Tracks:
- Hello McFly
- My Girlfriend
- Wake Up Call
- Benediction
- When You're Around
- Softer to Me
- Charles in Charge
- Staples
- Anchorage
- 17 Magazine
- Balloon Ride
- Everything Will Be
- Nancy Drew
- K Car
I've always loved pop music. If you've been reading this blog, you know I have an ear for that hard-to-define yet unmistakable thing called a "pop hook." I'm not enough of a musical scholar to define what it is, but I know it when I hear it, and when I'm still humming it ten minutes later. Good music is good music, and if it's a three-minute radio-friendly single, I'm down with it. But I like a great gritty guitar riff, too. I love fat bass, heavy drumming, and screaming vocals. If it's hard and heavy and moves me--which is not easily done--I will rock out. I may look like a fool as I'm doing it, but rocking out does happen.
So when bands like Badfinger, Big Star, the Sweet, and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers started putting pop and rock together together in the 70s, a genetic hybrid was forged that slammed its way into my heart like a sweetly-yet-firmly strummed power chord. Thus is my long love affair with Power Pop. I like melody, and I like loud, pounding rhythms, and with some sweet harmonies on top, I can find true bliss. As far as Christian bands go, there have been a few bands that have moved me (All Star United, PlankEye), but if there is a true master of the genre for the 21st century, I would nominate Ohio's own Relient K.
They have all the necessary elements for great power pop: two loud, heavy guitars, big bass sound, full-throttle drumming. Then they mix in sweet-voiced and idealistic-sounding singer in guitarist Matt Thiessen, who's also ready to play the piano if the mood demands it. And when the band (Matt Hoopes, Brian Pittman, and Stephen Cushman) joins in three-part choirboy harmony, Magic! An uncanny gift for writing brilliant melodies and wedding them to quirky, pop culture-friendly lyrics that speak of Jesus Christ frequently finishes the picture brilliantly.
With their self-titled debut, the K establish themselves quickly as masters of beautiful noise. The big three hits that broke them on radio were "My Girlfriend" (As in Marilyn Manson Ate..), "Wake Up Call," and "Softer to Me." The first is preceded on the record by Gotee Records exec Tobymac leaving a terse message for Thiessen: "A song about Marilyn Manson will never be put out on Gotee Records...ever!!" It's for a laugh, of course, but referencing someone so antithetical to Christian values could be seen as somewhat controversial. "Wake up Call" is driven my a rapidly-strummed acoustic and has references to Wendy's and Matchbox 20. "Softer to Me" starts out in typical aggressively sunny fashion then breaks on the chorus into a slower, mellower tune, then ramps it up on the verses. All three are bright, melody-driven angst confessionals that hook the listener with the melodies and power.
But there's more three-minute dramedies to be revealed. The opening track "Hello McFly" derives its title from a harmony background vocal, but the meat of the song is the singer's wish to go back in time a la Michael J Fox and undo some emotional damage. "Nancy Drew" references the titular mystery solver as an object of somewhat obsessive affection, and "17 Magazine" looks to the teen rag as a source of wisdom and knowledge--ironically, of course. And perhaps the most gooey pop culture relic dragged out is their cover of the theme from "Charles in Charge," complete with spoken bits from Willie "Buddy" Aames.
With all of these cheeky name-checks and fantasies, you would think that either A) Thiessen & Co. are really a bunch of media-obsessed geeks who just happened to have figured out power chords over bowls of Cheerios on a Saturday morning, or B) they're a bunch a jaded hipsters who treat all of these odes to innocence and childhood as ironic filler for "serious" spiritual lessons nestled in sweet candy coatings. Actually, it might be little of both. There's nothing to indicate that the guys are jaded or hiding any dark disdain beneath their cutesy melodies and "sha-la-la" vocal chants. There's just enough sophistication in their fun-size compositions to reveal some real understanding of great pop music. But there's also a clear view to a world beyond TV shows, magazines, and mystery novels. They use these references as windows for the real world of invisible and infallible truths.
Power pop can be addicting, much like sugar and caffeine. But it usually doesn't satisfy for long. Here's a vote that Relient K is the exception that proves the rule. Thiessen has plenty of tricks up his sleeve to sweeten the taste of his cheerful medicine to keep us wanting another shot.
But there's more three-minute dramedies to be revealed. The opening track "Hello McFly" derives its title from a harmony background vocal, but the meat of the song is the singer's wish to go back in time a la Michael J Fox and undo some emotional damage. "Nancy Drew" references the titular mystery solver as an object of somewhat obsessive affection, and "17 Magazine" looks to the teen rag as a source of wisdom and knowledge--ironically, of course. And perhaps the most gooey pop culture relic dragged out is their cover of the theme from "Charles in Charge," complete with spoken bits from Willie "Buddy" Aames.
With all of these cheeky name-checks and fantasies, you would think that either A) Thiessen & Co. are really a bunch of media-obsessed geeks who just happened to have figured out power chords over bowls of Cheerios on a Saturday morning, or B) they're a bunch a jaded hipsters who treat all of these odes to innocence and childhood as ironic filler for "serious" spiritual lessons nestled in sweet candy coatings. Actually, it might be little of both. There's nothing to indicate that the guys are jaded or hiding any dark disdain beneath their cutesy melodies and "sha-la-la" vocal chants. There's just enough sophistication in their fun-size compositions to reveal some real understanding of great pop music. But there's also a clear view to a world beyond TV shows, magazines, and mystery novels. They use these references as windows for the real world of invisible and infallible truths.
Power pop can be addicting, much like sugar and caffeine. But it usually doesn't satisfy for long. Here's a vote that Relient K is the exception that proves the rule. Thiessen has plenty of tricks up his sleeve to sweeten the taste of his cheerful medicine to keep us wanting another shot.
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