Chris Fallon – AbsolutePunk.net

Canton, Ohio’s Relient K have done for positively-influenced pop-punk as what Justin Timberlake has done for white boy soul music – brought it back to life with their latest release, Five Score And Seven Years Ago (named for this being the band’s fifth full-length in seven years).

The band – comprised of vocalist/pianist/guitarist Matthew Thiessen, guitarists Matthew Hoopes and Jon Schneck, bassist John Warne and drummer/vocalist Dave Douglas – is not one to alienate its non-Christian listeners and has very few direct references to God or Jesus. Past albums have had worship songs on them and interlaced them with more humorous songs (”May The Horse Be With You,” comes to mind), much like fellow pop-punk vets blink-182.

What distances Relient K from the rest of the brat-pack of pop-punk is their optimism and multi-layered sound (which blends three guitars and piano with heavy harmonies), mixing the catchiest melodies with softer piano-based bridges. It’s a formula the band has perfected since 2003’s Two Lefts Don’t Make A Right…But Three Do, which was carried over to the band’s 2004 major-label breakthrough Mmhmm, where it was vastly improved upon.

Bringing uber-producer Howard Benson (My Chemical Romance, All-American Rejects, Less Than Jake) on board to beef up the disc’s sound was a good choice. Benson is known for making records sound larger than life, and he does just this on the album. Theissen has a delicate voice with good range and shows it off plenty on the album. Dave Douglas’ more aggressive vocals back Theissen. The duo sound perfect together and blend together quite nicely to make the disc sound a little more expanded than their previous efforts.

Starting off the album, is the acapella “Plead The Fifth”. It is a bit of a departure for the band and gives an impression to fans of the band’s previous albums that the tone of the record will be just a tad different. The Beach Boys-esque harmonies are wrapped around lyrics that tell the tale of a murder, something not normally tackled by a band like this.

Leading into the highly infectious “Come Right Out And Say It,” the band then moves into its heaviest-hitting song on the disc – or perhaps ever – “I Need You,” with Theissen and Douglas trading vocals back and forth. The song is an anthemic cry for those who feel lost and alone, with reinforcing lyrics stating “I have not been abandoned / No, I have not been deserted / And I have not been forgotten.” As with many of the lyrics the album displays, many are written to tell the listener they don’t need to feel the angst and frustration oftentimes related to by many of the band’s peers. In a day and age full of disco panic and simple plans, it’s refreshing to have a more real-world viewpoint on things rather than just wanting to kick through walls and skateboard off rooftops to show how disillusioned you are.

“The Best Thing” is another catchy number that has some corny lines to it but works well with its structure and the vocal strengths of Theissen and Douglas. “Forgiven” is slower, but also powerful, with Theissen going at a near-falsetto on the chorus. It’s one of the more faith-based songs on the album, but you can look at songs like this in two ways: it’s either about you as a person, reaching out to God or the people who make you who you are. That’s why Relient K is a mainstream band – they aren’t trying to shun anyone who believes differently from them.

The lead single, “Must Have Done Something Right” is a cute pop song that sends out praise for the one person in your life who makes you feel better than anyone ever could and contains sugary lyrics such as “We should get jerseys, ‘cuz we’d make a good team / But yours would fit better than mine, since you’re out of my league.” The song is the perfect Relient K song, one that wouldn’t fit too out of place on one of their older releases, and is also a welcome introductory track for any new fan. The next track, “Give,” is the slowest song on the disc. It is really the only ballad the record has to offer, sounding similar to Mmhmm’s “Let It All Out,” albeit a bit louder.

“Devastation And Reform” is one of the album’s best cuts, taking an approach similar to “I Need You” by hitting heavy and sounding like an arena rock song once the chorus hits. Again, the band’s lyrics set them apart from many of their peers, with self-deprecating lines like “Usually I’ll cause my own first hit / It seems to me to be slightly masochistic / But there’d be no story without all this descension / So I inflict the conflict with the utmost of intentions.” You don’t see Cute Is What We Aim For writing that, do you?

“I’m Taking You With Me” is a genuinely great-sounding pop song that satisfies in every sense of the word, while the melancholy “Faking My Own Suicide” hooks the listener in with its story of unrequited love, taking a different route by having a country twang to it. It fits quite nicely on the album despite being a drastic change in tone, lyricism and sound for the band.

After the amusing 12-second interlude of “Crayons Can Melt On Us For All I Care,” the band hits you with two rousing doses of sugar-rush pop-punk, “Bite My Tongue” (which carries some of the album’s best lyrics) and the life reaffirming “Up And Up”.

The very last song is what makes the album such a delight, though. “Deathbed” is an 11-minute soap opera tale of a man who’s tumultuous life makes him make lousy decisions, finally leading to his self-realizations when he is diagnosed with cancer. The song’s length alone is a risk for any pop band and could really make or break a record, but Relient K pulls it off flawlessly, making 11-minutes fly by like 4. The horn section towards the end even reworks some of the acapella piece back into the song. They end the tragic tale with a conversation between the man and what could be interpreted as God or Jesus. It’s a splendid final touch to an album that hits all the spots just right.

By the time you reach the end of this nearly-hour long journey, you leave with a big smile on your face, desiring more of the punchy pop-punk with an optimistic outlook that Relient K has trademarked so well. After five albums and seven years as a band, it’s hard to believe they’re just hitting their stride and making a sound of their own. Let’s cross our fingers and hope they go for far longer than five more albums and seven more years.

Choice Cuts: “I Need You,” “Devastation And Reform,” and “Bite My Tongue”