Cat.no: 3541442

Released: January 2006

Rating: 2/10

Most American riff-rockers go over my head, like pseudo-punksters Green Day. Yellowcard now join the club.

Most of Lights And Sounds is a cacophony of American OTT unforgettable rock-riffs. The collective, Ryan Key, Sean Mackin, Peter Mosely, Longineu Parsons 111 and Ryan Mendez deliver an immature collection of overwhelming 'noisy' tracks that lack sophistication and class. Time will tell if the combo has the legs for the long run: my gut feeling is, they'll vanish pretty soon. There's plenty out there failing.

Introductory instrumental Three Flights Up flatters to deceive the remaining content.

There are odd flashes of dynamic experimentation e.g Martin Sheen Or JFK and the lightweight Two Weeks From Twenty, a nice and unexpected respite from the decibels.

In many areas it's lacking any kind of 'musical soul': when it happens it's embracing and welcome, otherwise purgatory and pointless.

Any kind of instrumental feeling is far too brief, like the violin on Space Travel, which should have developed greater exploration.

Potential singles are at a premium: they'll have to ride the album's horse until they fall off, though closer, the throbbing Holly Wood Died might make the cut in the UK. How I Go, the best track, has some great dueting/backup by talented songbird Natalie Maines, with equally impressive string arrangements by Mackin. This is their direction for future success.

And that's it. A perplexing mix.

Weblink: Yellowcard Rock.com / Capitol Records.com/Yellowcard

The full list of tracks included are :

1. Three Flights Up 2. Light And Sounds 3. Down On My Head 4. Sure Thing Falling 5. City Of Devils 6. Rough Landing , Holly 7. Two Weeks From Twenty 8. Waiting Game 9. Martin Sheen Or JFK 10. Space Travel 11. Grey 12. Words, Hands, Hearts 13. How I Go 14. Holly Wood Died

Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008. For prints of any of Elly's concert pics online, email Elly or call 07765 862017.

DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.

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