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When I think of musical progression and a band’s evolution, the Rx Bandits pop into my mind. The changes between “Halfway Between Here and There” and “Progress” were astounding. So now with my favorite sorta-ska band releasing “The Resignation”, I was eager to see how the album would turn out, and I was pleasantly surprised.

“The Resignation” is a step further than “Progress” in complexity. The second guitarist that they added definitely shows through immediately with the opening song, “Sell You Beautiful”. The song opens with very catchy poppy guitar riffs and hooks before it goes into standard complex Rx Bandits. It is in this song that the new guitar really shines through, and it takes the RxB to a whole new level.

Other songs like “Overcome” are heavy on the reggae. The song is similar to “In All Rwanda’s Glory” from “Progress”, only even slower. The lyrics are reminiscent of what we might have seen on signs during Berkeley protests. Eventually the song begins to pick up into a more standard Rx Bandit speeds, but the lyrics are what are on highlight in this song. Not much else is there, a guitar strumming every now and then, a repeating bass line, and a little bit of drums. The reggae influence definitely shows through on this album, with many songs that are like this one.

“Never Slept So Soundly” is one of the highlights of the album. It opens with a little bit of the keyboards, before launching into an eerie sounding trombone with an echo. The song is slow for the most part with excellent guitar harmonics during the verses, but then it picks up into a heavier mood for the chorus with a very excellent guitar harmony.

However, the true highlight of the album is the last track “Decrescendo.” This song is quite possibly one of the most innovative songs that the RxB have done. It lacks all forms of transitions, is genre bending, and all around absolutely phenomenal. “The Resignation” is worth getting for this song. Many of the times, the horns are just playing in a way that doesn’t seem to meld at all with the guitars, but sounds great. When they throw them in with a dual guitar harmony for a bridge, it about made me wet my pants. Throw in one of the finest climaxes that the Bandits have ever done full of harmonies and the trademark Rx Bandits background screaming, and the song is pure gold.

All though much of the album is great, especially the songs listed above and the unmentioned rerecorded version of “Mastering the List”, I find the slower songs a little bit boring, especially when they start to push five minutes. Also, although they seem to love filler, I don’t, especially when it comes too often as it does in this album. Overall the album is as tight as the band could be, and they have definitely matured even more than “Progress.”



People who liked this also liked:
Rx Bandits - ProgressThe Lawrence Arms - The Greatest Story Ever ToldStreetlight Manifesto - Everything Goes NumbAt The Drive-In - Relationship Of CommandRefused - The Shape of Punk to ComeRx Bandits - ...And the Battle BegunThe Lawrence Arms - Oh! Calcutta!Against Me! - As The Eternal CowboyAgainst Me! - is Reinventing Axl RoseOperation Ivy - Operation Ivy



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    Posted by kill_fftl on 2006-07-05 15:52:22
    My Score:

    i dont like the vocals

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, May 4, 2005 at 11:39 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    fucking incredible

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, November 16, 2004 at 2:05 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    this is real good shit!!

    Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 25, 2004 at 1:43 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    Fuck reviews, where's those Hellja- Baddass Lyrics at!! "Sell You Beautiful" , cuz there's a lot of bitches out there who are fake as hell. " Look whose gotta new nose, Plastic lips and Big Tits... I"ve got soars on my eyes"

    Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 4, 2004 at 12:46 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    fuck the war in iraq

    bands should express their oppinions

    Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, March 4, 2004 at 12:45 AM (EST)
    My Score:

    goddamn buy the album you cheapass mofos...to whoever said steal/bootleg whatever

    Posted by DevilsDeathWish on 2004-02-23 19:19:29
    My Score:

    i always like to make my review very very fashionably late, therefore making my opinion the first one people see.

    THOSE DAMN BANDITS DID IT AGAIN! Excellent all around album. Never Slept So Soundly is quite possibly the sleep song of the year.

    As for what the 'cawknocker' wrote below...Piss off you whiney bitch. I read your review and almost shit myself. i personally love the lyrics on this album...even though i do make a habit of skipping that politians war song (it is a bit off politically, and im an ultra-liberal).

