All Time Low don't waste any time on new album

All Time Low released their fifth album,Don't Panic last month, a little over a year after their Dirty Work album. While Dirty Work wasn't a bad album it wasn't as good as their other albums. The album had so many guest writers and co producers that it was hard to find the band in all of the fray. Despite there being many good songs like "Under a Paper Moon," "Do You Want Me (Dead)" and "Guts" which featured The Sounds singer Maja Ivarsson, it wasn't as wholly memorable as their previous records.
Don't Panic gets the band back to their roots. They get back to their old school pop-punk sound. The album doesn't have one bad song. From bitter break-ups ("The Irony of Choking on a Lifesaver") to long distance love ("If These Sheets Were the States") to lonely hook-ups ("Backseat Serenade") the album's rocking tracks cover many topics that sexy scene kids in their early twenties would face in their daily lives.
The album doesn't have a bad song on it and that's a rare thing, especially in pop-punk where all songs tend to sound the same. Songs like the hard rocking "So Long, Soldier" are sure to get pits to open at Warped Tour for years to come. "Somewhere in Neverland" deals with getting older. Life tends to get boring after high school and frontman Alex Gaskarth talks to his lover about running away into Neverland. "Wendy run away with me/I know I sound crazy/Don’t you see what you do to me?/I wanna be your lost boy/Your last chance, a better reality," Gaskarth sings in the chorus.
One thing that makes this album different is that the band have several guest vocalists. Bayside frontman Anthony Raneri sings on "Outlines" while Jason Vena from Acceptance and Cassadee Pope from Hey Monday guest on "So Long, Soldier." Pope also guests on the albums best track "Backseat Serenade." The song is about Gaskarth trying to seduce a lover. "Backseat serenade/Little hand grenade/Oh god, I'm sick of sleeping alone/You're salty like a summer day/Kiss the pain away To your radio," Gaskarth and Pope harmonize during the chorus.
All in all this album is sure to ease the minds of those All Time Low fans that were put off by Dirty Work.

Yellowcard finally change things up

Last month pop-punk band Yellowcard released their eighth studio album, Southern Air. The album was released just one year after it's predecessor When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes. That album was great but it didn't stand up next to their other albums Ocean Avenue and Lights and Sounds. The album didn't do anything different than those records and while it was well-done it wasn't a classic.
This album is just like Ocean Avenue, emotional and well written. The lyrics are written directly from frontman Ryan Key's heart and that's what makes a great album. This record has some different characteristics. One thing is the music.While it's not much of a change from their violin-filled pop-punk, it just has a different energy. Songs like "Awakening" and "Here I Am Live" which features a duet with We Are The In Crowd singer Taylor Jardine and was cowritten by Fall Out Boy singer Patrick Stump, have an undeniable energy to them.
The highlight of the album is "Telescope" which features vocals from Jardine, Cassadee Pope from Hey Monday and Alex Gasgarth from All Time Low. The song is dedicated to Key's late aunt and it's a touching tribute. "My only hope, you're my telescope," the four singers sing beautifully at the end. The song's music sounds like "Work" by Jimmy Eat World and it's one of their best songs of their career.
Other songs like "A Vicious Kind" and the first single "Always Summer" simply rock. Every song on the album makes this one of the best Yellowcard albums.
The one low point lies in "Ten" a boring acoustic number that slows down the pace of the album. Even that song is forgivable because the album is so good. Surely Southern Air will be getting serious play by fans all over the world.