Ocean Avenue Acoustic is an acoustic reinterpretation by Yellowcard of their fourth studio album, Ocean Avenue (2003). It is the band's last recorded material with founding drummer Longineu Parsons III.
Production Sessions for Ocean Avenue Acoustic were held at Robert Berson Studios, Eli's Place, and Room 219 at The Inn at Renown Regional Medical Center. It was produced by Ryan Key and Erich Talaba, who also handled recording and mixing. The album was mastered by Paul Leavitt.
Release and reception
On May 3, 2013, the group responded to rumours in regards to an acoustic version of Ocean Avenue, stating "[W]e had a better plan to tell you, but its true". They also said that further information would follow. On June 3, the band formally announced the release of Ocean Avenue Acoustic, a record that contained acoustic versions of songs that appeared on Ocean Avenue. A trailer for the album was posted online later in the day. On July 23, the title-track was released as a single. Ocean Avenue Acoustic was made available for streaming via YouTube on August 6, before being released on August 13 through Hopeless Records.
Following a series of festival shows, the band embarked on headlining US and Australian tours in September and October. These tours, which were supported by Geoff Rickly of Thursday, featured Ocean Avenue performed in its entirety acoustically, followed by an electric set of songs from their other records. Proceeding this, the group went on Warped Tour in Europe in November. In January and February 2014, the band went on a second leg of the Ocean Avenue Acoustic tour in the US, with support from What's Eating Gilbert.
The album received a Metacritic score of 60 based on 5 reviews, indicating mixed or average reviews. The album debuted at #53 on the Billboard 200, with 7,000 copies sold, 4,000 of which were downloads. It also debuted at No. 11 on both the Rock Albums and Independent Albums charts.
Track listing All lyrics by Ryan Key, all music by Yellowcard.
Personnel Personnel per booklet.
Yellowcard Ryan Key – lead vocals, guitar Sean Mackin – violin, backing vocals, string arrangements Ryan Mendez – guitar Longineu W. Parsons III – drums
Additional musicians Neal Avron – string arrangements C.J. Vanston – piano (track 12) Rodney Wirtz – viola Christina Lightner – cello Tiffany Villarreal – additional vocals (track 9)
Production and design Ryan Key – producer Erich Talaba – producer, recording, mixing Paul Leavitt – mastering Joshua Stern – photography Brian Manley – artwork, design
Charts
Chart (2013)Peakposition
References