The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek

The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek
Studio album by Relient K
Released	August 28, 2001
Recorded	Yellow Studios
Genre	Christian pop punk, Christian rock, pop punk
Length	55:01
Label	Gotee
Producer	Mark Lee Townsend
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Jesus Freak Hideout link Cross Rhythms link
Relient K chronology
The Creepy EP (2001) The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek (2001) Employee of the Month EP (2002)
Alternative cover
The Gold Edition of the album, with the special gold slip cover

The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek (often shortened to Anatomy by fans) is the second full-length album released by the Christian rock band Relient K. It was released on August 28, 2001, and peaked at #158 on the Billboard 200. On June 26, 2006, the album was certified Gold by the RIAA for sales in excess of 500,000 units in the United States. The cover of the original release is similar to that of the 1999 Ramones release Hey Ho! Let's Go: The Anthology.

The album continues the band's liberal use of pop culture references.^[1] Song themes range from pop culture to Christian themes—growth in faith ("Pressing On"), backsliding ("What Have You Been Doing Lately?"), worship ("Those Words Are Not Enough," "For the Moments I Feel Faint," and "Less Is More")^[1]—and social themes—such as racism and persecution ("Failure to Excommunicate"), judgementalism ("Down in Flames")—to making excuses or blaming others for one's own faults ("Maybe It's Maybeline").^[1]

Gotee Records released a "Gold Edition" of this album on October 31, 2006 along with the release of a "Gold Edition" of Two Lefts Don't Make a Right...but Three Do on the same day. The Gold Edition of this album has remixed and remastered sound so that it is on par with that of Mmhmm, and it has a music video for the song "Pressing On". The team that remixed it is the same team that worked on Mmhmm.

Track listing

All songs written by Matt Thiessen; except "Those Words Are Not Enough", written by Matt Hoopes. Track times shown are for original release and vary slightly on the gold re-release.

1. "Kick-Off" – 0:39
2. "Pressing On" – 3:29
3. "Sadie Hawkins Dance" – 3:07
4. "Down in Flames" – 4:07
5. "Maybe It's Maybeline" – 3:14
6. "Breakdown" – 3:45
7. "Those Words Are Not Enough" – 4:39
8. "For the Moments I Feel Faint" – 3:47
9. "Lion Wilson" - 0:36
10. "I'm Lion-O" – 2:55
11. "What Have You Been Doing Lately?" – 3:23
12. "May The Horse Be with You" – 2:17
13. "My Way or the Highway...." – 3:47
14. "Breakfast at Timpani's" – 0:22
15. "The Rest Is Up to You" – 4:04
16. "Failure to Excommunicate" – 3:35
17. "Less Is More" – 7:17 (7:01 on gold release)

Credits

Band

• Matt Thiessen – lead vocals, guitar, piano
• Matt Hoopes – guitar, backing vocals
• Brian Pittman – bass
• Dave Douglas – drums, backing vocals

Additional personnel

• Madalena Burle Marx – cello
• Ann Smith – viola
• Heather Walker – violin
• Cory Smith – violin
• Crystal Brezovsky – french horn
• Kevan Peden – additional vocals
• Scott Cannon – additional vocals
• Kyle Hudson – additional vocals
• Rob Roy Fingerhead – slide guitar

References to popular culture

• The last line of "Pressing On" is from The Mary Tyler Moore Show theme.^[1]
• "Maybe It's Maybeline" (deliberately misspelled, much like the band's name) refers to the popular Maybelline line of beauty products and its tag line.^[1]
• The title of "Lion Wilson" is a play on Brian Wilson. "Lion Wilson" is the first of many Relient K songs to draw heavily from the style of Wilson and his band The Beach Boys, both of which Relient K lead singer Matthew Thiessen often references as major influences on his music.
• "May the Horse Be with You" makes references to Mister Ed and Star Wars.
• "Breakfast at Timpani's" is a play on Breakfast at Tiffany's.
• "I'm Lion-O" refers to the main character of the popular 1980s cartoon, ThunderCats.
• The song title "Failure To Excommunicate" is possibly a reference to the famous line from the film Cool Hand Luke, "What we've got here is a failure to communicate."
• "Those Words Are Not Enough" is a reference to the 007 film The World Is Not Enough.

Notes and trivia

• The hidden track after "Less Is More" is entitled "Skittles and Combos." The band used to encourage fans to bring Skittles and Combos to shows. While they no longer encourage it, fans still do, and often throw packages to the band. In addition, small packages of each are sometimes placed on the stage by the crew prior to performances. Thiessen also later on admitted that he despised Skittles and had no idea what Combos were.
• "Skittles and Combos" isn't on the gold re-release. A different hidden track is at the end of "Less is More" called "The Ballad of Tim Eddings". Tim Eddings was originally the manager for Relient K, and also was a producer for Ace Troubleshooter, the old band of current Relient K bassist John Warne.
• The only original Relient K song that Matt Thiessen did not write (prior to the four other member-written songs on The Bird and the Bee Sides), "Those Words Are Not Enough", is on this album. Matt Hoopes wrote the song.
• Both verses of the song "Failure to Excommunicate" are sung by drummer Dave Douglas, with Matt Thiessen joining in on the first and second verses.
• The album contains re-recorded versions of songs from their 1998 demo All Work and No Play. These songs include the ThunderCats-themed "I'm Lion-O" and "For the Moments I Feel Faint", which is a slower, acoustic recording of the song "C.U.R.B.".
• The music video for this album is "Pressing On", but the original song chosen for a video was actually "Sadie Hawkins Dance".^{[citation needed]} In the end, they went with "Pressing On", as they didn't have the budget to do what they wanted for "Sadie Hawkins Dance". Matt Thiessen once said this on the band's forum. One plan for the "Sadie Hawkins Dance" video actually included Gary Coleman. [1]
• The resulting video for "Pressing On" shows the band making their way into a building amidst a crowd of fans. Upon arrival, they are greeted by a producer waiting to film a music video with them. When one member asks the director if he can have a drink, he is told that there is no budget for that — a parody derived from the above trivia item.
• The song "Sadie Hawkins Dance" once appeared in an episode of the show Smallville.
• A tentative track listing for this album originally included the song "Operation", which was eventually used as an exclusive song for The Creepy EP instead.
• The song "I'm Lion-O" has similar chords in the beginning as the song "For The Band" on the Employee of the Month EP.

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References