Before MxPx released their breakthrough album, ‘Life in General’, the band decided it would be fun to release an EP full of covers. The result of this was the ‘On the Cover’ EP, which was released in 1995. Now you all should be aware by now that MxPx are one of the best punk rawk bands currently doing the rounds. With that point in mind you would expect ‘On the Cover’ to be full of fast-paced covers of classic songs, wouldn’t you?
Much as it pains me to say this, as I personally love the band, ‘On the Cover’ is nothing more than average. However, this has more to do with the choice of songs than with the talent of the band. The current generation of punk fans would do well to recognise many of the eight songs that MxPx cover. The other problem here is that the band fails to put much of their own unique style into these songs, treating the songs with too much respect.
When MxPx speed up the cover versions, they are at their best. However, they don’t do this very often. As such ‘Summer Of 69’ and ‘You Put this Love In My Heart’ stand head and shoulders above everything else on the EP. By contrast, the version of Buddy Holly’s classic ‘Oh Boy’ is simply awful. It drags along at a snails pace and doesn’t showcase any of the talents that the band have shown throughout their career.
Most of the remainder of the EP is distinctly average. Even their version of ‘Take on Me’ fails to live up to expectations, and is noticeably out of the vocal range of both Mike and Tom. (For the definitive cover version of this song give Reel Big Fish a listen.) ‘Drum Machine Joy’ is probably the best of the rest, but again would have benefited from an injection of pace.
Given the high standard of much of MxPx’s work, ‘On the Cover’ is something of a disappointment. The band may have had fun recording it, but that sense of fun is not conveyed in the cover versions on display. I would only recommend this to die-hard fans who feel the need to own all the bands releases.
Mark
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