    The lyrics are awesome, the sound blends beautifully. The social comment in 'Sell You Beautiful' is dead on to anyone who's tried to break into the industry (can i ask you when the last time you saw an ugly or fat woman "STAR" in her own movie or make a well promoted album...think about what your being sold and the fear driven economy). anyone that wants to argue with me about a fear driven economy, contact me at ctmurphy@mail.widener.edu.

    Thank god someone other then pennywise is talking politics in their records again. Excellent album, but not as good as Progress. Stil something that i've been playing non-stop since i bought it the week it came out.

    BUY/STEAL/DOWNLOAD/BOOTLEG THIS ALBUM. It is that amazing.

    ~murf

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, December 6, 2003 at 10:55 PM (EST)
    My Score:

    "little kids think bands like rx bandits and reel big fish are the end all be all of ska. god i hate you kids."

    does anyone think rx bandits are ska?

    this music is awesome. and i own it and listen to the instruments and love them, butt matt is an ass. he is an insult to inteligent people. he should go to college. i always want to hide my rx cd's cause i dont want people to think i buy what matt is selling as far as lyrics. but i still listen to it for the music and skip track 3 or whichever one starts like this:
    "so america's got a brand new war...."

    Posted by komsomida on 2003-08-06 21:04:57
    My Score:

    ooops....i gave this a 10 I meant a 8.

    Posted by komsomida on 2003-08-06 21:03:22
    My Score:

    Well I have friends that are like dude this release sucks but in my opinion this is a solid release and I saw them live the other day and they were awesome.

    Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 26, 2003 at 9:52 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Your review sucks, you only reviewed half the cd, and the other guy was right, the only songs you did were the ones on the 5 song pre release cd which i have, so the "leaked " album was probably the 5 song one.

    Posted by evildeadalive on 2003-07-25 03:20:01
    My Score:

    Actually, yeah... My bad. Typing fast and not really thinking...

    Posted by Anonymous on Thursday, July 24, 2003 at 1:13 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    "Rx Bandits are actually more like Fish than they are Reel Big Fish..."

    Uh, did you mean the band Phish? Not Fish?

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 at 10:58 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    I totally agree with the pretention present on this album.. also with my only interaction with the band at warped tour last year. But this album is still very good.. they are doing something new again and i really am glad they arent trying to crank out the same old shit every time.

    i think that the comparision i can draw from this is Refused - Shape of Punk to Come. they risked their fanbase, they risked money.. all for the love of the music they write.

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 at 5:27 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    I for one can't complain when a band cuts out the tired songs about girls.

    4131

    P.S. On a douchebag scale, I'd rate you a 7.5

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 at 5:07 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    this album is painfully pretentious. these guys are great musicians, theres no aruing that. i wish i was half the drummer their guy is, whatever his name is, and their time signatures and song structures are nuts. great. woo hoo. complex music for the sake of complex music.
    this album, on a music technical rating, is a 10. however, no a fun level its a 0. this album is not fun. the lyrics read like some hippy protester's sophmore in college poetry. its a nice gesture, trying to write meaningful political and social commentary, but it just comes across as either trite, cliched, condescending or obnoxious(see sell u beutiful...fake tits?)
    gone are the catchy chourus' like 'who wouldve thought', gone is 75% of the ska. now its jsut like tehy have horns for the hell of it, cuz they don't want to kick them out.a few tinges of reggae here and there, no straight up ska like half the tracks on progress. its just not fun.progress had some serious lyrics, but it had enough fun songs, about chicks that it balanced out. here its just so fucking heavey handed, its like the weight of the world rests on matt's shoulders. and sometimes, it just sounds like a boring hippy jazz band jam. and its trying so hard to be 'artisticly relevant' or some shit. like they want to be the mars volta or the fucking flaming lips or something. christ, u were a ska band 3 yrs ago, whats up with all the art rock?
    but yea the sure are good musicians and technical, but if i want that, i'll break out my jazz history 4 disc set i bought for my jazz class in college or my western art music 4 discer.

    ps. i would rate progress an 8 or 9, i loved that album. this album is a huge letdown

    sincerely, cawknocker (to lazy to login)

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 at 3:48 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    ok, heres the deal. when my friend and i went and saw the rxb on 7/10 and he had a leaked copy of the album, which we listened to. then he left it in my car, and after i listened to it a bunch, i wrote the review on 7/12. being at home, i haven't heard anything of a sampler due to slower connection, so my first taste of the album was on the way to the show.

