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Just in time for a fall co-headlining tour with Switchfoot, Relient K is back with another rousing album, their ninth, entitled Air For Free (buy). Matt Thiessen and company have built a passionate fan base on their ability to combine the vibrant and vulnerable into one cohesive package. Air For Free takes this platform and expands it musically and thematically. “Bummin’” sounds like a summer anthem but its lyrical focus is Thiessen’s own brokenness: “Save me from my vices … Try to hide as I might/I can’t get it right.” “Local Construction” builds perfectly atop the astute line, “Fix the car, fix the house/Fix the flaws in myself/It’s never done … like local construction, it’s never done.” Other highlights include “Man,” “God,” “Heartache” and the title track, but the entirety of Air For Free is an impressive, mature turn from a veteran band whose has forged one of this year’s finest.
I believe the Bummin’ lyric is “try hard as I might/I can’t quite get it right”; but anyway I absolutely adore this album! Might be my favorite album of this year so far, and possibly in the running for my favorite RK album–and I’ve loved them all!