAN AVENUE is the sound of a young band flexing its imaginative muscle and emerging from behind the one-sound-fits-all sonic shadow of Green Day to produce a singularly distinctive collection of songs.
Sure, the album's opening salvo "Way Away" is straight out of the SoCal punk rock playbook, but by the shimmering intro to "Only One" it's increasingly obvious that there's more on offer here than one-dimensional posturing. It's not that Yellowcard are any slouches in the sonic thrash department, as evidenced by the breathless rush of "Twentythree"--it's just that they're not afraid to let their strong lyrics and musical smarts speak for them as much as their twentysomething stamina.
Tracklist
Yellowcard
Starting out in the late 1990s, pop-punk band Yellowcard got together in Jacksonville, FL, but eventually migrated to California, where they built a grass-roots following through their indie releases. One thing in particular that set Yellowcard apart from their contemporaries was the presence of a violin player, highly unusual in the genre. In 2003, the band released their first major-label album, OCEAN AVENUE, which rocketed them to national renown.
