Perennial pop-punk powerhouse MXPX has been around the block enough times to know when to take a break. Indeed, after seven studio albums and enough singles to choke a jukebox, they're about due for a re-release and a weekend in D.C., or wherever it is punks go to relax.
Wouldn't you know it, MXPX has delivered with a bolstered version of their 1998 release Let It Happen. The revamp is the product of a reunion with the band's first record label, Tooth & Nail Records, which built its small Seattle-based punk empire on a series of then-unknowns, including The Juliana Theory and MXPX.
Unlike most reissues, Let It Happen: Deluxe Edition gets straight to what the audience is paying for, kicking off with three totally new songs. You'd barely peg them as additions if you didn't know the original CD because they fit in extremely well. If anything, the new tracks are three of the most polished on the whole album, which should blow your mind if you've ever spent time wading through the cast-off schlock that usually chokes up renewed reissues — Pavement, I'm looking at you.
"Role Remodeling" is exactly what an MXPX fan wants to hear: gritty guitars and an unabashed "Whoaoaoa" chorus. Lyrics are standard fare ("So let's roll/ With this role remodeling/ I refuse to pay/ I refuse to sing/ To this Role Remodeling"), but it's hard not to at least bob your head.
"Prozac" pulls pretty much the same trick ("Who needs Prozac when I've got you?"), pulling at your mosh-strings even if you know it's not verse to rival "I Am The Walrus" or "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald."
That's not the point anyway. The mid-1990s punk revival was mostly about white suburban kids with unchecked aggression and radio-friendly aspirations, and MXPX still stands as one of the best examples. It's a testament to the band that Let It Happen still retains the same vibrancy and energy that it had eight years ago, and you have to admit it's still listenable. The tracks get a fresh remaster and benefit from tweaks to the mix, coming across clearer and just plain cleaner sounding.
But the same complaint that gets levied at so many Green Day-era punkers still holds true for MXPX. The new tracks slide so cleanly into the old album because the band still sounds like it did back in the '90s — you could set a metronome and just let it ride out the whole album on one setting, and you probably wouldn't drop a beat. The songs tend to form one homogenous (although palatable) whole, and if you get sick of one song, you might as well be sick of the whole album. Not a good thing for a reissue that a fan has probably heard a thousand times before, no matter how many "original demos" you pack in there.
Still, Deluxe does lay on the goodies nice and thick, and the faithful will be treated to every single music video MXPX has ever recorded thanks to the accompanying DVD. Thanks to the DVD, listeners can enjoy the same crisp remaster piped at them through 5.1 Surround Sound, while Mike Herrera's lip piercings loom enormous on their 60-inch high-def TVs.
If you're a devoted MXPX fan who just needs everything, the videos alone justify foregoing the iTunes route, representing nearly $24 of Apple revenue from the online store. Throw in the three new tracks, two alternate versions and three original demos, and you have yourself a whopping 32 tracks with nearly half an hour of video on the side.
Let It Happen would without a doubt make a good primer for the MXPX newcomer, offering up a sizable, representative crop of songs that will slot nicely into most college-aged rockers' collections.
If Let It Happen fails anywhere, it's just that a reissue never has the spark of possibility that a new record has. This isn't going to be the hot topic around the water cooler (or probably even around Hot Topic), but like most reissues it's also a safe investment. It's a disc so nice, they released it twice.
Grade: 4 out of 5
