JesusfreakHideout.com: Top 100 Tooth & Nail Albums of All Time

5 of 100

#5. MxPx
Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo

Release Date: June 16, 1998

With Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo, MxPx became one of the first Christian rock bands to cross over into mainstream success, releasing the album with both Tooth & Nail and A&M Records. This is MxPx at their best: fresh, catchy, confident, solid songwriting from a band in their prime, their most polished recording quality up to this point, the perfect balance of pop and hard punk rock, and Mike Herrera’s vocals have never sounded better. The track listing is hit after hit after hit, with memorable hooks too many to list, but the songs that stand out the most to me are “Tomorrow's Another Day,” “Invitation To Understanding,” “Set The Records Straight,” and it ends on a rare, instrumental MxPx song “The Theme Fiasco.” In my opinion, if there was one album that could turn anyone into an MxPx fan, this is it; it’s the overall best MxPx album.
- Russ T. Shipp of the band Rusty Shipp

While Life In General made me fall in love with a band for the first time, Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo cemented that love forever. It's not often that a band can release two albums as good as LIG and Buffalo in a career -- much less back-to-back. This is easily my second favorite MxPx release and objectively could be considered their best album as a whole. The T&N fallout that started worried me, but the band didn't let it affect the music. These 16 tracks are just as cohesive as the material on LIG and bring forth some of the best in the band's deep discography. While there are many memorable lines, "Tomorrow's Another Day" contains my favorite: "Just know this, that God is faithful even if you don't have faith yourself. There's nothing quite like being sure of what's inside your heart." The song remains my favorite to this day. I was a bit surprised to see MxPx finish with two top 10 albums, but I think Buffalo is worthy of its spot. From the opening riff of "Under Lock and Key" to the final conclusion of "The Theme Fiasco," Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo satisfies like not many can. While this was technically released on A&M Records, Tooth & Nail was holding tight to MxPx and were still involved in the record's release.
- Michael Weaver

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