The Incoherant Ramblings of a Poetic Compulsive: Music Review: Relient K's "MmHmm"

Relient K’s maturity and lyrical development since their last album, Two Lefts Don’t Make a Right, But Three Do, is not just significant, it’s monumental and stands out as the cornerstone component that makes this album, MmHmm (Gotee Records), their crowning achievement in terms of recorded material thus far. The collaboration of the 4-piece power pop/punk rock band and their long-time friend and producer Mark Townsend, is a combination that embodied the statement, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” [Relient K has since become a 5-piece, taking on two new members after long-time bass player Brian Pittman left in 2004 to start a landscaping company but his departure came after recording for MmHmm had completed]

It’s a pretty common theme, particularly of the middle-aged and older crowds, to hear the punk sound and complain of saturation, repetition, the conforming to pop culture and the teenage demographic, etc. Many classic rock and heavy metal enthusiasts, as well as those trapped in their overheating “way back machines” consider the entire genre to be little more than pretty faces and bubblegum music catered to the average consumer and rubberstamp the bands therein as “sell outs”. No arguing the facts I suppose. But Relient K, however, is quite possibly the bright shining star, the poster child for the genre if you will, defying the rules of de facto chord structure and musical framing, belligerent and offensive lyrics, and the stereotypical nose-pierced, Mohawk attitude. For those reading this article that have never heard Relient K’s MmHmm project, and are thinking you probably won’t give it a listen regardless of how much this review praises it, I challenge you, you owe it to yourself to give this album an honest ear and a few minutes of your time. Let it change your opinion of Christian punk. But do Relient K a favor…and don’t judge their songs by the intros.

If Relient K has one major downfall it’s that nearly every song for the last 2 or 3 albums often has the feeling of starting the exact same way. Tragically, 9 of the 14 songs on MmHmm seem to follow suit. I’ve owned the album for about a year, have listened to it heavily, and I can never tell which song I’m listening to until twenty seconds into it. However the sensation of monotony is always gone by the time Matt Thiessen finishes the first line of the first verse. Or perhaps it’s merely forgiven in lieu of the honesty, humor and humility of the lyrics that inevitably follow.

The album opens with an animated and cheery series of guitar pedaltones accompanied by uniquely patterned snare hits on the song “The One I’m Waiting For” before the tune opens up to a guitar driven drone and a full compliment of “hey” chants. David Douglas really shines with some impressive drumming. There’s a great layered vocal round as the song concludes, too. Despite the song’s feeling that it transcends the principles of time signature occasionally, and some great ‘back-and-forth’ of guitar arrangements, the song is largely about girls. Or rather a particular girl that as we learn is somewhat menacing regarding matters of the heart. And while the lyrics seem somewhat superficial, Matt Thiessen does call for guys to seek out the advice of “those that have more wisdom than you”. But it’s mostly about a girl.

Hang on, it gets better. “Be My Escape” kicks off with the typical Relient K intro I warned about however it’s brief and uniquely divergent as it seems to journey through three separate phases, before the first verse kicks in with the sensation of having passed through a musical inter-dimensional wormhole. Matt Thiessen’s first vocals are backed by a sublime arpeggiated piano piece. And as I listen to this song it occurs to me that either the melody or the musical arrangement experiences a significant transformation every 10-20 seconds, the next variation just as catchy as the last, gripping my attention for the entire tune. The drama that haunts this song from component to component is relentless and perfectly accompanies the at times morrows lyrics. “And this life sentence that I’m serving / I admit that I’m every bit deserving / But the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair”. I’m thrilled to announce that this style, this thematic congruency exists throughout the album in a schizophrenic merging of break-neck intensity; engrossing, melodic peacefulness; deep, contemplative limericks; and absurd but playful comicality. “Be My Escape” sets the tone for the entire album both musically and lyrically. You really feel like you know Matt by the end of this record and this song’s closing line contributes to that feeling: “I fought You for so long / I should’ve let You in / Oh how we regret those things we do / All I was trying to do is save my own skin / But so were You / so were You”.

