On their first offering of the 2020s, Florida's
A Day to Remember
update their sound by combining big pop gestures, crushing metalcore breakdowns, and pop-punk melodicism into a singular whirling vision. The band's seventh set,
You're Welcome
follows 2016's comparably more-punishing
Bad Vibrations
, adopting a mainstream style that takes the band further and further away from their 2000s early days. Similar to contemporary shifts from acts like
Sleeping with Sirens
and
Hands Like Houses
, the changes on
are not necessarily catastrophic. The soaring "Bloodsucker" is aggressive in spirit but catchy enough for radio airplay (with its gang chorus and singalong quality), while "High Diving" is so buoyant it could have been a cover of something off
Paramore
's
After Laughter
(more divisively, "Everything We Need" could be an
Imagine Dragons
song and "F.Y.M." echoes late-era
Muse
). The urgent bloodletting of the synth-and-drum highlight "Looks Like Hell" even recalls the crossover kings of heavy music,
Linkin Park
. Still, diehards need not fear -- there's remnants of old-fashioned muscle to sate the mosh pits. "Resentment" is a perfect example of what they're going for on this album: melodic enough to groove along to, but punishing enough to thrash. Elsewhere, "Last Chance to Dance (Bad Friend)" provides enough testosterone to quench the metalcore thirst, delivering the heaviest moment on the LP. Upon release,
debuted at number 15 on the Billboard 200. ~ Neil Z. Yeung