Album Review: Mayday Parade's "Sunnyland"

Written By Harley Lewis

Mayday Parade recently released the new album Sunnyland and it is meaningful.
Originally from Tallahassee, Florida, the band Mayday Parade began in 2005. Mayday Parade currently consists of vocalist, pianist, and extra guitarist; Derek Sanders, rhythm guitarist Brooks Betts, drummer and co-vocalist Jake Bundrick, lead guitarist Alex Garcia and bass guitarist Jeremy Lenzo.

The band certainly didn’t let fans down with their newest album Sunnyland, consisting of 13 meaningful songs. Mayday Parade teased their latest album through releasing 4 songs over a span of time leading upto the albums release day, first to be released was ‘Piece Of Your Heart.’

"Piece of Your Heart" is certainly a great song to release first. The lyrics are outstanding! The writer has an amazing way with words and the lyrical structure is beautiful. "Piece Of Your Heart" has a music video out on Youtube. The video is just as inspiring. The lyrics have a beautiful meaning and can mean different things, depending on the person. From the beautifully written intro, to the singing, the band definitely didn’t disappoint. To me, personally, it’s about carrying loved one through a tough time. I highly suggest it.

Next to be released was "Never Sure". "Never Sure" is yet again beautifully written. Most of Mayday Parade’s songs seem to be written in a way that other people can find their own way to relate or find their own meaning for the song that’s personal. To me, it sounds like someone trying to convince another that they truly love and have feelings for them and the title may come from the other person about never being sure if the person actually loves them. "Never Sure" has a lot more excitement to it and the lyrics are powerful but they get disguised by the excitement of the music.

"It's Hard To Be Religious When Certain People Are Never Incinerated By Bolts Of Lightning" songs lyrics are yet again very powerful. The lyrics seem to be about removing a person who has become poisonous in your life and that person being your best friend, the person you share most of your memories with and potentially taking them back into your life and them expecting things to be back to ‘normal.’ This song is yet again full of excitement and the way the vocals come in almost instantly really shocked me, I was waiting on a long intro but it was so short!!

Last to be released before the album was "Stay The Same". The first lyrics address anxiety slightly, personally i think the song can be seen as a song about anxiety due to the feeling of hating change and feeling embarrassed to be in a room of strangers. I personally love this song, the lyrics hit home for me and it I feel emotionally connected to the song due to the lyrics. I love the feeling of being able to relate to a song so much, it’s an amazing feeling of not feeling alone and knowing there are others who will personally love the song too. It’s such an amazing song. The music is written perfectly to match the feeling of the song and every time I listen to it I still get as shocked as I felt the first time I heard it. It’s amazing.

The album released 9 other songs including the others I have already spoken about above, next I’m going to be speaking about "Is Nowhere". I believe the song is about two people being in a relationship for complete different reasons and nothing is worse than that feeling. The lyrics point this idea out a lot, if you read the lyrics or listen to the song with that thought in mind it makes sense. The music is very up beat but it is still a good song that I enjoy listening to.

The song "Take My Breath Away" is beautiful. The acoustic guitar gives off an emotional feel and honestly I can’t explain exactly what i think the song is about, personally it seems to be about drowning in your own thoughts and wanting to run from them but knowing full well that the thoughts will follow you. It also seems like this is a loved ones reply to a person wanting to run away because of their thoughts. I don’t know what it’s about, all I know is that there is 100% a very powerful meaning behind it. The music itself is also amazing, the music matches the lyrical style and keeps up with the lyrics in ways some songs don’t. Mayday Parade have definitely brought more to their music for this album. 

The song "How Do You Like Me Now" feels like a love song. The lyrics seem like they are talking about spending their lives with someone and not wanting to die alone which gives me the feeling of love and relationships but it doesn’t feel like sunshine and rainbows, it has a sad feel to it. Most of Mayday Parade’s songs have a sad feel to it but this one in particular really made me feel the emotion of the song, and yet again that is something I love when listening to music, to be able to feel the emotion that is running through the song. If you are the same I highly suggest this song.

Moving on to track eight of the album, "Where You Are". I believe it is about touring, possibly, and that wherever they are they will always rather be with their loved ones, and I think it’s so adorable how this song could mean that they love their families and their favourite place will always be wherever the loved ones are. I love the use of an acoustic guitar and the way Derek and Jake harmonise and sing separately really brings the song together.

Track nine is "If I Was You" and the song seems to be about someone doing something bad and causing damage to others around them and the advice given was drive far away until you’re at a place where no one knows their name, possibly to escape hate and start over. Honestly, I think this song will hit home for people that receive hate because all they want to do is escape it all. The music brings a borderline angry vibe to the song but definitely in a good way! I absolutely love it and Derek changes his voice so at certain points it sounds more raspy than others, it helps bring a completely different feel to the song

Track ten, and possibly one of the most emotional songs, is "Satellites" and I will admit, I got emotional listening to it whilst reading the lyrics. The lyrics definitely mean something to someone and it’s beautiful. The lack of instruments brings another change in Mayday Parade’s sound. I personally think it could be said to be a Romeo and Juliet based song due to commitment and the song lyrics sound as if two people will make a decision to keep them together forever and it’s so emotional.

Track eleven is "Looks Red, Tastes Blue" and personally I think this is one of, if not, my favourite song on this album. The music style is amazing and always gets me happy when it plays and gets me in a good mood, even if the lyrics aren’t all that happy. The music definitely brings joy into the song and I love that. To me, the lyrics mean something being too good to be true and you have to pinch yourself to make sure it is true. The thing i love most about this song is how so many people can relate to the lyrics, it brings everyone together.

Next is ‘Always Leaving’ another song about touring and how it feels as if they never get a break at home and it is just constantly come home, empty your bag, wash everything and put them back in the bag before leaving again. The lyrics seem like they always try to get more time at home but they are refused. I truly believe many artists can relate to this song. I adore Derek’s vocals in this song, they are so pure and match the guitar perfectly to make it such an amazing song.

Finally, the last song on the album is "Sunnyland", based off the albums title. This song is also another beautifully written song. These songs lyrics seem to be based off of memories that someone will have with their family, like baseball for example. Most people probably played baseball with their family and this song brings all memories from a childhood back to life, in a good way. This song will get some people emotional and to those people, I can’t blame you. The calming tune mixed with the memory based lyrics truly makes this song one of the best Mayday Parade have ever written.

Personally I think Mayday Parade brought a new sound to the table and it will be hard to beat this album, it is definitely one of their best albums ever released and I’m so proud of the guys for releasing a great album!! Keep it up!

Rating - 10/10