I feel like there has never been an album that has gotten me through hard time like Mmhmm by Relient K. Mmhmm is an album all about getting out of hard times. I remember when it came out, I was in high school, and my best friend Markus English snuck out of school to go pick up our copies because we could not wait to hear it. We had both grown up listening to Relient K and could not wait to see what this fourth album offered, little did I know the impact it would have on me. 

Mmhmm was full of things that I needed to hear. Songs about heartache and being over run by life and the troubles in it seemed to just hit home with me. As I listened to it the first time I found myself relating to every song. “The One I’m Waiting For” and “Which To Bury, Us Or The Hatchet” gave me my fix of girl trouble songs, while tracks like “Let It All Out” and ” I So Hate Consequences” helped polish what I believed and what this life was all about. The album seemed to give a young man everything he needed to get through this life. 

I have revisited this record through out the years since first hearing it in high school, and though my situations have changed and become more complex, I realize that the solution doesn’t change.  

As I listened to this record today I was reminded of the over all theme: hopelessness in situations, but hope in The Love that pulls us through hopeless situations. A lot of times situations seem bigger than us, that is because they are. Thankfully, “The beauty of Grace is that it makes life not fair.” 

Here are a few jams that I am into at the start of this summer. 

1) The Diamond Church Street Choir - The Gaslight Anthem

2) Savannah - Relient K

3) I’m Beamin’ - Lupe Fiasco

4) Upstart- Queens Club

5) Born To Run- Bruce Springsteen

6) Enough To Let Me Go- Switchfoot

7) Summer Angel- Minus The Bear

8) Infinite Arms- Band Of Horses

9) Young Forever (feat. Mr. Hudson) - Jay Z

10) Your Hand In Mine (Goodbye)- Explosions in the Sky