Artist: MxPx Album: Panic Label: SideOneDummy Records Rating: 8 out of 10

After 2003’s scattershot Before Everything & After, which threw everything from Elvis Costello new wave to 80’s synth-pop in a stylistic blender, some MxPx fans surely wondered if their favorite Left Coast punkers were veering off course. But as proven by their first indie full-length in a number of years after several on major A&M Records, there was no reason to Panic. The album of that name finds the band artistically recharged, throwing everything they’ve still got at a collection of 14 songs that may be their strongest since the classic Life in General. First single “Heard That Sound” is pop-punk perfection, with a singalong chorus that should have made this an MTV staple, while on “Cold Streets” MxPx channels a previously-unapparent Bad Religion influence with aggressive guitar work and fierce vocals awash in layers of harmony. And “Get Me Out” may be the single-heaviest track the group have ever put to tape, with pummeling, tempo-shifting rhythms over which frontman Mike Herrera repeatedly screams, hardcore-style, “Get me out!” This one will get the pits moving at every show. MxPx haven’t completely abandoned the genre-hopping of recent records like Before and the underrated The Ever Passing Moment, however. Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus contributes unobtrusive backing vocals to the punk ballad “Wrecking Hotel Rooms,” which finds guitarist Tom Wisniewski forgoing distortion for clean-toned arpeggios that underpin a positively-delicate melody. And who could’ve seen the rockabilly-meets-country rave-up “Late Again” coming? Musically and lyrically, this is a pleasant surprise. Like other cuts here (“The Darkest Places,” “Waiting for the World to End”), “Late” finds MxPx more-unabashedly touching on Christian themes (albeit lightheartedly) than they have in years. “When they call my name outside those gates/ I’ll be on my way, and that’s all I can say,” Herrera sings, later puncturing his apparent seriousness with the closing couplet “I’ll be late going out./ I was late trying to put this record out.” On “Waiting,” he’s decidedly less coy: “Drawing closer, end of days, with much still left undone./ Even as I turn this phrase, the end has now begun./ History is history, tomorrow never comes.” In every aspect, Panic finds MxPx standing on a comfortable plateau, past the need to experiment just for experimentation’s sake, but not content to retread ground that’s already been covered extensively. Here, the now-13-year-old trio seem completely comfortable in their own skin, writing killer melodies and delivering them with renewed energy and passion. Welcome back guys. - Todd Thatcher