MXPX: Let’s Rock

MXPX titles its new CD simply Let’s Rock. But a rocking MXPX is nothing new. After all, this Washington band was pop-punk back before pop-punk was cool. “Last Train” and “Sweet Sweet Thing”, two acoustic tracks, contradict the table of contents. Furthermore, “Don’t Forget Me (When You’re Gone)” is nothing more than a big rock ballad, albeit amplified. Whenever vocalist Mike Herrera gets all soft over unplugged guitars, MXPX sounds like Green Day’s little brother. Lyrically, Herrera is much better at singing his own life, as on “You Walk, I Run”, than getting political, exemplified by a global little number called “1 and 3”. He should leave new world disorder commentary to Billie Joe Armstrong. But when he shouts “Affluenza, affluenza” to protest First World materialism, he absolutely rocks.