The presence of piano is a new introduction to Relient K albums. While I don’t recall much if any piano in previous projects, piano is a predominant staple in MmHmm. Their music has always been one of enormous dynamics that manipulate the emotions taking the listener through a journey of highs and lows with nearly every song. MmHmm however takes those low points to a lower place than before and rocks the high points harder than they’ve done in the past. The dynamic is more dramatic in this album, but even that can be overdone, and I felt by the end of the album that might just be what happened. But at this point, it’s still early in the album and I’m just getting into it. The next two songs, together with “Be My Escape” make an incredible threesome of trademark Relient K material. They exemplify everything I enjoy and have come to expect from the group. “High of 75” is delightfully fun drawing a comparison to their attitudes on any given day to the weather and generating musical articulations that appropriately accommodate the various weather patterns. The 10 second acoustic guitar intro separates “High of 75’s” opening from the nine songs that seemingly open the same way. Matt draws some great parallels in this song and Mark Townsend’s production is really thinking outside of the box for this group as we hear a disco beat, drum machine, even a digital clap track as the song chugs along. “I So Hate Consequences” is an overly honest song in which the guys manage to say what’s on everybody’s mind. Despite a somewhat juvenile intro that falls into that “typical Relient K” category, I believe this song to be one of, if not THE best tune on the album. The verses are comprised of vanilla punk rock palm muting but the guitars really open up in the channel and are side-by-side with some quick-delivered lyrics. As one listens to the words, you can’t help but be truly impacted by the truth and humility that breaks through the clouds in this song. This song deals with the desire to at times literally run from our mistakes, from God, and the sorrow we bring upon ourselves by our own sin. The natural reaction is often to simply get away. We look back with sadness that the momentum we had in our walks with God is now snuffed out by a major fall and we feel weighed down and just want to escape. Relient K’s last verse, sang to the piano, gives us listeners some real hope and finality with the issue however, and shows us a side to Matt Thiessen that’s too close to home to not be real:

“When I got tired of running from You / I stopped right there to catch my breath / there your words they caught my ears / You said ‘I miss you son, come home’ / And my sins they watched me leave / and in my heart I so believed / the love you felt for me was mine / the love I’d wished for all this time / and when the doors were closed / I heard no I-told-you-so’s / I said the words I knew you knew / oh God oh God I needed You / God all this time I needed You / I needed You”.

MmHmm’s fifth track is titled “The Only Thing Worse Than Beating a Dead Horse is Betting on One”. What can I say…it’s one minute and thirteen seconds of everything I thought Relient K outgrew in the first album. The next two songs “My Girl’s Ex-Boyfriend” and “More Than Useless” have equal parts comic drama and sobering truth serum. Though both start with the archetypal Relient K introduction, “My Girl’s Ex-Boyfriend” has clever lyrics, grounded harmonies, once again keen use of piano, and an unmistakable Beach Boys influence as the song concludes with creamy “oohs”, even more crisp harmonizing giving this album just one more facet of talented writing and superb production. Relient K takes a break from the humble contemplation for a very short time in “My Girl’s Ex-Boyfriend” stating freely that “I owe it all to the mistake he made back then / I owe it all to my girl’s ex-boyfriend”. It’s a unique twist on a universal theme of young romance that I’ve never quite heard presented in that fashion before. “More Than Useless” echoes the low self-esteem mentality of the struggling Christian teenager that, if you’re not going through it now, you remember it. The melody that bursts forth strikes one as more rock and roll than punk. “More Than Useless” branches off from the rest of the hard hitting, high energy songs with individual flavor and a different kind of vigor that I find to be refreshing and captivating. The message within “More Than Useless,” lest you suspect it to be less than positive from the title is pretty good stuff. “I’m a little more than useless / when I think that I can’t do this / you promise me that I’ll get through this / and do something right / do something right for once”. Again, candid reflection and persistent humility via beautiful writing make this album and this is just one more example.

“Which to Bury, Us or the Hatchet,” thank goodness, starts up with a soothing collection of Rob Thomas like melody and a light flange effect on a guitar giving the listener some ear candy. The song’s lyrics focus on an instance of conflict between the singer and a friend. Relient K brings us down a notch in arrangement but maintain the passion with over the top background screams. In the end the humility comes through again as the song closes, “what happened to us / I heard it was me we should blame / what happened to us / why didn’t you stop me from turning out this way”. This tune doesn’t really ‘end’ as much as it simply transforms into the ninth song on the album, “Let it All Out”. As the distorted guitars and screaming give way to the now characteristic piano and tranquil vocals for the ending verse and chorus of “What to Bury…” “Let it All Out” starts up without missing a beat or initiating a key change. “Let it All Out” is in my opinion incredibly uncharacteristic for Relient K. And I stress incredible. Relient K really show their diversity and a new palette of musical capabilities. A piano-driven instrumentation underlines a euphoric, amicable melody, and the usual intelligently organized words of poetic talent.

