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MxPx - Panic

 

	RELEASED: June 7, 2005 PRODUCER:Stephen Egerton, Gavin MacKillop LABEL:Side One Dummy Records BAND: Mike Herrera Yuri Ruley Tom Wisniewski
+ Renewed energy, more diverse songwriting, fun and catchy - Few tracks fall flat	TRACKS: 1.The Darkest Places 2.Young and Depressed 3.Heard That Sound 4.Cold Streets 5.The Story 6.Wrecking Hotel Rooms 7.Late Again 8.Kicking and Screaming 9.Grey Skies Turn Blue 10.Emotional Anarchist 11.Call In Sick 12.Get Me Out 13.Waiting For the World to End 14.This Weekend

OVERVIEW

At the risk of my objectivity, I should mention that Mxpx is a band I’ve grown up with and loved since junior high.  Albums like “Life in General” and “Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo” were right up there with pop-punk classics like Blink-182’s “Dude Ranch”, The Offspring’s “Smash”, and Green Day’s “Dookie”, as far as I was concerned, and the band could really do no wrong…until they released a pair of second-rate dives into the pop end of the spectrum with “The Ever Passing Moment” and “Before Everything and After”.  I had all but given up on the boys from Bremerton until one day I happened to be cruising Purevolume and found the kick-off track to this album a month or two before it was released.

 …And the gods of punk rawk smiled upon Mxpx, and thankfully this album isn’t a further downward spiral into Good Charlotte territory.  In fact, it’s the exact opposite – Mxpx basically throw away the approach of their previous 2 records and re-inject a double shot of adrenaline and adolescent cockiness that made their older stuff as irresistible and fun as it was.  The songwriting still has a pop sensibility and is generally really catchy, but at the same time, it’s raucous, rambunctious, and even aggressive in places.  It warms an old punk fan’s heart, really.

SONGS

Panic blasts off with the track I mentioned above, “The Darkest Places”, and this track easily could’ve fit in on “Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo” and is fast, tight, and irresistible, much like the next two cuts “Young and Depressed” and “Heard That Sound”.  “Cold Streets” is one of those more aggressive songs I was talking about, with an unusually dark feel and lyrics for a band that made themselves with songs like “Chick Magnet”.  “The Story” is another rocker that’s been injected with whatever they’re feeding bands like The Deal and Hot Water Music, and both this one and “Cold Streets” are respectable simply because not only do they rock, but they show Mxpx diversifying their songwriting a bit.  “Wrecking Hotel Rooms” features a guest spot from Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 notoriety, but honestly, even that can’t save this abysmal track that sounds like a bad replica of the latest Simple Plan garbage.  Fortunately, “Late Again” kicks things right back into shape with a B3, a rockin’ Dixieland-on-speed riff, and a pretty darn good solo from Tom Wisniewski – this song is straight up irresistible in a Dropkick Murphys sort of way and is definitely one of my favorites.  “Kicking and Screaming” is a decent tune, and “Grey Skies Turn Blue” shows a more mature emotional side of Mxpx that works surprisingly well in a pop-punk context.  “Emotional Anarchist” is good, not great, but “Call in Sick” is a great teenage-love-puppy song that really comes across as a “Move to Bremerton, Part II”, and in my book that’s no bad thing.  The manic hardcore-punk-influenced “Get Me Out” almost comes as a shock after the previous few songs, but it takes the cake for this record’s best aggressive song.  “Waiting for the World to End” and “This Weekend” aren’t really the strongest cuts on this record, but they’re not bad by any means, although I would’ve liked to see another high-energy rocker close the album, a la “Delores” on “Teenage Politics”.

CONCLUSION

I was fearing the worst when I picked up this album, but Mxpx have really thrown together a more mature, diverse version of their classic recipe that almost makes me forget “The Ever Passing Moment” and “Before Everything and After”.  This record harkens back to days where pop-punk still had attitude and really has more in common with Green Day and Rancid than the current crop of pop-punk crap like Good Charlotte and Simple Plan.  If you’re an Mxpx fan at all, you owe it to yourself to pick this one up.  It just might redeem your opinion of the band too.

Review by Matt Rewinski

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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