Yellowcard: Lights and Sounds
After a three year hiatus, Yellowcard returns with Lights and Sounds, a rock-and-roll upbeat mix of searching lyrics and sounds that resonate. The band picks up where it left off on Ocean Avenue and some will be disappointed that much remains the same. For fans of the previous albums, it’s just what they’ve been waiting for!
After opening with the instrumental “Three Flights Up,� the band sees the world coming “Down on My Head,� and they’re trying to figure out where they stand. For the time being they’re stuck between the beginning and the end—a problem that carries over into “Sure Thing Falling.� Here, Ryan Key sings about the difference between heroes and crooks and the desire to define yourself as one or the other. Later, he sings “He can take you all the way to church this time/But don’t forget you summed it up in fifteen lines…Of all the places I’ve looked in.../I’m finally finding out how…/Sure things fall/All sure things fall.� Defining yourself from what you aren’t is just as important as defining yourself by what you are. Here, Yellowcard remains stuck in the middle.
Some of their confusion can certainly be attributed to their coastal change to Hollywood, here portrayed as a “City of Devils.� Still, the gospel of love comes shining through with the admonition: “You gotta love someone more than yourself.� Key admits that he feels “like I don’t belong and I/Can’t tell right from wrong and why/Have I been there so long.� Interestingly enough, it is in those moments of crisis and change that we find ourselves seeking for real things to grasp and hold onto while we’re grappling. Knowing that we have to look outside ourselves seems like a good place to start.
Momentarily diverting to “Rough Landing, Holly� and “Two Weeks From Twenty� (an anti-war song), Yellowcard comes back to its quest in “Waiting Game.� Once again, the song seeks out the real you, a desire to be known and seen for what is truth. Light shines in to wipe the doubts away—another Biblical (and straightforward) image of light as a means of making truth known.
In “Grey,� Key sings that “we used to see/with wide eyes maybe everything/was meant to be this way/will it even change/or are we stuck here on our own.� We once saw with wide eyes as children but now our cynicism has clouded our judgment and made us doubt what we once believed.
This ‘stuckness’ is an isolation that Yellowcard alludes to in “Word, Hands, Hearts,� observing a world in a fix that can’t be undone by quaint words or actions. Key cries out for someone to “lead on to save me, lead us all there/Find me some answers one nation beware/Can’t tell the difference between myth and man.� Does Yellowcard question the myth/reality of religion or of country? It seems that today the ideas may be tied together, one where religion and patriotism have become combined together for many. But the religion of country can sometimes undo the faith in things greater than ourselves. Key asks pointedly, “So do we dare now/Raise our voices loud/We’re searching for something that cannot be found?�
It seems to me that the same elements invading Lights and Sounds are the ones expressed frequently by U2 (see “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For� as a choice example.) Whether one enjoys the Sounds of Yellowcard, the questions raised are worth asking. Socially active periodically through Ocean Avenue, Key and company seem full of more self-examination here, and their music is better for it. We will continue to search until we find what we’re looking for—the Lights will show us the way.
After opening with the instrumental “Three Flights Up,� the band sees the world coming “Down on My Head,� and they’re trying to figure out where they stand. For the time being they’re stuck between the beginning and the end—a problem that carries over into “Sure Thing Falling.� Here, Ryan Key sings about the difference between heroes and crooks and the desire to define yourself as one or the other. Later, he sings “He can take you all the way to church this time/But don’t forget you summed it up in fifteen lines…Of all the places I’ve looked in.../I’m finally finding out how…/Sure things fall/All sure things fall.� Defining yourself from what you aren’t is just as important as defining yourself by what you are. Here, Yellowcard remains stuck in the middle.
Some of their confusion can certainly be attributed to their coastal change to Hollywood, here portrayed as a “City of Devils.� Still, the gospel of love comes shining through with the admonition: “You gotta love someone more than yourself.� Key admits that he feels “like I don’t belong and I/Can’t tell right from wrong and why/Have I been there so long.� Interestingly enough, it is in those moments of crisis and change that we find ourselves seeking for real things to grasp and hold onto while we’re grappling. Knowing that we have to look outside ourselves seems like a good place to start.
Momentarily diverting to “Rough Landing, Holly� and “Two Weeks From Twenty� (an anti-war song), Yellowcard comes back to its quest in “Waiting Game.� Once again, the song seeks out the real you, a desire to be known and seen for what is truth. Light shines in to wipe the doubts away—another Biblical (and straightforward) image of light as a means of making truth known.
In “Grey,� Key sings that “we used to see/with wide eyes maybe everything/was meant to be this way/will it even change/or are we stuck here on our own.� We once saw with wide eyes as children but now our cynicism has clouded our judgment and made us doubt what we once believed.
This ‘stuckness’ is an isolation that Yellowcard alludes to in “Word, Hands, Hearts,� observing a world in a fix that can’t be undone by quaint words or actions. Key cries out for someone to “lead on to save me, lead us all there/Find me some answers one nation beware/Can’t tell the difference between myth and man.� Does Yellowcard question the myth/reality of religion or of country? It seems that today the ideas may be tied together, one where religion and patriotism have become combined together for many. But the religion of country can sometimes undo the faith in things greater than ourselves. Key asks pointedly, “So do we dare now/Raise our voices loud/We’re searching for something that cannot be found?�
It seems to me that the same elements invading Lights and Sounds are the ones expressed frequently by U2 (see “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For� as a choice example.) Whether one enjoys the Sounds of Yellowcard, the questions raised are worth asking. Socially active periodically through Ocean Avenue, Key and company seem full of more self-examination here, and their music is better for it. We will continue to search until we find what we’re looking for—the Lights will show us the way.
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