Ocean Avenue

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This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Yellowcard: Ryan Key (vocals, guitar, bass); Sean Mackin (vocals, violin); Benjamin Harper (guitar); Longineu Parsons (drums).
Additional personnel: Alieka Wijnvelat (vocals); Rodney Wirtz (viola); Christine Choi (cello); Peter Mosely (piano, bass).
Recorded at Sunset Sound, Hollywood, California between February & March 2003.
Yellowcard's major-label debut is that rarity in latter-day punk-rock--a nuanced, almost subtle collection of distinctive songs with lyrics sensitive enough to reference moonlight, the ocean, and DEATH OF A SALESMAN, amongst its more usual expressions of post-teen angst. (And, by the way, they also have a violinist.) But, far from consigning them to the ranks of the irredeemably nerdy, OCEAN AVENUE is the sound of a young band flexing its imaginative muscle and emerging from behind the one-sound-fits-all sonic shadow of Green Day to produce a singularly distinctive collection of songs.
Sure, the album's opening salvo "Way Away" is straight out of the SoCal punk rock playbook, but by the shimmering intro to "Only One" it's increasingly obvious that there's more on offer here than one-dimensional posturing. It's not that Yellowcard are any slouches in the sonic thrash department, as evidenced by the breathless rush of "Twentythree"--it's just that they're not afraid to let their strong lyrics and musical smarts speak for them as much as their twentysomething stamina.