Now granted, there are certainly moments on the likes of Always Summer and Here I Am Alive that the sense of positivity does become a bit too high on the sweetly sugary side. And it becomes somewhat groan inducing. And by the time the band go on a pop punk day out with All Time Low's Alex Gaskarth, We Are the In Crowd's Taylor Jardine and Hey Monday's Cassadee Pope on Telescope the constant hearing of high pitched vocals, including those of Key becomes a little too sugary to the extent that you feel like your drowning in honey. Certainly after the album, I had to seek an instant remedy by listening to some Crowbar.
But there is more to Southern Air than sweetly pop punk tunes, as I've built it to be so far. A Viscous Kind carries punk riffs along with a firmer more melancholic tone that instantly becomes a more mature and gripping listen, while Key lets out the full extent of his ability to write sad songs with Ten. It's always pop rock bands that sound the saddest when they write overly realistic lyrics about someone that's dead, so when the song's chorus opens with the calling of "You could be ten years old", it's definitely one of the band's most emotionally demanding songs that has clearly taken much courage to write, especially if it's based on real events, I couldn't tell you. Either way it's a fairly tragic and entirely gripping listen.
That's the basic outline of Southern Air. When the songs aren't emotionally draining ballads, they're epic pop rock belters that will make you feel like you can fly, that certainly prove that the band have managed to pick up from last year's release and prove that their comeback is something worth shouting about after all. While, there isn't necessarily a real standout track on the album - the magnificent Breathing from Ocean Avenue comes to mind wouldn't you believe? - the album of a whole is just fully indestructible pop rock. Just forget any attempts to be badass and feel the joy.
Yellowcard's Southern Air is out now via Hopeless.
