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Yellowcard "Lift a Sail" Album Review

1,042 views · Published 2 October 2014 · 6:53 · Indexed 27 October 2026

Channel: Rock N' Roll True Stories · 2014 · Music

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My review of Yellowcard's New Album Lift a Sail

Overall: 4/5

Favourites: Transmission Home, Fragile and Dear, Illuminate, Madrid, California

Honorable Mentions: Makes Me So, One Bedroom, Lift a Sail, Deepest Sail, 

Least Favourites:  Crash the Gates, Msk, My Mountain

Tracklist

1. "Convocation"   1:55
2. "Transmission Home"   4:18
3. "Crash the Gates"   3:20
4. "Make Me So"   3:11
5. "One Bedroom"   4:35
6. "Fragile and Dear"   4:04
7. "Illuminate"   4:06
8. "Madrid"   2:07
9. "The Deepest Well" (featuring Matty Mullins of Memphis May Fire) 3:57
10. "Lift a Sail"   3:55
11. "MSK"   3:46
12. "My Mountain"   3:59
13. "California"  

Hey everybody, so today I am reviewing Yellowcard's New Album called Lift a Sail, which is coming out this Tuesday. So I think the first thing people will probably be noticing is that Yellowcard promised they would go back and make a rock record and from listening to the album from start to finish. It is a rock record but it's not a hard rock record. Or the same Yellowcard sound we've come to know over the past decade or so. There's a lot of experimentation with this album. There's a lot of acoustical arrangements, there's a lot of strings, there's a lot of keys and there's also some synths thrown in there as well.

Overall it actually creates a great package and a great album. I think it's important to start off the album with some context. The lead singer Ryan Key had a tragedy in his life. His wife who was a Russian snowboarder was injured and she was paralyzed from the waist down and I think a lot of that is expressed through the albums lyrics in the songs and even n the hardness of the album. It's a lot softer than previous records. There still are some hard tracks in the album, there's a handful, but I actually do prefer the softer tracks because I feel like they are more heart felt. They had more meaning for me. 

So the album comprises of 13 tracks.

The first song you're going to here is Convocation. And I think when you first hear it you're probably going to be a little confused as to why this songs on there.   It's actually an instrumental prelude but it's actually quite beautiful.It sort of starts off dark . It sort of sets you up for what you're going to listen to what you're going to listen to on the next 12 songs. And the cool part of this track, at the end the drums start to come in and it sort of starts to prepare you for the next track which is called Transmission Home.

And it's a really heavy track to start the album. Its got these great heavy drums, it's got these great heavy drums, it's got distorted guitars and it's got a really good hook to it. And it's got a really beautiful piano and orchestral arrangements. There's some great melodies and harmonies. Overall the albums got really great melodies to it that really want to make you sing a long with it.

The next song is called Crash the Gates.And this sort of continues with the theme, the heavier side of the album is the first half of the album or the first few songs. Crash the Gates is kind of like Transmission Home.  It's an okay song, it's one of the harder songs. and It's kind of got an Anberlin kind of feel to it. Yellowcard's original drummer is not playing on this album so they brought in the drummer from Anberlin drummer. So he's playing on it and that;s probably why it sounds like an Anberlin song. It's probably one of the weaker songs and not one of my favourites off the album.

Which leads us to our next song, which is a much more softer song. It's a big change. It's called Make Me So. It's has a really cool disco beat to it with the drums. And it's got really great melodies and harmonies towards the end of the song It's one of the better songs off the album.

The next song is actually the first single off the album, which is called One Bedroom. And this song was actually written when Ryan talked about sharing a a one bedroom apartment or condo with his wife was going to rehab for her back injury. It's really one of the best song off the album. It's really a ballad, it's a very acoustic driven song There are some cool electronic drums in the song. There are some electronic drums throughout the albums they have used.  There are some  nice electric guitars too in the back. They are sort of very faint and subtle but they do add a lot to the song. I think it's sort of restraint and I really do like that about the song.

The next song which is probably the best song off the album is called Fragile and Dear. It's another softer kind of song. It could be a ballad. It's one of the more heartfelt songs. There's something about the drums and the melodies, it makes the song so grandiose. It kind of feels like an Angels and Airwaves kind of song. It's very big sounding, they do add a lot. 

The next song off the album is another great song off the album. It's called Illuminate.

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