Yellowcard "Southern Air"

    I don’t know if it is the Southern Air, but I was surprised by being graced with another album after their last one was a little over a year old.  I thought Paper Walls was the pinnacle of their creativity, or the album that could not be topped. Their last was not the same, but it was not much of a downgrade. Let’s just call this album an “Awakening” to the likely possibility that they have more to give. With their multiple vocal tracks, instrumental passage to score a trip through the clouds, a sense of urgency (or stockholm syndrome), and some makeshift wings they dare to touch the “Surface of the Sun.” ‘Always Summer’(More). The next song, co-written by Patrick Stump, follows a different rhythm than the last few tracks; it even sounds like a song Stump’s former band, or Smash Mouth, would have written. While the lyrics examine the possibility of being one’s own mentor, well, “Here I Am Alive.” With an aural attack similar to the weekend warriors, holding that evidence in hand, but I’m not sure if it was a polaroid. They march forward with truth out in the open as the maiden grows fifty feet tall to tear down this fortress only so Key can “Sleep in The Snow.”                                                                                                                             You live and you learn, you may have your heart broken, but it is better than to have it entrapped by another of “A Vicious Kind.” Enough with the “Telescope,” and lets enjoy the “Rivertown Blues.” The latter sounds like they are on cruise control, but at least the tears did not cause them to veer off the road; the last thirty seconds or so is when they take it past the speed limit. The country-tinged “Ten” is about a hypothetical relationship between Key and his son; if he was still alive today. The title track brings us back to a more cheerful place as the album comes to a close; it is a song dedicated to their roots. There is a little more spring in their step, maybe because they are glad to be home.  My Favorites: Awakening, Surface of the Sun, Here I am Alive, Sleep in the Snow, A Vicious Kind, Rivertown Blues, and Ten.