YELLOWCARD to Release BETTER DAYS (DELUXE EDITION) & New Song
Singer Ryan Key details the Travis Barker sessions that grew into the album's expanded reissue.
Yellowcard has announced a digital-exclusive expanded album, BETTER DAYS (DELUXE EDITION), out September 18 via Better Noise. Teasing the expanded version, the group also released a new and previously unreleased song titled 'Calvary Drive,' out now.
'Calvary Drive' finds Yellowcard firing on all cylinders yet again. It bursts to life with driving guitars, infectious hooks, and the kind of kinetic energy that's become the band's trademark. It culminates on an anthemic chorus spiked with a sunny melody and showcases every bit of what fans have come to love and expect from the four-piece.
''Calvary Drive' was the very first demo we worked on with Travis Barker and our friend Nick Long,' says singer Ryan Key. 'We were just getting a feel for working together over a weekend and had no idea that this idea would be the spark for what became Better Days. It's fun to listen back now and hear where we started, and how much the sound evolved from there.'
Barker fondly recalls the experience as 'such an easy project and easy group of guys to make music with,' with the whole band fully invested in the process: 'Everyone in the band was really active and really a part of everything in the studio.' One song became another, a day became weeks, and before long an entire record had emerged from a collaboration that was never originally intended to go that far. 'Next thing you know it was like we're getting back in the studio and we were scheduling weeks to work with each other and recorded an entire album.' What began as Travis Barker simply jumping in for a day had organically become the album Better Days. And it's that partnership that blossomed into a collaboration with another legacy hitmaker: Avril Lavigne.
'My friend Travis [Barker] called me up to say he was producing the new Yellowcard album and I really liked what I heard,' Lavigne shared. 'When he played me 'You Broke Me Too,' I liked how it can be an anthem people can relate to when finding hope after a relationship.' The pairing felt particularly fitting: a song conceived in the spirit of the huge, emotionally charged ballads that helped define the early 2000s ultimately brought together two artists synonymous with that era, with Barker acting as the bridge between them.
The new material notably lands in the wake of the cross-generational phenomenon 'Bedroom Posters' (Feat. Blippi). The reimagined track landed looks from Rock Sound and New Noise Magazine, who applauded how, 'This version of the song preserves the original's high-spirit energy and Blippi adds his own distinctive spark to it.' 'Bedroom Posters' marked their second collab with Blippi following 'Go Go Go.'
At the top of the year, the band teamed up with Good Charlotte for the first collaborative version of 'Bedroom Posters.' Popping off as a match made in pop-punk heaven, it tallied 2.6 million Spotify streams and vaulted to #1 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay Chart. A piece on Consequence applauded how 'the song finds Key trading vocals with Good Charlotte's Joel Madden,' while Rolling Stone put it best: 'It's the collaboration made in pop-punk dreams.'
Two #1 singles coming from the one album, this signals not only a return to form, but a undeniable triumph; a band that still cuts through the noise nearly three decades into their career.
Next up, Yellowcard will canvas North America throughout the rest of August and into September on tour. They make stops at Musikfest 2026, Vans Warped Tour, Oceans Calling Festival, and more. In November, they cross the pond to hit the road in Europe and the UK with Good Charlotte.
Better Days (Deluxe Edition) Track Listing
'Better Days'
'Take What You Want'
'Love Letters Lost' (Feat. Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio)
'honestly i'
'You Broke Me Too' (Feat. Avril Lavigne)
'City of Angels'
'Bedroom Posters'
'Skin Scraped'
'Barely Alive'
'Big Blue Eyes'
'Calvary Drive'
'Hell With Me' (Feat. Steve Aoki)
'Bedroom Posters' (Feat. Good Charlotte)
'Better Days' (Asleep Version)
Yellowcard on Tour: Select Dates
8/22 — Monreal, QC — Vans Warped Tour 2026
9/4 — Clearwater, FL — 97X Next Big Thing Legends
9/6 — Orlando, FL — Eat To The Beat Concert Series
9/7 — Orlando, FL — Eat To The Beat Concert Series
9/25 — Ocean City, MD — Oceans Calling Festival
With Good Charlotte in Europe + The UK
11/8 — Stockholm, Sweden — Hovet
11/11 — Munich, Germany — Zenith
11/13 — Forest, Belgium — Vorst Nationaal/Forest National
11/14 — Dusseldorf, Germany — Mitsubishi Electric Hall
11/16 — Amsterdam, Netherlands — AFAS Live
11/17 — Paris, France — Zenith Paris – La Villette
11/19 — London, UK — The O2
11/20 — Manchester, UK — Co-Op Live
About Yellowcard
Yellowcard meant it when they said goodbye. The lights dimmed on one of the most beloved pop-punk and alt-rock bands of the 2000s with intention and authenticity. Wrapping things up with a farewell tour, Yellowcard exited the 'right' way, with grace, appreciation, and finality. But the story wasn't complete. Legacy cracked the door. Healing blew it wide open. Riding a resurgence that saw the global Ocean Avenue 20th anniversary tour featured in Forbes and a reconciliation that put all four members at peace with their legacy and each other, Yellowcard made the most ambitious and emotionally resonant record of their career. Better Days, the band's first album in nearly a decade, was produced by blink-182's Travis Barker, who also played drums on every track. Their first release with powerhouse label Better Noise Music, Better Days is Yellowcard's testimony that healing is a process, growth is nonlinear, and sometimes the best chapter opens after the supposed ending.
Yellowcard are: William Ryan Key — Vocals/Guitar, Sean Mackin — Violin, Ryan Mendez — Guitar, Josh Portman — Bass