Let’s get! Emotional girls to all wear mood rings!
If you came of age as a Christian in a certain era of the CCM diaspora, you’re probably familiar with Relient K’s petty anthem about flighty dames and all their drama. “We all know the girls that I am talking about,” frontman Matt Thiessen crooned in 2003. “They are time bombs and they are ticking and the only question is when they’ll blow up.”
Yeah, well. OK. It was a bonafide hit at the time when Relient K was a fast-rising power pop act that helped prove not all Christian rock was bad. In fact, at this point, the band was already making a case for themselves as a real standout in the pop punk scene, with irresistible melodies and a sly, self-effacing sense of humor. A lot of their music has aged beautifully. “Mood Rings” has not. And now, the band is acknowledging it.
“We officially apologize,” the band wrote on TikTok. “We had a lot of growing and learning to do, still do!”
That came from Relient K’s official TikTok account as a comment on a video by Kirby McKenzie. She took to TikTok to point out some of the song’s cringiest lyrics (“she’s so pretty but she doesn’t always act that way”).
@kirbymacks If you are a man who went to youth group in the early 2000s plz start therapy. #therapy #exvangelical #youthgroupcheck #menneedhelp
“Therapy isn’t enough,” she wrote. “I need Christian punk band Relient K to apologize for this song from 2003.” And sure enough, the band delivered. In fact, they posted that they’re “on TikTok because of this haha.”
That apology was met by a pretty rapt response from the TikTok community.
“I’ve left the church but I stand by Relient K,” wrote one.
“Oooh the growth,” wrote another. “We love to see it.”
Truth be told, the post-hardcore scene (like third wave emo and pop punk) in the early ’00s was not good for women, either within the Christian part of that scene or outside of it. A huge reckoning was forced in 2017 when post-hardcore icon and Brand New frontman Jesse Lacey admitted to allegations of preying on younger fans. Even in 2003, women were noting how few of them were safe in such spaces.
Obviously, nothing Relient K did rises to the levels of the very serious allegations made against some of their contemporaries at the time. But it is worth noting that they were part of broader issue that transcends their particular subculture. And it’s extra worth noting that unlike many of those other bands, they’re owning up to some of their past blindspots and apologizing. Sounds like who they are hates who they’ve been.
