Relient K: MMHMM (2004)

Tracks:

1. The One I'm Waiting For
2. Be My Escape
3. High of 75
4. I So Hate Consequences
5. The Only Thing Worse Than Beating a Dead Horse is Betting On One
6. My Girl's Ex-Boyfriend
7. More Than Useless
8. Which to Bury, Us or the Hatchet?
9. Let It All Out
10. Who I Am Hates Who I've Been
11.  Maintain Consciousness
12.  This Week the Trend
13.  Life After Death & Taxes (Failure II)
14.  When I Go Down

So what happens when a pop punk band grows up?  Not a question I was expecting to answer when I first listened to Volume 4 of the Relient K Saga, the vowel-less MMHMM.  After three installments of fast, furious, and mostly fun bright rock mayhem and melodies, the K have a very special episode about dealing with actual adult issues, specifically healing broken relationships.  Oh, the melodies and mayhem are still there, but the substance of the songs runs much deeper than pop culture and teenage drama now.  It's only been a year since Two Lefts, but the maturity and emotional intensity of Matt Thiessen's words reveal a much longer season of growth.  


The general themes of the record is remorse and reconciliation.  The remorse is demonstrated through songs like "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been," which starts out on piano and then builds up to a driving chorus in which the singer is watching a playback of his past and freeze-framing his mistakes.  "I So Hate Consequences" starts out as the frenetic romp of a man desperate to escape his situation as he impatiently waits at a stoplight, only to slow down and realize he can't run anymore: "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."  And "Be My Escape," which begins with an uncharacteristically haunting guitar riff,  continues with the need to "get outta here" and leave behind one's faults without addressing them, but in the end, "I fought You for so long/I should have let You in/Oh how we regret those things we do/And all I was trying to do was save my own skin/But so were You."  

The reconciliation is illustrated by songs like "Which to Bury; Us or the Hatchet," a clever title and a song in which two people in conflict remember the deeper meaning of love in the midst of temporary emotions: "No, I don't hate you
don't want to fight you/You know I'll always love you/
but right now I just don't like you."  The song also features, of all things, a banjo part.  And "Let it All Out" acknowledges that sometimes healing requires painful moments: "And you said I know that this will hurt/But if I don't break your heart then things will just get worse/If the burden seems too much to bear/Remember the end will justify the pain it took to get us there."

The playing also reflects maturity, from the harder, more tense riffing, to Thiessen's ever-increasing piano playing.  In the end, even an old geezer like myself can relate to what these twentysomethings are singing, because any long term relationship is going to have those hard, uncomfortable moments where even the Thundercats, Chap Stick, and Marty McFly's DeLorean can't deliver us from our discomfort and feelings.  Thankfully, Relient K, as usual, brings it back to faith in God, and that's ultimately the greatest "escape".