Yellow Second – Altitude

You know those bands that you just hear one song by and they blow you away. You think to yourself “wow! that was good” and go out and buy their CD only to realize that that one song was the only good one on it. The rest is either a different style, boring, repetitive or just plain crap?

This isn’t exactly what happened to Yellow Second‘s Altitude, but it is close. The album starts off with a very solid, catchy, and all around good song Silhouette. When I first heard the song I was surprised. Its rare that a band who is not fully acoustic would kick off an album with an acoustic track, so I immediately became excited to hear a new acoustic band. But that’s not what I found. Instead, the rest of the album tends to be way more generic and repetitive, never really providing the listener with anything new to hear or appreciate. The one other time the band shows some promise is on yet another acoustic track, Some Other Way. Once again, they were able to prove that they are a good acoustic band, making something you don’t hear too often. But then they jump into Seed and once again your hopes fall. It’s nothing exciting or innovative, just the same basic melody you’ve heard so many times but not down quite as well.

Huge pop-punk fans may fall head over heels for Altitude, but for the rest of us, it’s definitely a release to pass. Apart from the two acoustic tracks that provide the album with a minimal amount of pleasure, the rest of the album is pretty boring. The lyrics aren’t anything special, the vocals seem too laid back and weak, and the melody is the same thing you’ve heard a million times before. Overall, quite a disappointing release.