MXPX – The Reasissance EP
Fat Wreck Chords
May 22, 2001

What It Sounds Like:  Eighteen minutes of straightforward punk rock, with obvious bits of pop thrown in.

The Reasissance EP marks an interesting point in the history of MXPX.  It was released between 2000’s The Ever Passing Moment and 2003’s Before Everything And After.  The former mostly stayed with the band’s roots – speedy, fast tracks aimed at girls, high school days, and the unrelenting pressing topics that deal in growing up, though we certainly did start to see more of a pop-rock influence start to creep its way in.  By the time we got to the latter, MXPX had entered into pop-rock-punk territory.  Speed was traded in for big choruses and hooks, which caused them to gain some fans, lose some fans, and thankfully – some of the die-hards stuck with ’em along the way through the change in style.

Personally, I feel as though MXPX knew after 2000 that their next full length release was going to be different, so they wanted to record this EP as one last hurrah for their glory days of straight punk rock.  It doesn’t seem overly necessary, to be honest.  None of the tracks here really rival much on their previous releases – you could have called this an EP of b-sides, and no one really would have been the wiser.  Party II (Time to Go) is fun, but the lyrics are a little tired, even for MXPX.  Letting Go sounds like a million other of their songs.  When they decide to have a little fun on tracks like Yuri Wakes Up Screaming, it’s a welcome addition.

Overall, there’s nothing really here to make this EP stand out.  It’s not necessarily “bad”, but there’s just nothing great about it.  With such a vast catalog of recordings, you’d be better served elsewhere.

4/10

If you had to listen to two tracks:  The Opposite / Yuri Wakes Up Screaming