Is for Karaoke (also known as Relient K Is for Karaoke) is a 2011 cover album by American rock band Relient K. The first seven songs were released on June 28, as Is for Karaoke EP, and on October 4, the remaining songs were released as Is for Karaoke Pt. 2 EP, concurrently with the full-length album.[1]
The group began posting pictures on their Facebook to reveal tracks from a forthcoming covers EP.[2] On June 14, 2011, Alternative Press reported the EP would be called Is for Karaoke and displayed the album artwork.[2] The first part, Is for Karaoke EP, was made available for download on June 28.[3] According to guitarist Matt Hoopes, the group always wanted to do a cover album, as they've performed cover songs in their concerts in the past. The seven track EP sees the band covering a wide variety of music ranging from the '80s such as "Girls Just Want To Have Fun", "Surf Wax America" and "Crazy", to the 2010s such as "Baby", which Hoopes said was intentional.[3] Drummer Ethan Luck said the reasoning behind the group's decision to record a cover of "Baby" by Justin Bieber was because Hoopes has a daughter and it was her favorite song, which she wanted them to record.[4]
In September 2011, the band announced a full-length release for Is for Karaoke.[5] Expanded to 14 tracks, the full-length release sees the group covering songs from bands such as Third Eye Blind and Toto.[6] On October 1, the band streamed Is for Karaoke EP, Part 2 on their MySpace page.[7] On October 4, the second EP was officially released, along with the full-length album, Is for Karaoke, which features all the tracks from both EPs.[8]
The album was met with positive reviews from music critics. Matt Collar of AllMusic said the album was "melodic, eminently listenable recordings that make the most of the original song while never losing Relient K's own punk-pop sound."[11] Graeme Crawford of Cross Rhythms stated, "the vocals on K Is for Karaoke's eclectic mix of songs are well handled by Matthew Thiessen, even if listeners may struggle with some of the song selections."[12] Kaj Roth of Melodic wrote, "Some songs work out fine on K Is for Karaoke like 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun' (Cyndi Lauper), 'Baby' (Justin Bieber), 'You're the Inspiration' (Chicago), 'Crazy' (Gnarls Barkley), 'Here Comes My Girl' (Tom Petty) and 'Africa' (Toto) but their versions of 'The Distance' (Cake), 'Interstate Love Song' (Stone Temple Pilots), 'Doctor Worm' (They Might be Giants) and 'Inside of Love' (Nada Surf) are more or less quite anonymous and grey."[14]
In his initial review for Is for Karaoke EP, Josh Taylor of Jesus Freak Hideout described it as "hit and miss, but its hits are much greater than its misses, which are slight and mostly excusable."[15] However, after listening to the full-length version, he remarked, "As far as cover albums go, this one is about as good as they are going to come [...] The latter half just released is stronger than the first half, but the first half still has its gems. All together, these are fourteen tracks no Relient K fan should be without, and even if you never really hopped on the RK train- it's still a lot of fun."[13] Mitch Emerick of Indie Vision Music noted, "Relient K did not stray to far from the originals but these songs are done with great precision and show off the skills of the band musically and vocally."[16]
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