Yellowcard

“Lights and Sounds” (Capitol)

Compare to: Blink 182, American Hi-Fi and Mae, with a violin

REVIEW: 3 / 5

In short: This disc will likely change people’s opinion of Yellowcard. Much more angst and a drastically matured sound make for a pleasant surprise.

Yellowcard, as much as any other artist, is guilty of milking the teenie-bopper cash cow. Its last album, “Ocean Avenue,” was as obnoxiously catchy as any album around.

Overkilled metaphors about broken hearts and teenage love became the staple of the pop-punk band that sounded a lot like Blink 182 with a violin. But I’m not gonna lie – I liked it. For a while.

Years later, after dozens of duplicate bands have flooded the airwaves with their anthems of emo that are enough to make heads explode, “Mars Attacks!” style, I wasn’t really looking forward to listening to Yellowcard’s new effort, “Lights and Sounds.”

Much to my surprise, the SoCal boys have grown leaps and bounds with the new CD. Embracing their strengths and leaving behind a lot of the cliche, Yellowcard is still very much emo, but it has greatly expanded the subject matter of its songs.

Musically, “Lights and Sounds” shows that Yellowcard has evolved from being “good at playing punk” to being a very musically rounded group. This album could easily compete with Fall Out Boy and Weezer for radio play, and it will likely earn Yellowcard a new legion of fanboys.

Fans won’t be disappointed with this release, and Yellowcard haters – if given a chance – might actually hear something they like on this album.

– Dan McClanahan