Relient K

Much of the edge in Relient K's fifth album can be attributed to producer Howard Benson, who, after sharpening his hooks with My Chemical Romance and the All-American Rejects, helps this Christian band make a record with loads of crossover potential. That said, the band's testimonials to faith are near the surface on "I Need You" and "Forgiven." They save the grandest pageantry for last with "Deathbed," an 11-minute epic with a guest appearance from Switchfoot's Jon Foreman that traces the life of a lost sheep who eventually returns to Christ's flock.

Relient K are Ohio guys making big, sweetly melodic pop punk with religious inclinations
that are rarely overbearing (for one, they almost never invoke the J Man's name). They're
also kind of bland. Their fifth album has some bright winners, like the bouncy "Faking My
Own Suicide" and "The Best Thing," which sounds sort of like Death Cab for Cutie covering
Blink-182. But elsewhere you get songs such as "Devastation and Reform," remini... More >