20. Relient K: Forget and Not Slow Down
I have loved Relient K since the first time I ever saw them live. This doesn’t mean I think everything they’ve written a masterpiece but I’ve always appreciated the band. For a while I thought that I had officially heard their peak; Two Lefts Don’t Make A Right... But Three Do was a flawless pop punk album. I enjoyed mmhmm and Five Score and Seven Years Ago but they were far from flawless records. Then Forget and Not Slow Down came out of fucking nowhere.
I remember having a lot of curiousity about the album after reading a few interviews where they discussed how the album was roughly 11 songs stretched out across 15 tracks, how it was 90’s rock influenced and that it was an album written when Thessian locked himself away from the world.
Within the first minute of Forget and Not Slow Down’s opening/title track I knew without a shadow of a doubt that this was going to be their masterpiece album. You can hear the heart and soul of a man dealing with depression and using music to get through it.
My favorite track is probably Candlelight (the only song cowritten with guitarist Matt Hoopes). Lyrically it’s the most direct love song coming up with some of the most unique ways to praise someone’s beauty. Thesian’s word play and pop culture references shine throughout the whole CD (Part of It he uses the lyrics ‘I want to be the cusack on the lawn of your heart’) but Candlelight is the most adorable song the band has ever written.
It also contains cameos by various singers of multiple bands and the best production values the band has ever had. At the time I’m writing this (3/1/2013) the band still hasn’t released an official follow-up (but they did put out an awesome cover album) that I’m sure will be great but I doubt it could possibly surpass this album.
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