"O-H-I-O!" Released 10 years ago Wednesday, this is the eighth studio album from Ohio-born punk/pop band Relient K. Lead singer and primary songwriter Matthew Thiessen definitely has a way with words and melody, and though the band does have a sound, there's a lot of variety in the sound, from classic punk to The Beach Boys-inspired harmonies—sometimes even in the same song. This late in their career most of the music is not punk, but is more a polished alternative pop/rock. The lyrics on occasion reference a Christian faith, but are mostly reflections on life and love with the occasional witty wordplay. Though I think their best work was 10 years before this, this album is by no means one to skip. I will admit that the production or mixing didn't really grab me at first; I didn't really find these songs interesting until I saw Relient K play the songs live a bit later and thought, "Wow, those songs are better than I thought." At 16 tracks totaling 60 minutes, it's not a short album, but they did not really ever make short albums. It looks like the 2xLP vinyl release has a slightly different track order than the CD/streaming version. Relient K has played some shows in the past few years, but seem to have no plans to release new music or tour regularly at this time, so this may be their last album.

Release Year: 2016
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