For a small-time five-piece out of Minnesota in early 2001, Motion City Soundtrack isnt half bad. In fact, with influences from bands such as Sunny Day Real Estate, and The Pixies, they produce the same old pop/punk material youve heard over and over from bands in the decade, but still keeps to their own original twists, or material or whatever you may call it. Singer Justin Pierre pours the excellent emotion into their songs and excecute the flow of music with a flavor of raging riffs and pounding drums that make the songs themselves truly memorable while the more emotional lyrics slowly imprint in your mind. They released their debut album "I Am The Movie" back in 2002, while now, in 2005, they give us another turn to listen in to their hopefully well-built musical splendor, rushing, soft, sometimes even mean lyrics, and their overall appearance to come in with another great album. With the entrance like those of Blink 182's and the emotion you would see from Taking Back Sunday or Fall Out Boy, "Commit This To Memory" seems like its utterly laughing at failure.
Motion City Soundtrack- Commit This To Memory
Motion City Soundtrack-
Justin Pierre - Vox, Guitar
Joshua Cain - Guitar, Vox
Matt Taylor - Bass, Vox
Tony Thaxton - Drums, Vox
Jesse Johnson - Keyboards/Moog
Produced by Mark Hoppus
Attractive Today
Great entrance of clearly one of their best on the album. Justin sings a nice, short line in his soft, recognizable vocals, and sets off one explosion of great guitar-work, faster-than-average drum-fills and one hell of a great listen over all. The song only ranks in at a minute and 42 seconds, but it's that kind of entrance that gives you the sign that the average wont be making an appearance on this album, let alone in the whole future of the band. It's just the kind of wake-up call you would want to get from a first track, but you can't help but wish that with such great material like that, it would have been extended to a greater length.
4/5
Everything Is Alright
The first single off the album, and the one that deserved more attention and recognition in that matter. Opens up with a bright, sunny drum beat and Justin comes in with happy lyrics, as then Joshua on the lead guitar gives you some taste of his intro riff, and enters the verses with a great steady line, as Tony combats it with amazing fills that make the song itself sound like a celebration, Jesse on the keyboard adds some extra measures of glee. The chorus features those lyrics from the intro, and the solo/bridge is also a great listen, as Tony does it yet again with above-average drum-work and Joshua goes at it with great work. A short reast and the song gets back on track with the last chorus and the fade-out. This is clearly one of the album's best and doesnt deserve to be ignored one bit.
4.5/5
When You're Around
Straight to business to an acoustic, apparently. Always keeps steady work on the acoustics, as Justin faces the spotlight with a more emotional arsenal of lyrics than the previous two. The song continues with the same flavor and mood, and Justin goes past two simple verses and choruses making you almost hum the catchier lyrics that flows very well with the rest of the backround material. Could have asked for maybe some light keyboard and drums, but what we got isnt bad for the first acoustic, and slower song.
"But all I can do is close my eyes and cross my arms and hope to die, 'cause you don't fucking listen when I'm around." 3.5/5
Resolution
Nice, slow-moving, mellow intro gets it going as Justin tells about an experiance gone wrong, and then a light burst of back-round material comes in and you can hear three or maybe four more vocals come in at the same time. This is where the real song gets going, and at a fairly, slow pace, and with the moody vocals, it moves at the reasonable speed until the chorus shows off a bit more with brighter and heavier guitar-work and vocals. The bridge shows off not quite a solo but a great session between guitarist Joshua and Jesse on the keyboard. The last chorus gives you a dead-end stop with a couple of ascending fills, and Justin sings a few last lyrics as the song fades out. This is a lot more emotional song, but the material doesnt balance well.
"I like the universe, but she messes with my words." 4/5
Feel Like Rain
Starts out with another proggressive drum-beat as the song gets gradually louder and Justin adds more elements along with rythmic guitar-work. You can feel the kind of heat that came off their eralier stuff coming off this track, but at the same time, you realize that theyve also matured a lot more. The guitar keeps going at it through the similar verses and choruses as the bridge is a little bit of a spectacular mess of bass and keyboard infused with the more recognizable material from the previous chorus and Justin leads you through the last of the track, making it the best ending the song could have had.
"From the falsest smile, to the fear of death, is why the pain reminds us that we're still alive."4/5
Make Out Kids
This is another taste of their older work, and one of Justin's greater stand-out tracks. The chorus just yells victory, as the song progresses with a great keyboard line, and the chiming drumbeat that follows the guitar and bass all the way to end of the trail, where the second chorus lurks, waiting to surprise you into one of the best bridges in the whole album, aiming at the heavier material while Justin screams out "Let It Shine" and takes it back to a mellower portion. Handclaps come in to mix with the soft vocals and end the song with the perfect note. Like I said, Justin just makes this song 'Motion City Soundtrack-perfect', and adds the final touch that mkes this one another of the best.
