What we have here is MxPx having fun. Forget having to put something out that a major label will like, or that the local commercial radio station will dig. MxPx has decided to release an album where they just have fun.
The opening track to this EP, "Lonesome Town" sounds like something much like we would have expected to find on "The Ever Passing Moment", or "Slowly Going". A very poppy upbeat song in more recent MxPx style. On the next track, "Letting Go" the band takes us back a few albums with hyper-beat drumming, and musical stops. "Party II" is another more pop oriented song with a bit of gang vocals thrown in for good measure, "All my favorite movies, have the greatest parties like the Cable Guy, Say Anything, Some Kind of Wonderful and Grease".
"Time Will Tell", "Talk of the Town" and "Yuri Wakes Up Screaming" are probably the only song that sounds like they could have been on "Pokinatcha", the bands first release. After hearing what the band had to say about "The Renaissance EP", I was expecting more of the songs to sound like these three. On "The Opposite" the band features a short keyboard intro and then quickly moves into a song very much like what you would expect from MxPx at this point in their career.
Overall a solid release from MxPx. Not exactly what I was expecting, in that this was supposed to be "what MxPx would sound like when they first started if they were as musically mature as they are now". But none the less it's still a cool EP that I'm sure most MxPx fans will want to pick up.
B-
Other coverage for this album
Decapolis 2001Reviewed by ChrisThis EP was hyped both for its affiliation with NOFX's record label and because it's touted as MxPx getting back to their older sound. Mad props to Fat Wreck Chords for working with a band associated with the "Christian" music industry. For those of you who were looking forward to the old aggro MxPx, welcome to Disappointment Island. A whopping two out of the nine songs are anything like that…Decapolis 2001Reviewed by Travis PersaudYet another album from MxPx takes the form of a nine song EP, which has had fans young and old waiting in anticipation for its official release. Throughout the years, MxPx's style has slowly changed and evolved from album to album, as their musical preferences have changed, as well as them changing as musicians and people. This slow evolution of their style has gained them a vast array of…Similar sounding releases
1998Ghoti HookSongs We Didn't Write
2002Ten Foot PoleBad Mother Trucker
2001The UndecidedMore to See
2000Too Bad EugeneAt Any Rate
2004NOFXThe Greatest Songs Ever Written (By Us)
2004El CentroProhibidoMore from MxPx
2002Ten Years and Running
1996Move To Bremerton
1995On The Cover
1999At the Show
1995Teenage Politics
2005Panic