While the remaining four songs on this album are all, on their own merits, amazing songs, the album begins to feel repetitious with its unceasing dynamic changes becoming commonplace. It’s not boring, but if you listen to the album from start to finish it may begin to feel pedestrian to the listener. In other words, this album may actually have the problem of too many hits. At 13 songs even a great theme, a great vibe, and a true sense of independent style that is Relient K’s own can feel like too much. They ironically say it best in “Maintain Consciousness” in the last verse, “well no one can possibly listen to this / more than 4 reps is just monotonous / we’re losing interest, losing interest, losing interest”. Perhaps they knew what was happening. Luckily all the songs on this record are under 4 minutes. Relient K knows their strengths and they play to them in this outstanding collection of tunes. If they released a greatest hits CD today, at least a third of MmHmm would be included on it. “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been” is saturated with dynamic changes. Up, down, higher, lower, more intense, less intense. It’s a rollercoaster ride of a song as are much of the tracks on this CD. “Maintain Consciousness” opens with, you guessed it, layered guitar riffs that reach a slow-building pinnacle at about 12 seconds into the song right before the first verse comes in and breaks it up. A hammering synchronized bass and guitar rhythm remind this reviewer of “Be My Escape”. Another instance of catchy harmonies just before the pounding chorus comes in. All-in-all this song appears to make a commentary on the laziness, boredom, and monotony that came with the latter teen years and the early 20’s. Unfortunately the subject matter tends to make the song feel like its dragging and tends to have a lack of direction.

“Maintain Consciousness” transitions seamlessly with little more than a gong hit (very cool) into “This Week the Trend”. The song map closely mimics that of its predecessor. The chorus makes this song more than monotony though. Matt again grabs my attention from whatever I’m doing as he dispels his final verse: “And I just want to get mugged at knifepoint / to get cut enough to wake me up / cause I know that I don’t want to die / sitting around watching my life go by”. It draws a point for a listener that can’t be missed thanks to the vibrant emotional word picture. The rowdy instrumentation even pauses for the dramatic statement giving way to a sense that what you’re listening to is real, and exposing the desires of his heart in a way that strikes a chord of painful honesty. The song ends the way it begins with trademark Relient K guitars repeating the chord progression too many times. “Life After Death and Taxes” sounds somewhat like the fifth song of the CD. But unlike the shortest song on the album, this longest song has a much catchier chorus and flowing melody keeping with the in-your-face honesty that they delivered in “This Week the Trend” making statements guaranteed to make you stop, listen, and even rewind to make sure you heard it right. And yes, you did. One finds it easy to identify Matt T’s passions and desires with the vivid and emotional wordplay. Somehow it all works to make a great song…that appears to come to a complete halt, as many of their songs appear to do, at the half way mark. I’m already thinking that this segment (with a dominant piano of course) will slowly build until we’re repeating a slightly more energetic version of the same chorus. I find myself hoping any top-of-the-lungs screaming they present is kept to a minimum and low in the mix (to their credit that’s usually the case). Never one to disappoint, the guitar-rocking chorus does in fact come back but doesn’t ever develop into what I expect. The instrumentation changes yet again for what I think must be the final chorus. The BGV rounds and heavenly harmonies accompany a beautiful lead melody and while it does build up yet again right before the song closes it never returns to the punk feel so pervasive in the album but instead, for contrast, closes with a 15 second tease of string arrangement reminiscent of classical orchestration.

Overall I’d say the songs on this album are all quite stellar in achievement. Great words, music, arrangement, dynamic, and the honesty is truly moving at times. The album as a whole feels like a relentless barrage of energetic boisterousness and constant mid-song metamorphosis. It’s great for awhile, but I at least feel like I need an intermission from it, walk away, and come back to it or all the songs would sound too similar and I wouldn’t enjoy each one for its greatness. It’s almost too much. Then again, they are trying for the attention spans of some of the most distracted people ever to listen to music too, so I hesitate to penalize them for it. One could debate that “Let it All Out” is that intermission I desired too. But the album stands up well to scrutiny and I think the band deserves high marks for accomplishing the ultimate in thought-provoking smart rock.

Bazooka-Joe made it so at 9:43 AM

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Monday, August 01, 2005

Music Review: Relient K's "MmHmm"

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