Yellowcard
recapture the swooning, emo fury of their classic work on their 11th studio album, 2025's
Better Days
. It's the band's 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
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 who've aged into their forties. It's 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 one's past and trying to move forward on "Bedroom Posters," singing, "Tear down my bedroom posters/Don't 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 Key
's soaring vocals. They also bring on board
Alkaline Trio
's
Matt Skiba
for "Love Letters" and join forces with
Avril Lavigne
for the effusive duet "You Broke Me Too." Few of the band's 2000s pop-punk peers can still believably conjure the yearning, throaty energy of their best work in the way
masterfully do on
. ~ Matt Collar