Yellowcard Band • Page 55

Paper Walls, IMO, has none of their best songs. Nothing from it would even be in my top 10. It's a great album largely for mood and consistency, not for stone cold classics. There's no "Southern Air" or "The Sound of You and Me" on there.

"Spotlight" is probably the best song on there. Title track is fine, but it's one of their weaker closers for me.

I think it's pretty easily their second best opener.

 

Listened to Paper Walls and can confirm it is still by far and away my favorite Yellowcard record. I'll disagree with Craig and say that album has some of my favorite songs of theirs and it's consistent as hell. Keeper, Cut Me Mick, and Spotlight are some incredible tunes that are among my favorite YC tracks. The mixing and general "feel" of the record is also really well put together – it's grand, full, but also nuanced with the ways they layer guitars, harmonies, etc. LP's drum track sounds especially amazing on this album. I plan on drumming this front to back when I get back to the states in a few weeks!

Damn, it's so good. As I was listening today I found myself feeling "ok" with them calling it quits after this year, knowing that I'll always have this record to come back to.

/PW gushing

 

I mean, it's a great record, but most of their other records have three or four songs that put me in a very emotional place, and that album has none.

 

While I don't like Daisy nearly as much overall, tho record maintains a fairly consistent level of quantity throughout whereas TDAG just hits a gigantic drop off for like four songs.

 

Haha, we're just not on the same wavelength with that then. I'd say at least three or four of their top ten songs are on PW.

As for Rest in Peace, I like it, but I think it's only their fifth best opener.

 

I have not listened to Daisy in almost seven years.

 

I disagree, Daisy constantly switches between songs I love or think are really great and stuff I never want to hear. TDAG is fantastic throughout. The only songs I don't absolutely love are Luca and Archers and even those are as good as the best stuff on Daisy for me.

 

Well that sucks for you I guess! I think it's so, so much better than all of their openers pre-hiatus.

 

I'd still take Way Away and The Takedown over it. However, I'm biased for having heard those records many times, and I feel it's difficult to judge an opener accurately if that's the only song one's heard, so I reserve the right to change my mind on that.

 

"The Takedown" is close. I just don't think it has quite the same resonance. I might be biased toward this one because I think it's such a perfect starting point for a "last" album.

 

I agree with that, but for some reason the song hasn't reached that next level for me. It's very possible it'll do so when I've heard the entire record and can better wrap my head around RIP as an opener more than just a standalone song.

 

That is an awesome idea, but I don't think it will happen. To my knowledge they have always closed with Ocean Ave ever since that became their most popular song. Even on the Ocean Ave Acoustic tour they played it twice so they could end with it lol.
I'd personally go with Hollywood Died if they did the whole ending.

 

They probably close with Ocean Avenue, but if it were up to me I think Paper Walls would be a really fitting final song

 

They should close with the arrangement of "Back Home" I'm doing for the forum comp!!!

Kidding. They'll close with "Ocean Avenue," and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

Fair enough. You touched on it slightly about songs putting you in a certain place, but I started really getting into Yellowcard right around the time Paper Walls was released, which is maybe why I love that record so much. I had of course heard many of their songs before, but that was their first album for which I went out and bought the CD. Will always be a special album to me.

And I mean, they have to close these shows with Ocean Avenue, right? That's the one that will give everybody the uber high, emotional and fun ending we want from this tour... right?

 

I got into them with Ocean Avenue, fell off with Lights & Sounds, and then came back with Paper Walls. It took me a long time to really appreciate that album, though. I never had the same emotional connection to it that I have with a lot of the others.

 

Ah, got it. Fair enough. I've always been so interested in the reaction to Lights and Sounds. Maybe it's because I wasn't "in it" at the time, but reading and hearing about the response to that record in the wake of Ocean Avenue has always sort of surprised me. I never really thought twice about it being a poor follow-up or anything when I first started to get into the band, but I suppose it could have been jarring for those who only had Ocean Avenue in mind at the time.

And while you're in here Craig, correct me if I'm wrong but you wrote the review for Songs of Innocence back on AP did you not? I loved reading that review when it came out as it was definitely one of the more sensible reviews of that record at the time. (actually focused on the music, rather than the release method) Random thought that popped into my head when seeing your name in the thread. If not and I'm mistaken... my bad!

 

If they end with Ocean Avenue they should do like what Mayday does when they finish Miserable at Best in their show and have it end with just the crowd singing. I would rather have Believe or Southern Air personally so it's like anberlin and MCS where the last song fits an end.

 

Lights and Sounds was actually the first YC album I listened to. It took me a while to check out their other albums because after hearing L&S I figured I just didn't like the band. To be fair, though, OA and PW also didn't do much for me for a while.

 

I want to hear it! I also wouldn't be mad if they ended with Back Home, song is so great.

 

Hollywood Died would be an amazing closer

 

Lights & Sounds just didn't have the same magic for me at all. Part of the reason might have been that it dropped in January and Ocean Avenue was already a huge "summer album" for me at that point. I definitely wanted something similar from them at the time, and that's not what we got at all. I remember it streamed on Myspace and I listened like five times in a row, trying to like it. Then I just decided I didn't and I don't think I listened to it again until like 2009 or something.

EDIT: Also, yes, that was my U2 review! Thanks. I feel pretty strongly that that review was one of my best. Definitely felt important to me to write about the music, rather than just piling on about the release strategy. Thanks for remembering that one!

I think the comp goes live a week from today. I'm pretty psyched about it though.

 

I started listening to them at the end of the OA cycle when Only One was a single and loved the whole album. I got Lights and Sounds the day it came out and didn't like the whole album front to back like OA, but I thought the songs that were good stood out enough for me to overall think it is a good release. That's why I'll never argue with anyone who doesn't like L&S that much. For me the Hollywood songs, Down on my Head, L&S, How I go make up for the forgettable tracks but I get if those songs aren't like that for them, the album is in the lower tier.

 

Tom Lorde-Alge.

 

Is he on their more recent stuff too?