The Bird and the Bee Sides begins with a baker s dozen of original new tunes collected under the moniker of The Nashville Tennis EP. With all five members writing and taking turns on lead vocals, it's perhaps Relient K's most diverse effort to date, including Thiessen's alt-country At Least We Made It This Far, bassist John Warne s The Last, The Lost, The Least, which is explosive both sonically and in its social commentary, and new drummer Ethan Luck s punk rock reggae No Reaction, to name but a few highlights. As for the Bee Sides Relient K remixed and re-mastered 13 tracks, including an acoustic version of hit single Who I Am Hates Who I ve Been . There are also tunes from The Vinyl Countdown, The Employee Of The Month EP, The Creepy EP, The Apathetic EP and, as Thiessen puts it, a ton of other stuff that you can t even find on the internet at least not yet.

Customer Rating:
Summary: More than just a good deal.
Comment: Relient K fans, do NOT pass this up just because it is an EP release. It is a good deal: twenty-six songs for nine dollars. But this is also a great release!

Remember the whimsical lyrics of "Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek" and "Two Lefts Don't Make a Right... But Three Do" for which you fell in love with them, and then imagine that combined with the excellently matured sound of their latest main release, "Five-Score and Seven Years Ago," and you're headed in the right direction. If you thought that "MmmHmm" was their greatest album ever then our tastes differ and therefore you might want to disregard this review. If, however, what I wrote above appeals to you, then I doubt you will regret this purchase. I even found one of those rare personal "greatest song ever" songs in "Curl Up and Die."

One caveat: the free acoustic version of the first track (Where Do I Go) is better than the one included on the CD in my opinion. Relient K used a web hunt of sorts to point you to the MP3s, but if you don't want to work for your free downloads then just search for "Relient K scavenger hunt" on [...] and you should be able to find someone who has already done the work for you.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: a whole lot for a whole little
Comment: so before i begin i will say that ive followed relient k since they first came to be and that i've always liked their music.
in this cd you do get a whole lot for a whole little.
26 tracks! for only 7.99 when i bought it. this cd a has a lot to offer. while there are a lot of tracks, however, many of these are very short and seem unplanned. it includes acuostic versions, (my favorite being be my escape) many songs that are new, and many songs that are on previous EP's that are very dificult to get a hold of. This cd is like a mash up of every time matt thiessen decided to record some thing and you will see evidence of this in songs like "A Penny Loafer Saved is A Penny Loafer Earned"
I would say that its a good buy for any relient k fan new or old. But dont expect to like the whole thing right away. You will have to get into it.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Awesome CD
Comment: This CD is awesome. It is not what I expected from Relient K because it's not filled with catchy songs that make you want to dance about. The songs are unexpectedly good because they are very organic and the lyrics are heart-felt. Plus you get twice the amount of songs as a normal Relient K CD.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Best One Yet
Comment: I can't ever imagine Relient K getting better than their latest CD and every time they come out with a new CD I am amazed that they have done it again. This CD is excellent and the alternate versions of previously heard songs are just as good. All Relient K fans, and even those who are not, need to go buy this CD today!

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: LOVE IT!
Comment: Not only are there many RK songs on here that are new, there are a few that are acoustic remakes of some of their more popular songs, including "Who I Am Hates Who I've Been". You gotta love that!

---