Better Days

Yellowcard recapture the swooning, emo fury of their classic work on their 11th studio album, 2025s Better Days. Its the bands first full-length album of new material since reuniting and delivering the 2023 EP Childhood Eyes. The release also follows their 2024 collaboration with ambient artist Hammock, A Hopeful Sign, which found them transforming some of their best-known songs with an atmospheric electronic twist, a sound that felt like a poignant echo of their glory days. Working with producers Travis Barker, Andrew Goldstein, and Nick Long, Yellowcard take that evocative echo and amplify it, crafting potent and affecting songs that feel connected to their early pop-punk but also hit the right emotional tones for a group whove aged into their forties. Its a vibe they herald on the opening title track, a hooky anthem about overcoming self-sabotage and getting stuck in life. Similarly, they underscore the sentiment of looking back at ones past and trying to move forward on "Bedroom Posters," singing, "Tear down my bedroom posters/Dont say those days are over." Elsewhere, cuts like "Honestly I" and "Skin Scraped" are driving anthems built around brisk electric guitar riffs and chugging grooves, all of which frame singer Ryan Keys soaring vocals. They also bring on board Alkaline Trios Matt Skiba for "Love Letters" and join forces with Avril Lavigne for the effusive duet "You Broke Me Too." Few of the bands 2000s pop-punk peers can still believably conjure the yearning, throaty energy of their best work in the way Yellowcard masterfully do on Better Days. ~ Matt Collar

フル・アルバムとしては約10年ぶりになる11作目。今回はブリンク182のトラヴィス・バーカーがプロデュース(全曲ドラムスも担当)を担当。バイオリンを押し出した"honestly i"は初期を彷彿させるし、アルカライン・トリオやアヴリル・ラヴィーンを招いたコラボの2曲はいい差し色に。他にも打ち込み主体の"City Of Angels"などメロディアスな佳曲が並ぶ好盤。
bounce (C)荒金良介