The Bird And The Bee Sides

Relient K's newest venture, "The Bird and The Bee Sides" is a collection of new songs and of previously unreleased demos and acoustic tracks.
In this album, the band has reached new heights and audiences with a new ambiance.
In Relient K's other extremely popular efforts, such as their self titled debut released in 2000 and "The Anatomy of Tongue in Cheek" released in 2001 As well as "Two Lefts Don't Make a Right, But Three Do" released in 2003, the band reached teens and young adults with their Pop-Punk style. In their lyrics they discussed girls ("Sadie Hawkins Dance" The Anatomy of Tongue in Cheek), God ("Getting In to You" Two Lefts Don't Make a Right...), and just plain silly things like what it was like to grow up in the 1980's ("In Love with the 80's, Pink Tux To The Prom" Two Lefts Don't Make a Right...).
When the album "Mmhmm" was released in 2004, a new side of Relient K's musical and lyrical ability was unveiled. The Pop-punk style they had become so famous for still showed up on tracks like "High of 75" and "My Girls Ex-Boyfriend" but something had definitely changed. As I listened to songs like "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been" and "Life after Death and Taxes" I realized that like their fans, the band was growing up. Instead of juvenile lyrics about life, they surprised their listeners with wise insights about life's trials and triumphs.
This album was their bridge; the bridge to a new style. This was the first incline that they were maturing and their music style was right behind them.
In their two newest albums "Five Score and Seven Years Ago" released in 2005, and their newest album released in July of this year, "The Bird and The Bee Sides", Relient K showcases their new mature outlook.
True, they still hold on to a bit of their little boy charm on tracks like "Bee Your Man" and "Beaming", but their lyrics are much more insightful and inspiring.
As I listen to this album, I see the true spirits and styles of Relient K's members individually and am completely impressed.
As a fan of Relient K for 6 years, and having seen many of their live shows, I am so impressed and excited about this new venture. As I listen to their newest work over and over, and as the lyrics become clearer and clearer, it's like everything I've ever felt but couldn't put into words.
Their lyrics are thought out and structured; and most of all, endearing.
It's as if the band knows exactly what their fans want.
And I, as a fan, am sold.

I got this cd when it had been out for 2 days. I have heard all the songs on this cd, It's not really like Relient K, but it's good enough to buy. Some of the songs are good and some are not. It does have a lot of old stuff and new stuff. Overall you might want to buy this cd.

Another great relient K cd, they are completely incredible, this cd shows why they are one of the most popular bands out there, I would HIGHLY recommend it and also seeing them in concert, you will certainly not be disappointed

I didn't really like 5 Score, and after its release I felt that I may have outgrown RK after our 8 years together in a hardcore fan/band relationship. But The Bird and the Bee Sides was a pleasant surprise. It is a huge amount of music for the price, the majority of the new tracks are really good, and the remastered versions of the vinyl songs are finally at a quality that I can enjoy. Granted, some of the tracks are a bit of a waste of cd space (Bee Your Man) and there is no real flow or consistency within the work as a whole...but it's just an ep...it doesn't have to be a cohesive masterpiece.

All in all: this ep is a lot of fun, creative music for a good price.

My wife and I already owned 3 Relient K CD's-MmmHmm, Five Score and 7 Years Ago, and the Apathetic EP. This latest release seemed a bit strange to me at first glance but I really enjoy their quirky lyrics and musical sound so I decided to listen to the 30 second clips available here and, after the price went down to less than $10, I decided that even though many of the songs are quite short(there might be a few over 3 minutes) 26 songs(13 remixes, etc.) for less than $10 was just too good of a deal to pass up. And as I did not have any of Relient K's earlier CD's, the remixes were mostly all new songs to me. After listening to the entire songs, I would still definetely recommend this to any Relient K fan-even if you have the original songs that are remixed here-you could just download the all new songs but it would probably be cheaper to just download or buy the entire album rather than half of it.