New album spotlight

Mayday Parade - Sad

After 20 years, Mayday Parade isn’t just still around - they’re continuing to write the soundtrack to our lives. Mayday Parade’s new album, Sad, might be the title to the second part of their 20th-anniversary trilogy, but don’t let the name fool you. This record is full of heart, nostalgia, and everything that’s kept us coming back to Mayday. All the way from Tallahassee, Florida, the band has been in the emo and pop-punk world since the mid-2000s and can still relate to their fans to this day.

Behind the sound, you’ll find: Derek Sanders on vocals, Jake Bundrick on drums and vocals, Alex Garcia on lead guitar, Brooke Betts on rhythm guitar, and Jeremy Lenzo holding down the bass. Together in collaboration with long-time producers Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount, Sad has been crafted into a polished record that feels intimate and relatable. The album can sit beside classics like A Lesson in Romantics, and highlight it while also showing the band's emotional growth and maturity over the last two decades.

For older emos, Mayday Parade has always been that constant in the background of our lives. They were there for our teenage heartbreaks, our first road trips, and those nights when all we wanted to do was scream lyrics with our friends driving down quiet roads. Now, the band is growing older right alongside us, and Sad feels like a sweet letter to that shared journey.

Tracks like “I Miss the 90s” hit straight to the core of nostalgia. It’s fun, it’s catchy, and even as a 2001 kid, I found myself shouting along like I was there. The tracklist continues with songs like “Promises,” which instantly transport you to late-night drives with the windows down, belting your feelings into the wind after your first heartbreak. It’s that classic Mayday Parade magic: a mix of bittersweet and cathartic that somehow makes heartbreak feel like healing.

What I love about this album is that it doesn’t wallow in sadness. Instead, it embraces the highs and lows of being human, the growing pains, the memories, the laughs, and the tears - and packages it in a way only Mayday can. Sad feels like coming home, but like growth between band and fans. It’s often said that relying solely on nostalgia risks holding a band back or limiting their ability to evolve. Luckily for fans, Mayday is growing up with us, and we can all relish in our growing pains while looking back at what got us here.

By Jenifer Mitchell