Relient K Band • Page 124

See, the first time I listened to Collapsible Lung, I heard Can't Complain and thought "Surely this is a career low for the band..." then Gloria played right after and I again learned the lesson of "things can always get worse." Either Gloria or the CL bonus track with Owl City has my vote for the worst Relient k songs.

 

“Worst song” when it comes to RK is a bit difficult to pin down when you factor in their old stuff.

 

I think songs from CL are far worse than those early tracks considering the context. Teenager wrote the song 20 years ago? Okay, they’re just starting. Putting out CL after like 15 years of great albums and growth as a song writer? Yikes. I’ll take the basic old jams over the new garbage.

 

Yeah good point. I still think we wouldn’t be having the debate about CL if it had been released under a different moniker. But here we are:)

 

Agreed. If it had been a one off solo album, I think the fans could have gone, “look, it’s not great, but it’s clear Matt wanted to experiment and do some things he hadn’t done before. It’s not my jam, but whatever.” Instead… you know the rest haha

 

I tried hard to fight off the sleep deprivation enough to articulate exactly this. I think all of CL is technically "better" than anything from the Self-Titled or All Work & No Play (minus Softer to Me, which I have a uh, soft spot for), but the context of those albums being made by some kids just starting out in a music genre that was only recently gaining traction makes me give them more of a pass. CL came out after a decade of pretty consistent artistic growth from the band, with basically every album being better than the last (outside of maybe Mmhmm beating out Five Score). So going from that pretty steady improvement to CL was... jarring to say the least. Thank god Air For Free was so good afterward.

 

I appreciate Air For Free and recognize it’s objectively a solid album, but I’m likely in the vast minority when I say this…I rarely listen to it. It just doesn’t do much for me. I really really love RK but I need to be in a very specific mood to decide to put that album on when I decide to listen to them.

 

Air for Free is up there with their top records to me. I put it on just as much as their other greats.

 

It's usually between that, FANSD and Five Score for me.

 

I spun Collapsible Lung on a whim the other day and these were the thoughts that ran through my head.

After the release, I pretty much wrote the entire album off - everything except for Don't Blink and the title track - and never revisited it... So coming back several years later, I was surprised at how many songs I enjoyed for what they were. Granted, it's still like a 50/50 split of good songs and bad songs, but that's a way better hit-and-miss ratio than I was expecting.

Don't Blink

I still really enjoy this song... I guess I didn't realize that this is the fullest-sounding song on the album. So much of this album sounds... empty(?), that in contrast with the rest of the album, Don't Blink sticks out like a sore thumb.

Boomerang

Still grates on my ears. Sonically, it's one of the most un-Relient K hooks I can remember... melodically, it reminds me of one of the more recent Switchfoot singles. I can hear Jon Foreman doing those vocals so easily I had to look up the songwriting credits.

FYI, songwriting credits are given to Evan Kidd Bogart, whose portfolio is WILD.

Lost Boy / If I Can Take You Home

Solid and had their moments. Lost Boy flashes peak-MMHMM for 5 seconds at the end when it's just Matt and the piano (which snapped back into my mind how odd of an album this is) and on IICTYH I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the dancy electronic beat and Hoopes' guitar... it felt very Vital/Devotion-era Anberlin. There are still elements to both I don't care for (the whistling/earnestness of Lost Boy and the repetitive lyrics/chorus of IICTYH), but they're solid.

Can't Complain / Gloria

Woooooooof.

PTL

Damn... Maybe it's because my music taste has softened and shifted more toward pop over the last decade, but PTL is an absolute bop. It's huge in all the right ways. Going in, I remembered the PTL lyrics as being completely superficial, but here and now - in the year of our lord 2023 - PTL feels like it's coming from a far more genuine place than a song like Can't Complain.
The only knock I have against PTL is Thiessen's decision to sing the choruses in falsetto. When the refrain hits and Matt drops back into his normal register, I was surprised at how much weight the chorus had... Matt singing in a higher register pulls the proverbial punch.

Disaster / When You Were My Baby

Really pleasant surprises here. With the benefit of hindsight, Disaster feels to me like the most forward-looking of all the tracks (and would probably fit seamlessly on Air For Free alongside Cat or Elephants on Parade); while WYWMB gives me the exact same vibe as all their Karaoke covers... it feels like Relient K covering an 80s song, which is always enjoyable.

Sweeter

Matt Thiessen doing his best Denver or Petty impression. I do not enjoy this song for that reason, but I can see how you would enjoy it if you're into classic Americana folk/rock.

Collapsable Lung

This track has always been the highlight of the album for me. CL is one of my favorite songs across any RK album, but one minor criticism my brother recently pointed out - and I agree - is that song feels like it gets stuck in third gear and never really hits fourth at any point, even though it feels like there's room for it to get there.

It could just be a production preference thing, as the live renditions have always sounded big and full... I was just a bit surprised that the album version doesn't even reach Don't Blink levels.

 

I remember Collapsable Lung containing some of the worst tropes of early 2010s indie-y pop music and even though it just turned 10, I still don't think I'm ready to revisit it again. Some sounds must stay in the past

 

It has a some of their best songs in my opinion and there’s nothing I’d take off it it but it feels more like a collection of everything they had recorded than a cohesive album. I’ve said this a lot, but reading between the lines in interviews at the time of its release, I got the impression that Hoopes wanted to just put everything they had recorded on it because it sounded like they weren’t sure if they would be a band for much longer.

 

There are some great songs on it, absolutely agree.

 

Empty House, Air for Free, and Bummin still make it onto playlists for me.

 

As much as I love it there's definitely a handful I'd take off.

 

I listened to AFF I think once or twice and it wasn’t anything impressive from what I remember. I still think MMHMM - FANSD are the only things consistently worth revisiting. I’m fairly excited to see what comes out of what they’re doing with Ethan back.

 

There's so many fantastic songs on Air for Free.

 

I understand people knocking Collapsible Lung (even though there’s some fun to be had) but Air For Free is fantastic

 

Air For Free is fine. Some good stuff overall. Never hit me that hard like the rest of their catalog, minus CL of course.

 

I’m glad he’s back too, don’t think he’s drumming though. He’s playing bass now.

Also, I don’t see people talk about Heartache enough. That song is easily among their best. Runnin’ is up there as well, especially the middle portion (“I can remember the days in my life…”). I also love Man, Flower, and Marigold. Again, there’s nothing I’d take off but it just doesn’t really feel cohesive as an album thematically or sonically. I listen to songs from it often but almost never front to back.

 

I don’t see anyone knocking AFF, just expressing some opinions about it. It’s a decent record with some excellent songs, to me.

Always thought it was interesting not one AFF song made it onto the fan-voted vinyl that came out a couple years back. I know that was controversial for AFF lovers but still interesting to me.

 

AFF is good but it's not as amazing as people make it out to be IMO, and CL is better than most people say so maybe I just have bad ears idk

 

You had me at first. Then you lost me.

 

Yeah, I go back to CL more often than AFF

edit: @irthesteve wouldn't let this be a hot take

 

Not really a hot take since it's not an opinion, just a factual statement, more of a "weird thing about me"