At first listen, I thought…

Opuses

At first listen, I thought Yellow Card were yet another punk-pop clone. However, I saw a performance on television that began to change my mind and CW said he was enjoying their Ocean Avenue disc so I purchased it from Shopko for $10.

Now that I’ve heard the disc, I wouldn’t say they’re a punk-pop clone. Perhaps they’re a second cousin or a step-child to that bothersome archetype. The band’s vocals are very much in the punk-pop lineage but a fiddle and some other, less definite touches of style make the disc enjoyable.

The lyrics want some variety though. Before long the breakup songs wax tiresome, climaxing with Miles Apart, wherein the writers freely clod us with “apart”, “heart”, “start” rhymes. Happily, the breakup songs are interrupted by more refreshing, more captivating, more compelling songs. For example, instead of the oh so predictable “you were a rotten father” gripe, we find in Life of a Salesman an affirmation of an admirable dad. We also find View From Heaven, a cowboy song about a close friend’s death, and Believe, a tribute to the fallen firefighters of September 11, 2001.

I think it’s worth $10