Artist: MxPx
Album: On The Cover II
Label: Tooth & Nail
Release Date: 3/24/2009
Reviewer: Tyler Hess
Tracklisting:
1. Punk Rock Girl
2. I Will Follow
3. Suburban Home
4. (I’m Gonna Be)
5. My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes To Bitburg)
6. Vacation
7. Heaven Is A Place On Earth
8. Kids In America
9. Fallen Angel
10. Should I Stay Or Should I Go
11. Linda Linda (English)
12. Somebody To Love
Sometimes it takes me a half dozen times listening to an album before I can even begin to comprehend what is going on with what I’m hearing. This is not such a case. Like watching American Idol, listening to a covers album is pretty simple. Was it a good song choice? Does it fit the band? Do they make it their own? You just know. Listening to MxPx‘s second addition of cover songs is about the easiest thing I’ve ever had to do. I could listen to it a thousand times and my initial reaction is just going to stick. It is what it is.
Starting off with “Punk Rock Girl”, MxPx gets right to it with one of my favorites from the album with a song that is totally believeable as a Magnified Plaid original if you didn’t know any better. They stumble a little bit with the second track, “I will follow”, which just feels awkward, but “Suburban Home” brings them back to something that sounds like what we might have heard from them a decade or so ago. “I’m Gonna Be (500 miles) is a fun song, but I admittedly think they did it better live. “My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down” makes me wonder if this is really a covers album, until I hear a chorus and I remember that they don’t really write stuff like this. “Vacation” reminds me of the point of doing such an album in the first place, this is truly something just for fun, just enjoy it, over criticizing a covers album seems a bit silly. “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” is kind of ruined by the guest vocals, no thanks. “Fallen Angel” is good enough that even though I don’t know the song I have as much as fun as if I did anyway. How about “Should I stay or Should I Go”? Tom is on lead vocals! That’s just cool. Like I said, just have fun with this album. “Linda Linda” is a strange song choice, kind of like a lot of the junk that was on the first covers album that I’m not the biggest fan of. “Somebody To Love” has a lame guest intro, makes me wonder why they have so many male vocalist friends that sound like females, kind of a boring song to close with.
Summary: Overall, there are a lot more hits than misses and is a great album for the newly brought in Spring, with Summer on the Horizon making this another one worth adding to the voluminous MxPx collection.
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