3 out of 5

Label: Asian Man Records

Produced by: Matt Allison, Robert Berry

Of the same time and style as self-titled – my favorite sounding version of MU330 – Winter Wonderland! starts out as being an amazingly fun sister album of sorts, reveling in XMas-tune familiarity, blended with Dan Potthast’s offhand charms and some of the group’s best riffing and most instantly catchy melodies, jumping back and forth between classic and modern sounds as fitting the traditional and punk-rock takes on seasonal songs.

…But, as I’d argue often happens with these holiday themed discs, the novelty of it can wear off pretty soon, and Winter Wonderland!’s sequencing favors its first half pretty dramatically, slipping into more limited tunes past the midpoint. Really, shaking the tracklist up could’ve solved this, as the first five songs are perfect, stepping in and out of self-titled’s / Crab Rangoon‘s boppy bass and rock-first sound and poppy spins on XMas ditties, with the speed-versing of I Got this Neighbor some of Dan’s funniest writing of all time; the next five songs flip between here-and-gone punk numbers (less than a minute each), and songs that kind of recycle the ska / lyrical genericness of the opening numbers, which works as a way to kick things off but loses steam paired with less impressive songs. Closer Gerry’s Down Home Christmas kind of has to stay where it is in the sequence (it’s more chill, and spoken word), but spreading out the highs and lows would’ve extended the disc’s fun, even if it sacrifices that perfect opening.

Still, mu330’s peak era was short-lived overall, and I dig having this album as kind of B-sides to the self-titled album.