For their seventh studio album, “Lift A Sail”,YELLOWCARD had a simple but ambitious goal: to outdo everything they’d ever done before. The guitars and drums had to hit harder; the songwriting had to cut deeper; the choruses had to reach heights only hinted at on their previous outings. Frontman Ryan Key believes he and his bandmates, guitarist Ryan Mendez, violinist Sean Mackin, bassist Josh Portman and guest drummer Nate Young (Anberlin) succeeded on all those fronts. “We really feel like we got where we wanted to be, and made a proper rock ‘n’ roll record,” Key says proudly.

Recorded with longtime producer Neal Avron (You Me At Six, All Time Low, Fall Out Boy) at The Casita, his studio in Los Angeles, “Lift A Sail”, is YELLOWCARD’s first album for Razor & Tie and by far their most dynamic, full of massive rock anthems and haunting ballads shot through with Mackin’s evocative violin and string arrangements. Young, who recorded his drum tracks at East West Studios, gives songs like ‘Transmission Home’ an extra hard rock kick, over which Ryan Mendez’ guitars have never churned with more intensity.

YELLOWCARD returned their early ‘90s alt-rock roots on “Lift A Sail”, finding inspiration in the dense guitars of bands they grew up listening to like Nirvana, Filter, Foo Fighters and Smashing Pumpkins. Ryan Mendez’ raging guitar parts on hard-charging anthems like ‘Crash the Gates’ and ‘Illuminate’ channel those ‘90s influences into songs that push YELLOWCARD’s sound well beyond their pop-punk origins, especially when Sean Mackin’s increasingly sophisticated strings come swooping in to take the songs to another level.