The Mr. T Experience

The Mr. T Experience: Love is DeadLove is Dead (1996)
Lookout Records

Reviewer Rating: 3.5

User Rating:

Contributed by: JeloneJelone
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on December 6th 2011If you want to boil down pop-punk to its most basic components, pick up the Mr. T Experience's Love is Dead. The vocals are snotty but the harmonies are pretty. The guitars are simple. The lyrics are most decidedly lovelorn. Recalling the Ramones, Green Day circa Kerplunk and, to use a more contempo.

If you want to boil down pop-punk to its most basic components, pick up the Mr. T Experience's Love is Dead. The vocals are snotty but the harmonies are pretty. The guitars are simple. The lyrics are most decidedly lovelorn. Recalling the Ramones, Green Day circa Kerplunk and, to use a more contemporary reference, Teenage Bottlerocket, MTX lets off a string of catchy tunes that showcase pop-punk's building blocks.

Let's skip opening cut "Sackcloth and Ashes" and start with start with track two, "Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba." The title serves as the chorus, and it's gotta be one of the simplest singalongs ever. But that's part of what makes pop-punk so appealing. "Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba" is the kind of song you can start singing along to on the first go-round. It's easy and fun, just like reading!

"I Just Wanna Do It With You" covers another well-worn pop-punk trope, devotion. Again, it's all in the title. The song bounces along while frontman Dr. Frank explains his infatuation to the object of his devotion: "I ask respectfully will you waste your life with me? / Anything you wanna do / I just wanna do it with you."

And then there's sadness. Oh man, Mr. T Experience loves being sad. But they cloak their lyrics in bright, shiny hooks. Observe "Semi-OK," which opens with "I've got this thing somewhere in between empty and dark always in my heart." "I'm Like Yeah, But She's All No" analyzes gender relations (It doesn't go well).

Love is Dead isn't the best pop-punk record of all time or anything (There's no such thing), but it does exactly what a good pop-punk record should do. It's light and catchy, but infinitely sad. Also, it's a deal in stereo with 16 tracks. That's a lot of songs about hooking up/breaking up/hooking up again.

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

victim (December 8, 2011)

Also, to expand on the "reveiwer is a little off" theme..songs about hooking up? From MTX? Songs about almost hooking up but staying at home writing songs about almost hooking up instead, maybe.

victim (December 8, 2011)

best MTX album, one two punch of Sackcloth and Babababa is perfect

Banger (December 7, 2011)

Classic 90s pop-punk. "Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba" is one of my all-time favorite songs.

145Alive (December 7, 2011)

Everything about this review is incorrect and the person who wrote it should stop writing reviews. Point by point; A: the vocals are not snotty. In the least. B: there are no harmonies to speak of....the backups are few and mainly use unison. Did the moron mean melodies? Even if he did, they're not pretty either!!! Catchy, relatable, clever...yes. Snotty and pretty.... nope. C: Sackcloth and Ashes is easily the best track on this album and a standout within MTX's catalogue. D: Besides pretentiously using the word "trope", is devotion really one of the genre's staple themes? E: This album sounds nothing like the Ramones, only slightly like Green Day's Kerplunk, and nothing WHATSOEVER like Teenage Bottlerocket!! F: failing to mention Dr. Frank's keen and clever lyricism is to miss the point of MTX entirely. It ISN'T just plain old pop punk, which seems to be the only point asserted in this "review". Jelone, you suck.

KF84 (December 7, 2011)

Love it

c-jefferous (December 6, 2011)

"Let’s skip opening cut “Sackcloth and Ashes”"??

Weird. That's one of my favorite songs of all time! Has been from the second I first heard this record and it's never gotten old.

Make_Way (December 6, 2011)

Never would I ever consider the vocals snotty, unless you were talking about the Jon Von era.

Also, it's a straight up mistake to skip "Sackcloth and Ashes." Such a great opener, and a great song to boot. If there was any song to skip on this album, it would have to be "Somebody's Song". Even that is rather unnecessary.

This album is my favorite thing ever.

eatdogs (December 6, 2011)

my fave...

kidgotham (December 6, 2011)

This album is about as perect as one can get.
I disagree with most of this review.

pinkerton (December 6, 2011)

the record is really good......i like revenge is sweet a little better.

r3vengetherapy (December 6, 2011)

I'm inclined to say this is a classic of the genre, but I'm not a huge pop punk guy to begin with, so what do I know? It's a great record.

mattramone (December 6, 2011)

I didn't experience any Mr. T while listening to this album. NO STARS.

Bastard_squad (December 6, 2011)

Deep Deep Down is one of the most fantastic and creepy things Dr Frank ever wrote. Singing to girls you just killed? Good times.

skolarx (December 6, 2011)

This album had just come out the first time I saw MTX live and I was absolutely blown away. All I had heard from them before was Everyone's Entitled To Their Own Opinion and nothing off that album really stuck with me but Love is Dead is pure pop punk perfection start to finish. Easily in my top 10 and probably in my top 5 albums of all time

NattyBoh (December 6, 2011)

2 thumbs up for this album