    -pwfanatic

    Posted by evildeadalive on 2003-07-23 15:33:30
    My Score:

    Rx Bandits are actually more like Fish than they are Reel Big Fish...

    Posted by BeaArthur on 2003-07-23 09:22:57
    My Score:

    All the songs mentioned in this review can be downloaded here.

    Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, July 23, 2003 at 1:45 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    There was a 5 song pre release sampler that i got my hands on weeks ago, that had every song he listed. So 1. Either he didn't bother to mention the other 50% of the songs, or 2.he listened to the sampler.

    Posted by pwfanatic on 2003-07-22 22:18:45
    My Score:

    also...what sampler?

    Posted by pwfanatic on 2003-07-22 21:58:32
    My Score:

    heres a quick review of the dvd, the live performances kinda suck because the audio is off and that makes it hard to listen too. the acoustic song is cool though, and the interview is pretty intersting.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 9:47 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Why wasn't the DVD really mentioned in either review?

    Oh well, both reviews are pretty mediocre, but at least there are new reviews up now.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 9:09 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    punk elitists= wanna be intelligent sounding shit bags that like sniffing their fingers after sticking them in midgets asses.

    Have some constructive criticizing...dont try to be hard...if you keep bashing ska, it will bash you, same for emo too, hey, at least those kids are passionate

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 7:42 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    Wow,Anonymous you really are an idiot. He's funnier than you'll ever be.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 7:19 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    "This band sucks, but guess what, i now have the entire new Against Me! album on CD from live shows, awesome quality as well....funny thing is, the band told me it's ok to put it online, but i don't want to. HA!"

    Wow, Kevin. You have to be the most wannabe-funny user on this site. Go to hell. This score is for your attempts at being witty.

    Posted by joeg on 2003-07-22 17:20:34
    My Score:

    woohoo! yet another review of the same record from the same boring band! rock.

    Posted by Kevin11 on 2003-07-22 17:12:16
    My Score:

    This band sucks, but guess what, i now have the entire new Against Me! album on CD from live shows, awesome quality as well....funny thing is, the band told me it's ok to put it online, but i don't want to. HA!

    Posted by BeaArthur on 2003-07-22 16:45:59
    My Score:

    Besides, it's not their fault for not knowing that neither of those bands aren't ska. Thank No Doubt for that.

    Posted by BeaArthur on 2003-07-22 16:45:12
    My Score:

    Uh. There's a huge difference between the Rx Bandits and Reel Big Fish, anonymous.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 3:42 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    little kids think bands like rx bandits and reel big fish are the end all be all of ska. god i hate you kids.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 1:38 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    What the hell he only did the 5 songs that came on the sampler,and mastering the list from welcome to the family.Did you actually get the whole album? Theres another 6 songs you failed to mention.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 12:59 PM (EDT)
    My Score:

    since i didn't write my opinion on the first review, i'll write it here:

    this album is a little bit more personal than complex in my opinion. while it won't achieve pass complexity and creativity of "progress" or have the skankin sound of "halfway." i believe "the resignation" is a solid effort by them. trying to up the ante with some rock vibes in this one. and matt was right on that DVD interview. "overcome (the racaputilation)" is a pretty cool song.

    Ramo

    Posted by hey_sailor on 2003-07-22 11:59:18
    My Score:

    Yeah, much better review...finally someone who understands what the Bandits were trying to do here...

    Posted by thriceequalsgod on 2003-07-22 10:35:15
    My Score:

    much better than that other review.. but why did it take so GOD DAMN long to put it up?

    Posted by NOFXPunkLTJ22 on 2003-07-22 08:51:28
    My Score:

    This is a great review for this CD. I agree with everything said.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 4:21 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    where the fuck is my Angry Aryans reveiw!? Fuck this.

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 1:25 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    yeah also, too bad of the fact that the bandits really arent ska anymore....... i think people need to grow up

    Posted by FortyMinutesWest on 2003-07-22 00:31:17
    My Score:

    I wasn't convinced at first, but since you bolded it and spelled "sucks" with an x.... Is it that fucking hard to type out the extra letters? Jesus grandma punching Christ!

    Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 22, 2003 at 12:26 AM (EDT)
    My Score:

    F I R S T !!!



    Ska Sux!

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