Reliant K - 'Five Score and Seven Years Ago' (Parlophone) Released 05/03/07

Like a best mate who suddenly gets a girlfriend, Relient K have shunned their energetic pop-punk sound in favour of soppy love ballads dripping with cringe-worthy lyrics and overly happy vocals. The quintet have always been deeply religious and thus are frequently labelled ‘Christian-rock’, but in their previous offering ‘Mmhmm’, tight, clever and invigorating gems of pop-punk glistened. Hence the anticipation and ultimate disappointment when this sound is neither reproduced nor emulated in ‘Five Score And Seven Years Ago’.

The annoyance and frustration of this LP is the huge vacuum between the quite brilliant and perfectly crafted tunes to the horrendously dull dribble of the instantly forgettable ones.  ‘Come Right Out And Say It’ and ‘I Need You’ are in the former bracket while the sickly ‘The Best Thing’ and the monotonous ‘Give Until There’s Nothing Left’ are members of the latter camp. When they get it right they sound like Motion City Soundtrack at their best with clever vocal arrangements and a silky smooth production but nosedive to mediocrity when they attempt the slower ballads.

Clocking up your fifth album will for many signal a struggle to provide something fresh and new and this battle is lost with the song ‘Faking My Own Suicide’ that sounds forced and put together just for the sake of upping the track quota. The task of writing about love without churning out the same tired clichés has resulted in some original but cheesy lyrics as on ‘Must Have Done Something Right’, Thiessen declares “We should get jerseys cos we make a good team, but yours would look better than mine cos you’re out of my league”.  

With a squeaky clean voice, infectious riffs complimented by the odd piano or synthesiser and a knack for writing an abundance of killer tracks, Relient K are bursting with potential, and with their goody-two-shoes religious values, heck, parents will even love them, so why is this album unashamedly average and less adventurous than white bread?. Its simply too hit and miss to play from start to finish without feeling the massive urge to press skip, maybe they need to ditch the girl and start playing that guitar at break neck speeds with the grit and energy we all know they can. The report simply states – could do better, and is certainly way off a five score they may hint at.