Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars
MxPx Return with Solid Album, July 26, 2007
I have followed MxPx through all of their albums, and as stated previously by others, this is in some ways a return to edgier and more energetic tunes from this great band. I love that they are back on Tooth and Nail and recording with Aaron Sprinkle. Sprinkle's production is tight and the songs are well constructed, upbeat, and easy to listen to. The material is mature, and definitely up there with some of their best albums like "Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo" and "The Ever Passing Moment").
At the same time, as much as I really like this album, I did find myself wishing they had pushed themselves more beyond the standard pop-punk idioms into some more unique (and less "poppy") song structures (and less "ahh's," "hey's," and "yeaaah's"). Similarly, the production is a little too shiny at times for my taste and could benefit from rougher edges and more dynamism. Lyrically, this album is on par with their other more recent releases, reflecting hopefulness alongside angst. My only complaint lyrically is that Mike Herrera too frequently mines the band's record-label-trauma angst, as he did in the album Panic.
I purchased the special edition (with DVD), and found the "documentary" and the minimal other bonus features to be pretty lame. To give you an idea of what I mean, one of the bonus features trails the guitar tech for five minutes or so through the grocery store while he purchases spaghetti for a band meal. Um, yeah. Another feature shows Mike Herrera walking around the band's purported apartment, which shows nothing of the apartment itself. The documentary itself is basically just Mike, Tom, and Yuri in the studio hanging out doing nothing and occassionally saying a few words in an interview or recording. Pretty boring. In short, I definitely do not think the special edition is worth the extra three bucks I paid for it.
Overall, this is a strong release from MxPx that old and new fans alike will celebrate. Pick up the CD, but leave the Special Edition version on the shelf.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
MxPx keeps it going, July 19, 2007
There's been a lot of hype leading up to this release, specifically about the band's return to their old style (basically, their second and third albums). In my opinion, Secret Weapon is more in line with Panic than any other of their albums. The lyrics have evolved since the days of Teenage Politics, obviously, since the band members are practically thirty. Musically, the band seems to teeter between the faster-paced rocking songs like from Life in General and the carefully crafted and lyrically poetic songs from Panic. But if you're expecting Mike to be spitting out lyrics like in "Doing Time" and "Want Ad," you'll be disappointed. He goes for a more polished delivery, even while shouting, like that of their most recent recordings. Still, their obvious effort to rock harder is apparent in many of the songs: the beginning of "Punk Rawk Celebrity" (the middle/end of the song slows down and almost had me convinced they were Green Day singing "I Don't Care" off American Idiot), "Contention" and "Chop Shop." These songs and a few others must be the reason critics have been comparing Secret Weapon to their earlier stuff, and at moments you can see parts of the songs as more polished versions of old songs, complete with BGV "hey!"s.
The three extra tracks are good. "The Hoo-Ha Jangle" fits in with the rest of the album, nothing new there. Madcap Scheme is my favorite of the three extra tracks, and if they picked up the tempo of the instruments and lyrical delivery, it would fit in just fine next to "Southbound" and "The Wonder Years." The last extra track is "Throw Your Body In The Air" which is decent, and includes a hidden bonus track that reminds me of "Yuri Wakes Up Screaming" off the Renaissance EP, since it's a joke song, but is pretty clever and entertaining.
The DVD is basically a bunch of 1-2 minute clips of "day in the life of..." stuff and provided minimal entertainment. The reason you're buying the DVD is for the behind the scenes look at how they made the album - a 25 minute feature. It's good, but not anything special. If you're a real fan, pick it up, but don't expect anything comparable to "B-Movie." I would also recommend the Let It Happen Deluxe Edition with a DVD of all of their music videos; certainly worth buying the album a second time, plus you do get three "new" recordings.
All this said, I've really enjoyed the album after getting over a bit of diappointment in my expectations. It's a testament to the group that they have been making music for 15 years together and are still able to come up with fresh material that has fans and casual listeners giving them great reviews (see non -D/DVD comments). For the price here on Amazon, it's worth the extra few bucks, especially if you're a collector.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Beyond amazing, July 18, 2007
As a long time fan of the band, of my expectations of this cd were high. Not only were they met, but in the end I felt like an idiot for even thinking I might not be amazed. This cd, as many people have stated, has brought back the MxPx that so many people love. At the same time though, it still delivers some incredibly unique songs that any long time or new to the band fan will fall in love with. I do not have one negative thing to say about this cd. Make sure you buy this special edition because, besides the awesome behind the scenes dvd, you get three extra new songs that are three of the best Mxpx songs written in close to ten years as a bonus. Enjoy!
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