MxPx

Item: Before Everything & After
Author: Kevin D. Hendricks

Before Everything & After

(2003)

Reviewed by Kevin D. Hendricks

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Label A&M RecordsReAL Magazine2003

pop punk power pop punk skate punk

Fans have been waiting for three years, and MxPx is finally delivering with Before Everything and After, marking ten years in the fist-pumping business with a rowdy release full of stuck-in-your-head, sing-along songs.

"Play it Loud" opens the album (let's just ignore the irritating "Before" and "After" mix-cuts that bookend Before Everything and After) with catchy guitar hooks, a loud-proud stadium sound, and a theme reminiscent of "Punk Rock Show," emphasizing rock and individuality ("Hold fast to your friends / Be true to yourself / And stop trying to be just like somebody else"). The echoing keyboards in the background are a nice touch, and this is hands down the best track.

"Well Adjusted" follows with another impressive guitar hook, though the initial hook is better than the rest of the song. If you've seen the Diet Pepsi SuperBowl ad, you've heard the best part of the song.

From there the album slips into an onslaught infectious, pop-punk numbers that overwhelmingly cover romance themes. Most of these songs are fun, they're just hard to distinguish. Too many of them follow a predictable formula: catchy chorus followed by an over-emphasized guitar line.

Musical diversity does come through with the acoustic-inspired "Quit Your Life" and "Kings of Hollywood," which is constantly compared to the Beach Boys. Both songs are a nice break stylistically, but they're not necessarily successful. "Kings of Hollywood" has a potentially irritating guitar hook and "Quit Your Life" would have been better without the orchestral production. But some of MxPx's experimentation does work. "Don't Walk Away" builds on airy keyboards that should be corn-ball for punk, but it adds the perfect element.

"The Capitol" and "You Make Me, Me" bring some of the most spiritual writing MxPx has offered in a while. "The Capitol" is a hard-charging song of commitment, though for once the theme is spiritual, not romantic ("Those that seek will surely find / Those that don't are surely blind"). The thoroughly Christian romance anthem "You Make Me, Me" is a fast-paced mix of godly gratitude and puppy-love infatuation.

Before Everything and After is polished yet still hard-driving punk rock with plenty of infectious hooks that, unfortunately, covers little thematic ground.