Relient K - Bird & The Bee Sides (CD)

All Music Guide

Leave it to those crazy kids in Relient K to aim for the title of "longest EP ever" with The Bird and the Bee Sides, easily the most ambitious ancillary collection the band has assembled thus far. The disc was released at a time when the quintet's label, Gotee Records, dissolved its partnership with EMI, which owned a minority stake in the small, Franklin, Tenn.based company. It almost appears as if this sense of autonomy and liberation allowed the group and its benefactors to clean out the closet and compile highlights from all their previous EPs six in all many of which are out of print and predated the group's majorlabel breakthroughs, mmhmm and Five Score and Seven Years Ago. Throughout the duration of this 13track stretch, it's fun to trace the evolution of Relient K from silly funnymen to straightfaced modern rockers: the band's customary poppunk rears its head all along, but there's also acoustic ballads, synthcaressed '80s pop, and a nod or two to Ben Foldsstyled sensitivity.... But there's more: seemingly aware that no number of warmedover rarities or bsides necessarily justifies the price of a full album, Relient K went a step further and recorded 13 new songs, discreetly included in this bundle as the Nashville Tennis EP. Since it's not really a new studio album, frontman Matthew Thiessen went ahead and relinquished some of the singing and songwriting duties to his band mates, resulting in sessions that aren't nearly as pristine or fleshedout as those of a de facto Relient K project, but that are still serviceable in the context of an inbetween nonalbum. Enjoyed as a whole, The Bird and the Bee Sides is an allaround nice gesture a more than generous gift to fans and an EP with one of the highest bangforbuck ratios in the history of modern rock. - Andree Farias, All Music Guide Read more Less