Yellowcard returns with 'Here I Am Alive.'

After taking a few years off to, we imagine, reconnect with family and friends, do yoga (this is just a guess) and become full-fledged adults (more on that in a second), Yellowcard dropped 2011's When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes, basically toured the planet (hyperbole, but they definitely busted their asses), and then recorded Southern Air, their sixth studio album. And on "Here I Am Alive," the album's first official single, the boys are taking a look back.

"If I could write to the kid I was before/I'd tell him you'll get everything you ever wanted/but you'll still want more," Ryan Key sings on the introspective song about growing up versus growing old. In lines that could be interpreted as tracing Yellowcard's own rise to fame, Key looks back at his mistakes and failed relationships but, as the title announces, comes out a bruised-but-not-battered survivor who's in it for the long haul.

Listen to Yellowcard's "Here I Am Alive" after the jump.

"We got back from tour, and we were still so excited about doing this,” Key says. “We wanted to keep the ball rolling." And they did it with a little help from their friends: Patrick Stump cowrote "Here I Am Alive" with We Are The In Crowd's Taylor Jardine adding vocals, making it a rich pop-punk instant classic by a band at the top of their game. Yellowcard's Southern Air is due Aug. 14 on Hopeless Records -- we'll be holding our breath till then.

+ Listen to Yellowcard's "Here I Am Alive,"  pre-order Southern Air, and get advance tickets to Yellowcard's fall tour with We Are The In Crowd and The Wonder Years.

Photo credit: Hopeless Records