Returning from a four year hiatus, Ohio-based pop punk quartet McCafferty have joined forces with Triple Crown Records to release their comeback album, Yarn. Yarn is the band’s first full length since reuniting, following last year’s EP, Thanks. Sure. Sorry. The album doesn’t skimp out on the “whoa-ohs” and sing alongs, making good use of gang vocals to enlarge the sound throughout the catchy, upbeat songs. The record feels like a love letter to pop punk, with stylings of both early pioneers of the genre as well as more modern artists. For example, some tracks such as “Strain,” sounds quite similar to All Killer / No Filler-era Sum 41, while others, like “Paper, Pencil, Copyright” are reminiscent of later entrants to the genre like Modern Baseball and The Front Bottoms. In this way, the soundscape of the album reads like an outline of the history of pop punk, spanning the early 2000’s to today.
Some of lyrics on Yarn come across as a bit juvenile. But then again, pop punk has never been known to have the most cerebral lyricism, so maybe the lyrical stylings are intentional. And while the words on this album are often drenched in teen angst, they simultaneously approach issues of entering adulthood, self-discovery, and eventually, self-awareness. In that regard, this is one of the more mature albums to emerge from a genre that revels in immaturity. And that maturity doesn’t come at the expense of fun—Yarn is rich with catchy hooks that make listeners want to roll the car windows down and sing along at the top of their lungs. The Midwest is lucky to have a band like McCafferty, and I’m sure their fans are grateful to have them back.
