Bremerton, WA-based punk rock band MxPx has been going strong for over 25 years. Their quick, raw style of punk/pop-punk has stayed fairly consistent through the years, giving them a distinct, recognizable sound that fans have come to expect. With their tenth album, MxPx turned to crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, and received overwhelming support from fans. Judging by this success, MxPx’s self-titled tenth has been hotly anticipated. Here I’ll share my thoughts on the album and how I feel it stands up in 2018.

After the first listen, one thing is clear: this album sounds like MxPx that fans have come to love. The fast power chords are here, the punchy vocals from Mike Herrera are here, and the songs are just as fun and upbeat as ever before. While songs may start to blend together towards the end, each song individually is a fun experience with a rhythm that can get stuck in your head.

One of my favorite songs on the album is the third track, “Friday Tonight.” To me, it’s the catchiest song on the album and the punchy chorus really gets me pumped. Clocking in at about three and a half minutes, “Friday Tonight” is a bit longer than the typical song from MxPx. Usually, I would say that these kinds of punk songs should remain under three minutes, but somehow MxPx manages to craft this song in a way that I never got tired of it during its runtime. This speaks to the masterful songwriting and instrumentation of frontman Mike Herrera. While a few songs on this record do overstay their welcome a bit, it really is a small issue with this great album.

Towards the end of this album, I found some of the songs blending together and struggling to find their own identity. This is a common issue of punk/pop-punk albums and I’ve found that this is only a minor issue on this record. While listening to MxPx, I find myself getting lost in the music and just taking in all of the energy produced by the band and especially lead vocalist Mike Herrera.

The album closes with “Moments Like This,” another one of my favorite songs on this album. I mentioned that some songs towards the end struggle to find their own identity, this song is absolutely not one of those. The lyrics are the deepest on the record and obviously very personal to songwriter Mike Herrera. These personal lyrics really elevate the song and it acts as the perfect closer to this wonderful punk album.

MxPx do what they do best on their self-titled tenth album release. The songs are as catchy, fun, and upbeat as ever before. Some songs may be too long and may blend into each other slightly, overall this album is very good. After 25 years and ten albums, MxPx proves that they still got it with their self-titled release that has quickly become my favorite album of theirs and one of my favorite punk albums of all time.