The Omnibus

Issue date: 3/9/07 Section: Gallery

Media Credit: www.Amazon.com

Relient K released their fifth studio album titled Five Score and Seven Years Ago March 6. Although I have been disappointed in the past, I gave them another chance.
I have never been a fan of Relient K. In all honesty, my main reason is the fact that the only reason they are big is because they are labeled as a Christian band. I know this sounds terrible, but I'm not criticizing their religious views. I'm criticizing many Christians' thought process when deciding to like Relient K: "I'm a Christian; Relient K is Christian; therefore, I must like Relient K."
I realize now that my reasoning for not liking them was terrible. So, when their newest album was released, I decided to give them another chance. I told myself to listen optimistically and treat the new album like it is a release of a new up-and-coming band that I have never heard. I was still disappointed.
After listening to their new CD, I was reminded of all the other reasons I had for not liking them: their shallow lyrics, lack of creativity and absence of maturity when making the album.
I realized how each song began to sound like every other song. They were indistinguishable. Each song had the same loud drums, repetitive guitar riffs and high-pitched whines posing as vocals.
There were two songs that were a little different and distinguishable. The first song on the album, "Plead the Fifth," was an a cappella piece, which inherits obvious uniqueness to the rest of the album.
The other, "I Need You," starts out with a thumping down beat, unnecessary feedback, high pitched whines from the guitar and some sort of break down: every ingredient needed for the typical hard-core song, except for the screaming, which was replaced by Matt Thiessen's typical singing. This song took even less creativity than their others, simply because it sounds like every other band's attempt to be mainstream in the past few years.
With songs about Marilyn Manson eating their girlfriend and "Sadie Hawkins Dance," Relient K has never been notorious for having amazing lyrics. In Five Score, they have matured lyrically. In fact, a few of their songs are very religious, they are in no way extremely deep or comparable to Derek Webb or Leeland, but I was glad to see they are attempting to grow up.
However, their maturity did not last long in the album. The song titled "Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care" is a 10-second song bragging on how they wasted 10-seconds of our time (nice try Thiessen, more like 40 minutes). After hearing this song, I was reminded on how much they still need to grow up.
The last song, "Deathbed," is incredible. It is the only song I really enjoyed. It was creative, the lyrics were good, and I saw a lot of maturity in the song. The last song is in an entire new league than the rest of the album. That is why I did not even acknowledge the song existed when I critiqued the album as a whole. I felt it would be unjust to include the last song with my critique of the entire album, since it was so good and the album was so bad.
I only recommend the last song to everyone, the rest of the CD I recommend only to those who are true Relient K fans.

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