“Don’t Blink” by Relient K, Wednesday, April 3, 2024 (reworked repost)
In 2004, Relient K had two breakthrough hits: “Be My Escape” and “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been.” The band attempted on the albums that proceeded Mmhmm with songs that could work on both Christian and pop radio, to limited success. While Relient K’s music was often love songs rather than Christian songs, the breakup album, 2009’s Forget and Not Slow Down, marked a shift in the band’s overt Christian themes and started talking about adult relationships. The band followed up their sixth studio album with two covers EPs combined to form the album Is for Karaoke. The album features pop and rock covers in a pop-punk style. The band finally released their seventh studio album, Collapsible Lung, in 2013.
I PLAN TO TAKE THE RIGHTEOUS PATH. Rather than working with Mark Lee Townsend, who has producer credits on every Relient K album except for Collapsible Lung, the band worked with Nashville-based producer Paul Moak and Nashville transplant Aaron Sprinkle. The album is bookended by “Don’t Blink” and “Collapsible Lung,” the only songs written solely by lead singer Matthew Thiessen and guitarist Matthew Hoopes. Other tracks on the album were co-written with friends of the band pop songwriters. Lyrically, the tone of the album sounds much more secular than previous Relient K albums. The album seemed to be mostly geared toward the general market, though it failed to send one of the radio-ready songs to the charts. The bookends of the album sound like a Relient K album, but the center feels like what happens when a band tours with lighter pop-rock bands like Hellogoodbye.
DON'T BLINK OR IT'S GONE. “Don’t Blink” opens up the “Prodigal” album where Forget and Not Slow Down leaves the listeners. Forget and Not Slow Down ends with Matt Thiessen’s mixed feelings about a breakup. Guitarist Matt Hoopes wrote “Don’t Blink,” inspired by nostalgic ‘90s rock. The lyrics reflect on his life and growing up. Like FANSL, “Don’t Blink” could be seen as a breakup song, though there is a bright hope in the lyrics. The song can come across as self-righteous when the speaker says he “plan[s] to take the righteous path,” particularly in light of the somewhat hedonistic lyrics in the album’s center, such as in tracks like “P.T.L.” and “If I Could Take You Home.” But “Don’t Blink” feels like it comes from an experience of a real person, whereas the center tracks in the album feel like they happened to a caricature or even to someone in a sermon illustration. Relient K is part of a certain youth group culture, but just as youth group kids grow up, the band grows up too. While the band’s 2016 album Air for Free would return to in-band songwriting and topics of faith and more Christian-sounding romances, albums like Collapsible Lung are puzzling. While it doesn’t seem like the band meant for it to be a Prodigal’s son story, the band’s failure to crossover brought them back into the Christian music industry.
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