“Yellow Box” by The Neighbourhood

The primary sentiment expressed in the Neighbourhood’s “Yellow Box” is one where the singer wishes he could “just start over”. This is specifically in regards to his relationship with the addresses, as he wants the both of them to “begin again”. And in general, his utmost desire is to “live again”, which reads as if he wants a fresh, completely-new lease on life. 

However, he appears to be having a very difficult time achieving this goal.  This idea is buttressed by the track’s singular verse. The verse itself is quite cyrptic, as in being terse and heavily-reliant on metaphors. And they sound as though they’re very-personal to the singer. 

So considering that this song is indeed part of the soundtrack of what appears to be the very-profound videogame “Death Stranding”, perhaps it fits specifically into the narrative of the game’s storyline. Indeed items like ‘yellow boxes’ are commonly found in videogames. Or put differently, the “yellow box” which makes up the title of this song may actually refer to a mystery box, loot box or whatever a gamer may refer to a digital receptacle where various items beneficial to the game can be obtained by the protagonist. 

Indeed in the “Super Mario Bros.” series, the game that made mystery boxes famous, their color is often yellow. Or the “Yellow Box” can even be a particular item which is needed to complete “Death Stranding”, considering that this song was created  specifically for that project. So whereas we may not be able to fully decipher “Yellow Box” at the moment, when more details are revealed about “Death Stranding” we would likely have a better understanding of the philosophical specifics of the lyrics.

Release Date of “Yellow Box”

“Yellow Box” was released by Columbia Records in conjunction with Sony Music Entertainment on 10 October 2019. It is part of the soundtrack for the highly-anticipated PlayStation 4 videogame which goes by the title “Death Stranding”.

Writing Credits

The entire band wrote and produced “Yellow Box” alongside Dylan William.  And Danny Parra is credited as an additional co-writer. So in all, the official songwriting credits for this track are as follows:

• Zach Abels
• Jeremy Freedman
• Brandon Fried
• Mikey Margott
• Jesse Rutherford
• Dylan William
• Danny Parra