"Hooray for the madness, we are better by design, let's hope we'll never have to say goodbye, say goodbye." 4.5/5
Time Turned Fragile
An amazing appearance of the keyboard by Jesse comes in with Time Tunred Fragile sounds an awful lot like Capital H, from their debut. This song ranks in as the best song on the album, and with the intro shimmering with great guitar-work and the immediate rush of more up and ready vocals, the song progresses into the splendor we call the chorus, with the simple drums still pounding along the bass and Jesse hitting those keys like the song woulndt end. Theres barely anything to say about this track, except that it is the band at it's strongest potential, and the wont-back-down bridge gets you back into the last portion of the song and with amazing Tony Thaxton on the set, the song leads you out of the material that should always be in every one of their records.
5/5
L.G. Fuad
"Let's get fucked up and die; I'm speaking figuratively, of course, like the last time I committed suicide; social suicide." This song shows up as one of the funnier and more innocent portions of the album, and the same taste of rush from Justin's vocals and Joshua's guitar-work mix with inspirations from other portions of their minds, and combine to present themselves as a great chorus conclusion and explode into the last portion of the album in such splendor, that its clear that we've got a better conclusion to the album that we were originally hoping for.
4/5
Better Open The Door
No messing around on this one, and the intro holds the sound that the intro to a no-excuses Blink 182 song would present itself into. This is another of the greater songs on the album, as the drums once again make an outstanding appearance, filling in the insanely-perfect verses with fills and leads into the chorus with a shuffle on the hats that follows the simple guitar-work like it was nothing. The bridge also holds heavier potential as well, and it concludes the song with the same flavor that it started with. Im told that part of this song was shared with those ideas of producer Mark Hoppus, and it clearly shows.
" Our hell ends every weekend, but it's all I have to believe in."
5/5
Together We'll Ring In The New Year
Another slower song, and another one of the album conclusion's shocks. Justin's vocals are at grade-A shape on this track, and with the lightly-repetitive lyrics, his vocals still hold potential to make the song shine farther and longer along with a newer style of work the acoustics, as well with some backround effects. Once again, not much to say coming from this track, except that it's the best slower track on the album, and pushes the album into the excellent conclusion that will stop all the music but keep the feeling going.
"I'm not trying to sound so insincere, but the postcard that's taped to the freezer reads "wish you were here" 4/5
Hangman
Its short introductory song titles like this that make it certain something great is going to present itself. The rolling feedback increases and Joshua and Jesse give us a duo of great sounds along with Justin and Tony leading the way on the verses, and the song truly begins and does present itself as another one fo the best. The chorus is just another glorious explosion of the emotion that was oringinally built into every song on the album, and expands off of. Justin makes another great appearance lyrically and vocally, and the bridge slows things down, with guest appearance by Mark Hoppus. The hi-hats ring and the chorus comes in another time as the guitar keeps going and the keyboard keeps giving off the great chiming. Almost done here, and almost done with a great album.
"Commit this to memory."4.5/5
Hold Me Down
This conclusion to the album also ranks in at about five minutes, making it the longest on the album, but at the same time it shares the excellent cliche of the slow, long goodbye on a great album. Not much to say here either, as it is Justin, Jesse, Joshua, and Tony at more of their very best, and reflect off the best on the previous album and this one to create a sort of a more poppy orchestra that will leave you not exactly wanting more, but leaving you thankful for the great sequel to 'I Am The Movie'. The whole song doesnt dissapoint and ends how the album originally started. With strong, solid potential, and the rush of excellence that fuels the musicians and vocals to go farther.
4.5/5
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Pros
+Drum-work
+Outstanding work lyrically and vocally by Justin Pierre
+True Sequel to it's predecessor
Cons
-Much of it usually sounds the same
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As 'I Am The Movie' had already been reviewed, and this new gem of an album hadnt yet been touched, I decided to take a shot at this and find out what the boys out of Minnesota really got at after sharing their fame and fortunes from their debut. Although much of this album sounds the same, each song still manages to break down and give off it's separate mood and feel with the help of the excellent musicians on board. I honestly thought they wouldnt exactly come back with another album. I thought they had gotten their fifteen minutes of fame from the debut, and moved on. But just goes to show that with great potential like that and the right people to fill in the seats, you'll get another album that reflects off your earlier work and will later surely astound again by expanding off it.
4/5
This Message Edited On 08.27.05
This Message Edited On 11.25.05
