It has always been one of the favorite choices of critics to use against Relient K: Their music is too "silly." They eliminated a great deal of this supposed silliness on Mmhmm, but then the criticism became that the band was not "Christian" enough, choosing instead to focus a lot more on "less spiritual" relationships than the one they had with Jesus.
The thing is, the criticism has never been well-founded. The band has always incorporated aspects of their Christianity into their music. And fans need not worry about that changing on Five Score And Seven Years Ago. Some of the disc's top tracks focus on the spiritual realm, including Give Until There's Nothing Left and Deathbed.
The quality of the entire effort continues to get better each time with these guys. They can do the upbeat rocking tracks (I Need You, Devastation And Reform), they can do pop radio and actually make it sound good (Must Have Done Something Right); they can even do a little bit of country (Faking My Own Suicide definitely has a strong bit of twang to it). But what stays consistent throughout every song is the talent both in the musical efforts and in the vocals and writing. These guys are truly creating great discs every time they step into the studio.
The continued bent toward more piano-driven music continues to show on this disc, and it works incredibly well. Forgiven is driven by the piano, yet it is an incredible rock song with a great message behind it. It is easily one of the best singles the band has ever produced. Tracks like The Best Thing also find their pace due in part ot the piano, and it seems to work pretty well.
There's no single song that can be pinpointed as "the worst" on the disc, because they are all right there with each other, even as they change musical styles, tempos and topics. But one song that certainly has to get mentioned more than once is the disc's final track, Deathbed. There is a lot of hype surrounding this track, due in large part to the fact that it is over 11 minutes long. Many critics have simply referred to this song as "an epic," and it is an absolutely perfect description. The eleven minutes spent listening to this track are entirely worth, as this song is nothing short of epic. In fact, it is one of the fastest 11 minute songs out there. Normally, bands with eleven minute tracks have a good four to five minutes of instrumental breakdown within. But, by the time the instrumental break hits, the song is already past the eight-minute mark. Throw in a cameo appearance by Switchfoot's Jon Foreman in the last minute, and the song is a complete masterpiece.
Overall, Five Score And Seven Years Ago can be described exactly the same way. The fact that these guys likely have many discs left in them is simply astounding, because they have set an incredible benchmark with this disc. To do any better than this disc would be incredibly hard to do. This is Relient K's first masterpiece.