The Skyliner

Issue date: 3/21/07 Section: Entertainment & Features

Cody Fields
Sports Editor


After going gold with the 2004 release of Mmhmm and two new members (bassist John Warne and guitarist John Schneck), the K car is still rolling with Relient K's new release, Five Score and Seven Years Ago.

Though the band calls this their "happiest album" so far, it also features by far their deepest song writing. Frontman Matt Theissen's lyrics have become even more masterful than ever before, and the songs remain catchy with comical hooks scattered throughout, but the record is blatantly more mature in nature.

The album starts out interestingly enough with the a cappella track "Plead the Fifth," in which Theissen did all the vocal tracks. From there it progresses into "Come Right Out and Say It," a pop-punk song in the style that helped make them what they are, and then into the heaviest track on the album, entitled "I Need You," which showcases the entire band's vocal capabilities, as Theissen and drummer Dave Douglas trade off lines during the verses, and Warne, Schneck and guitarist Matt Hoopes provide their services in the background during the choruses. Another highlight early in the album is Five Score's second single, "Forgiven," which was no. 10 on the Christian rock countdown last week.

In the middle of Five Score, "Devastation and Reform" details Theissen's frustration with his own efforts of morality with the lines "I feel like I was born for devastation and reform. I'll destroy everything I love, and the worst part is I'll pull my heart out, reconstruct. But in the end it's nothing but a shell of what I had when I first started." The song ends in a more positive light with "…failure is a blessing in disguise."

Relient K's well-known humor shows up in the 12-second track "Crayons Can Melt On Us for All I Care," when the only line is "I just wasted 10 seconds of your life."

The CD ends powerfully with the 11-minute piano-laden epic ballad "Deathbed," written from the perspective of an old dying lung cancer patient who has wasted his entire life but got his life right with God later on.

After seven years as a band, their fifth album blows the rest away in terms of song writing and musical depth. Five Score and Seven Years Ago gets five stars in my book, and fans of many genres will be able to appreciate Relient K's musical prowess.

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