keeping it real | collapsible lung

As all of you know, I am a major Relient K fan.  Major.  The Matts and the Johns can do know wrong in my eyes.

Or so I thought.

After a whopping four-year wait for their new album, I was expecting perfection.  I mean, let's be real.  After songs like "This Is The End (If You Want It)," my standards were set pretty high.  For those of you who don't know, the song makes allusions to Narnia and somehow works even though it's about a breakup.  Genius, I know.  Seven albums and I had remained completely smitten with these alternative rockers.  But when I began listening to Collapsible Lung, I nearly collapsed.

I was sitting at my computer listening to the exclusive preview on Pandora, and the words coming through my headphones were not what I'd been hoping to hear.  Words like bar and sexy and stuff you'd hear on the top 10 radio hits.  This could not be my Relient K.  They would never do this.  All I could think was "Not my band.  Not my boys..."

That's when I realized something -- something that I had never concluded before this album.

They aren't perfect.

See, I would've never said that I thought they were perfect.  If you asked me, I would've been like, "Well of course not.  That's what makes their music so good.  It's real."

That's the thing -- this album is real.  This is what Matt Thiessen has lived the past four years.  So he made some mistakes.  We all do.  He could've written with wit and charisma and stolen our hearts once again.  He could've swept it all under the rug like it never happened.  I mean, don't you think it was hard for him to release this album after songs like "What've You Been Doing Lately" and "Down in Flames"?  Don't you think he was worried about being labeled a hypocrite or a fake?  I know I would be if I were him.

Instead, though, he chose to be honest with us.  And it takes a man of true integrity to do that.  Matt, I just want you to know that it's okay.  That we all screw up because guess what?  We're not Jesus.  And no matter how hard we strive to be like Him, we're gonna fall short.  The good part?  He always picks you back up.  I know because a guy told me so.  He's a pretty amazing fella.

"When I go down,
I lift my eyes to You.
I won't look very far,
'Cause You'll be there
With open arms.
To lift me up again,
To lift me up again."