This review will be short…the reason you ask? I loved the record, and if you like fast paced pop-punk music with amazing harmonies, you will too.
Mixtapes released their new record “Even on the Worst Nights” on June 26th 2012 on No Sleep Records. The reason this review has taken so long for me to write is because this album is so good, I forgot that I had to write something about it and simply kept on listening.
The album opens with the track “Seven Mile” which is short and sweet, Remnant of one of my favorite bands The Lawrence Arms, the melody catches you right away despite the songs slower pace and short runtime.
As you get deeper into the album (all 16 songs of it) it becomes painfully apparent that this band, hailing from Cincinnati Ohio, is a fan of old school Pop Punk and there is no possible way they didn’t have every single release that came out of Drive Thru Records in their hay day. (yes it hurts to call these bands “Old School”)
The album, while entirely original, brought me back to sitting on the school bus listening to bands like Allister, Home Grown, and New Found Glory. The pace is up-beat, the lyrics are inspiring, the harmonies are incredible and frankly I want more.
I could relate to the entire album from the first line “by the time this is over I won’t have any friends…” to the last line “…And if I survived, then you can too”. As a musician myself it put me back into the basement when words like “business” and “money” never dared rear their ugly heads. Every single song clearly has this bands whole attention, there is not a drop of filler here and you can tell. After listening to this album I wanted to stay up all night, watch terrible films, sit in my car during a thunder storm, sneak out of my house and write a record of my own about it.
This record is more than just music, it’s about feeling so strongly about something and finding the good/bad in everyday situations no matter how mundane or discouraging.
My Favorite track hands down is track 10 entitled “Anyways”
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It talks about the fakeness of band popularity today and how “everybody you know is a critic these days” being overwhelmed by the sheer number of “artists” out there and feeling nostalgic about “songs from when we were young.”
Overall I say buy it…because it’s pretty freaking great.
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Mixtapes is on tour right now so check them out in your city: http://www.mixtapesohio.com/shows.html
You can get “Even on the Worst Nights” here – and it’s completely worth the price:
Download Even on the Worst Nights from AmazonMP3.
