Review Summary: Any sort of music concerned with morality ends up coming across as preachy, artificial, or condescending. Unless it's Relient K, especially in their best album.
Two Lefts Don't Make a Right... But Three Do is by far the best album Relient K has recorded and -- based on the constant thickening of sound that has come with each release after this -- will likely remain so. Despite its simple execution and easy-to-hate genre, Two Lefts is a modern classic.
The band gracefully toes the line between silliness and knock-out poignancy. For all the wordplay and cuteness, the music is surprisingly eloquent and has a greater sense of morality and conscience than 99% of music released in the past decade. A lot of web-sites refer to the band as "Christian." This is true, but it puts an unnecessary stigma on the group and the album. Two Lefts isn't an attempt to convert anyone, like Jesus Freak or Going Public. The words "Jesus" and "God" and "church" aren't used in any of the lyrics. The album -- like the band --is Christ-like with its love and non-judgmental, proactive spirit.
Moments of the album pour on the tongue-in-cheek wordplay to an extent that you'd believe that this is all fun and games. Don't be fooled. Even the songs that discuss cell phones and pink tuxedos and mood rings are about something bigger. Just because this is light pop-rock doesn't mean it's stupid music. There are metaphors abound. Every song on the album, whether directly or through metaphor, is about something thoughtful and serious. That's part of the charm of this album: It tells stories and teaches lessons through tiny objects as much as sweeping gestures.
Musically, the album is taut and dynamic and bursting full of ideas. We hear the band playing with rhythm in new ways. They slow down and speed up more than ever before, to great effect. Thiessen and crew tinker with different timbres, too. Whether we're being hit with lightning-quick power chords, a gentle acoustic ballad, a pop sheen, a modern rock change-up to the vocals, or the jangly finale, Jefferson Aeroplane, this is the best RK would ever sound. Without sacrificing its immediacy, the band implements some quirks.
The songs themselves are diverse and great. The numbers bounce back and forth between the more direct songs (Forward Motion) to more playful tracks (In Love With The '80s). Most of the tracks stand out in some way. It's a rare album to listen to all the way through. Even the weaker songs -- e.g. Trademark -- have moments that shine.
The first five tracks are probably the most memorable, if not the best. Chapped Lips, Chapstick, and Things Like Chemistry is a bit odd but devilishly catchy and a great opening song that uses some pop culture references to great effect. Mood Rings is a corny idea, but Relient K really nails it. Listen to the song a few times, and you'll realize the song is more about emotional honesty than whiny girls.
In Love With the '80s (Pink Tux) ups the camp, but does so warmly. Even as it pumps out nostalgia -- homaging the pop production of some of the 1980's classics like "Take on Me" -- the song is even more about letting go of worry and living life boldly. College Kids and Hoopes I Did it Again (despite the latter's terrible pun for a title) avoid the cliche of romanticizing the high school and college years, and instead skewer their destructive social scenes.
Perhaps the best singing performance comes in I Am Understood? as lead singer Thiessen drops his snotty vocals for something grittier, and it makes me wish he would do it more often. He's even better in Getting Into You, the cornerstone of the album and a stone-cold killer of an acoustic ballad. It's not as purely melodic as something like Good Riddance or Wonderwall, but it's elegant and it works; plus, it summarizes the compassionate tone of the whole album.
Relient K here continues the tradition of ending its albums strongly. Gibberish is almost novelty but its message rings true. From End to End is on the other end of the spectrum: an attempt at a tour-de-force. Like Softer to Me and Less is More on previous albums, the band pulls it off pretty well.
Jefferson Aeroplane, the finale, is often forgotten but turns a simple pop culture reference into a genuinely thoughtful song. The last lyric is one of my favorites on the whole album:
"I'll go and hope the new me shows so everybody knows
that I've found myself able to fly away
Without magic feathers or Jefferson Aeroplanes
I've got with me all that i need"
Ultimately, the album's ability to transform little images into big ideas, to take the format of pop-punk but turn it into some of the most thoughtful pop music you'll hear, and to do so with a great collection of finely-crafted, creative songs pushes it close to Classic territory for me. It's so rare to find a great album genuinely concerned with morality. That Relient K takes this approach, downplays the focus on it, and isn't condescending or judgmental once through the album is impressive.
Any album can go for the epic and pretentious and dramatic. Thankfully, Relient K doesn't. Instead of swinging for the fences with every song -- mediocre-and-pretentious is an easier sell than great-and-simple -- Two Lefts revels in its restraint as pop music and ends up as a magnum opus of insightful, layered music.
Note: I've rewritten this review several times, and changed the rating number, so some of the comments might not make sense.
. You just generalized the genre 
