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Mxpx

Punk Rawk Christmas

Written by: PP on 13/12/2009 00:09:22

And as 2009 is drawing to close, the most hyperactive band of the year prize must surely go to Mxpx. What other band has launched their own imprint label, released a punk rock covers album of pop songs ("On the Cover II"), toured relentlessly, put out one of the best EPs this year ("Left Coast Punk"), and as we've entered December, topped things off with a Christmas-themed full length "Punk Rawk Christmas", the album under scrutiny here? Most people wouldn't immediately associate Mxpx for a Christian band, but they've always been rather subtle about it, until the bomb's dropped with this one. A fourteen track compilation of songs about Christmas including ingeniously titled songs like "Christmas Day", "Christmas Party", "Christmas Only Comes Once A Year", "So This Is Christmas?", "It's Christmas And I'm Sick" and many other creative titles.

Jokes aside, the record is actually a chronologically ordered compilation of each annual Christmas track the band has written since 1998. That means a die hard Mxpx fan will have the vast majority of tracks on the record, except for the title track and the Dropkick Murphys-sounding "Auld Lang Syne (Traditional)" which have been recorded in 2009. But that's no problem really, because "Punk Rawk Christmas" offers the same standard of skate punk/pop punk hybrid sound that Mxpx have been crafting since 1994, so there's no reason you should miss out on this one. That the songs are about Christmas is an added bonus this time of the year, because next time your parents insist on playing boring Xmas music during the Christmas dinner, you can go "no problem mom" and pop on "Punk Rawk Christmas" for some fast paced pop punk fun and games.

The early songs from around the change of millennium are more about the raw melody and speed, but the closer we get to the end of the album and recent years, the more polished and poppy things get. Each era has its own fanbase, but the band's ability to write high quality output regardless of how 'punk' the songs sound does not go unnoticed by this scribe. It's mysterious why Mxpx aren't more acclaimed considering their discography is almost completely devoid of non-killer tracks. That said, don't expect "Punk Rawk Christmas" to pop on your playlist outside the November-December period of each year, because no-one honestly listens to Christmas songs in July.

Download: Christmas Party, So This Is Christmas?, Christmas Dy
For the fans of: Christmas songs with a pop punk flavor
Listen: Myspace

Release date 01.12.2009
Rock City Recording Company