When my friend first showed me Motion City Soundtrack, I immediately dismissed them. After all, I love hardcore/metalcore music, and this was pop rock/punk pop. But after several listens, this band has grown on me like that weird green thing growing on the underside of your mother. They are talented, funny, and catchy as hell. I eventually brought myself to buying the album, and I'm not disappointed in the least. Commit This To Memory is a great, fun, light album, and really expresses a number of different emotions all at once.
The opening track is Attractive Today. Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s a fun track, but it’s just not great. It’s really short, and doesn’t seem to be a very affective opener track. I would have hoped for something a bit longer, and a bit more emotion. However, it’s still a fairly solid track, and, like most of MCS’s tracks, is really catchy.
Next, the band hits us with their first single, Everything Is Alright. This is first song of theirs I heard, and it’s probably one of my favorite tracks. It’s so beautifully upbeat, and the lyrics are both humorous and brilliant. The moog in this piece fits well with the song, and the drumming is top notch. At 2:19, the following vocals kick in, and it’s definitely a highpoint in the song. A very good choice for their first single.
By the time When You’re Around kicks in, you’re probably primed and ready for the rest of the album. Thankfully, it’s another top-notch song. The vocals in the chorus are strained just in the right places, and Pierre’s voice is both rough and beautiful at the time. Vocally, this is probably one of their best songs. The moog in the chorus really stands out, and really adds another layer of depth to this song.
For Resolution, the band tones the mood down significantly. The song is much slower than previous songs, and shows another side of MCS. The instrumental parts of the song are nothing to talk about, and don’t really stand out compared to some of the other songs on the album. However, it is a fairly poetic song, even if it’s basically about some girl.
Feel Like Rain somehow manages to feel upbeat and downbeat at the same time. Fairly fun piece, but musically it’s nothing special. It’s basically a fairly average piece, and for the most part, skippable.
Make Out Kids started out as one of those songs I kept skipping, but after listening to if for a while, I find myself growing very fond of it. The lyrics are great, and really fit the mood of the song. At 2:05, it becomes really fun and upbeat, only to return to normal at 2:30. This song is very catchy, and serves as a great piece before…
…Time Turned Fragile, one of the best songs on the album. The moog in the opener is fantastic, and the whole piece sounds great. It’s a very fast song, or at least fast compared to most MCS songs. The quite part that starts at 1:39 works very well with the song, and helps to break the mood with some more great lyrical work. All the instruments fit very well, and are well played. One of the good things about the piece is the number of different moods it expresses. Overall, probably the best song on the album.
L.G. Fuad is a very funny song, even though it’s slightly more downbeat compared to many other songs. The only thing I don’t really like is the fact that the lyrics seem to be needlessly pretentious. However, is still an awesome song. The mood seems to slowly build up the song, and finally comes to an emotional end. One of the better songs on the album.
Better Open The Door is a fairly bland song, and is truly skippable. Vocally, it’s not that good, and the instruments are, once again, not much to talk about. The only thing I really like about this song is the repeated chants of “I’ll swim backwards”. Other than that, pretty boring.
Next, we have the most downbeat song yet, Together We’ll Ring In The New Year. It’s very depressing, and sorta needlessly pretentious in the lyrics department. Why is is that all the really downbeat songs have something to do with the New Year? It’s a pretty short song, but it manages to capture a great deal of emotion in 2 minutes. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Hangman is up next, and it’s probably one of my least favorite songs on the album. Pierre’s vocals are almost completely drowned out by the guitar and bass, and it’s just as well, because vocally this is his worst song yet. At one point, he sounds totally out of tune, as if he’s singing to a whole different song. It’s really pretty bad, and I almost always skip it.
Finally, we come to the last track, and the most recent single, Hold Me Down. It’s probably the second best song on the album, only preceding Time Turned Fragile. Even though it starts out fairly downbeat, it’s one of the most beautiful songs on the album. Pierre really shines in this song, and his beautiful voice really rings to it’s full potential in this song. The drums are also spotless, and really fit the song. Overall, the song works extremely well, and is a truly fitting end to a great album.
Alright, so I’ve given a basic track by track evaluation. So, how does the album stand as a whole? Overall, the album is great, with the really awesome songs, definitely outweighing the few bad ones. Pierre is a truly gifted vocalist, and all the members of the band play very well. I look forward to hearing more from this extremely talented band.
Pros:
- Extremely catchy songs
- Captures a great deal of emotion
- The moog and the drums work very well, and are top quality
- Pierre is an amazing vocalist.
Cons:
- A lot of the lyrics are overly pretentious.
- Several songs are quite bland
- The guitar parts don’t really stand out.
Overall Album Rating: 4.5/5
