MxPx – Before Everything and After I bought this CD last week @ a wal-mart somewhere in south carolina. since we were driving around, we got a real good chance to listen the entire album a couple of times. this CD is so catchy, and a natural evolution of MxPx from Slowly going the Way of the Buffalo and The Ever Passing Moment.

there aren’t any songs that have that Elvis Costello feel that the entire TEPM album does, but it is a slower, pop-emoish type of sound that really seems to suit the band. plus, it seems as Yuri, MxPx’s longtime drummer, is finally branching out and doing some new fills! i think we listened to “Don’t Walk Away” (the song in the background of this tour montage) 40 freaking times.

it’s absolutely beautiful. Mike, the lead singer, talks a little too much about his wife on the album, and uses the single worst line in music history at the beginning of the song “everything sucks when you’re gone”: ‘all i ever needed was to eat popcorn with you | c’mon over, watch the late show, stay up talking until two.’ i seriously almost vomit all over myself when i hear this song. i think we all almost vomited all over ourselves the first time we heard it. the first reaction was “what the fuck!

” if i do recall correctly. anywho, the song-writing could use some work at times. all in all, this cd is damn good.

is you like catchy pop-punk, and can put up with, what i would call ‘weak’ lyrics at times, you’re in for a treat. best 12 bucks i spent all week, and one of the better CD’s i’ve bought in the past 6 months (Thursday’s War All the Time takes that title). i’ve been a fan of MxPx since … the DAY Pokinatcha came out so many years ago, and this is my favorite of them all, already.