Yellowcard

In keeping with the precedent set by their surprisingly decent (by conventional pop punk standards anyway) 2001 debut One For the Kids, these transplanted Floridians serve up another five tracks of violin-enhanced mid-tempo melodic punk anthems. Two years later and this quintet has honed its songwriting chops and layered vocal techniques to the point where they can easily shift between straightforward rockers like the title track and "Finish Line” and the chugging "Avondale” and "Powder” through to the disc's token power ballad, "Rocket,” all with equal success. It will be interesting to see what effect, if any, the jump to a major label for the release of the next full-length will have.