MxPx - MxPx

MxPx
MxPx
2018
Spotify

MxPx have been a band for 25 years, which for any band is a god damned miracle, let alone for a pop punk band. MxPx were always the band that your mom wasn't too upset for you to be into. They were vaguely christian, sometimes overtly, but they were still cool punk guys and would let the occasional curse word slip. There was an honesty and openess to their brand of pop punk that has allowed them to hang around. However let's be quite frank, music has moved on from MxPx a long time ago. It puts them in an interesting position, do they try and chase what's hip? Try to re-live the past? What should they do? Well, I think they've actually nailed it with this new self titled record, their 10th. Going to Kickstarter and looking for $50,000.00 from fans to record the thing on their own the band ended up raising almost $300k. People want MxPX to succeed clearly and this record does a great job of ticking all those boxes fans expect from MxPx. There are tracks that could be about someone's significant other, or about god, a line MxPx has always towed. There are plenty of banging drums, three chord riffs and woooahh oooo ooooo's which will delight die hard fans. The thing that could have sunk this album is if MxPx really were trying to reclaim the heights of their popularity, but instead they recognize their place in history and celebrate it.

Hearing that dirty picked precision bass on "20-20 Hindsight" is classically pop punk it feels like a transportation device. There is a bit of disconnect on Pipe Dreams" where nothing sounds more out of touch than people fumbling through the issues of the day. A lot of the songs sound the same, the lyrical content is pretty weak and the band run out of ideas pretty early on, but it's not off putting or too much. This thirty minute record gives you just enough to not get totally sick of MxPx and allow you to revel in the nostalgia for a bit. The excitement is still there and for guys this far into their career to still be excited about this music is something to behold. I doubt this album is going to bring in any new fans, but it also isn't going to disappoint those who have hung around this long. Keep your expectations low and MxPx might just exceed them, and that ain't to bad at all.

5.0 out of 10