Released 20 years ago today, Mmhmm is my favorite album in Relient K's discography. Matt Thiessen, Matt Hoopes and the band kept adding layers of nuance to their earlier pop-punk style, and this album adds a lot of variety to that base. It's definitely very guitar-based and band-heavy, but sometimes they slow it to just a sparse instrumentation with Matt Thiessen's vocals and keyboards going in for a tender moment or even some electronic elements. Lyrically, it's clear that the band was growing as humans, as many of the lyrics talk about relationships, growth and a break-up of some sort. But there's also hope here for future improvement and that there's "Life After Death And Taxes". This one was definitely on heavy rotation for the next few years after it came out, and I still enjoy it all the way through 20 years later.

Release Year: 2004
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