Artist: Motion City Soundtrack
Album: Commit This to Memory
Label: Epitaph Records
Rating:
Reviewer: John Frank

This record is a debut of sorts on a couple levels. While Motion City Soundtrack already had a release, it was more of just a compilation of songs that had been written at various points in the bands early days. Commit This to Memory is the band’s first shot at a full album, written from start to finish with the same lineup and all songs written at the same time. Additionally, this is also the production debut of Mark Hoppus (from Blink 182).

So if you listened to their first release I Am the Movie, you should be prepared for some higher range vocals and a pretty heavy dose of the keyboards. This hasn’t changed on Commit This to Memory. However, everything is a bit better. The lyrics seem to be a little deeper, and the beats a little less elementary. The album starts out pretty strong with the first few tracks having very catchy choruses and poppy, quick rhythms. Commit This to Memory does taper off towards the middle though. It does not turn into a bad album, just simply an average sounding disc of the genre.

There are definitely some songs such as “When You’re Around”, “Everything is Alright” and “Make Out Kids” that will draw attention as singles or tracks on compilations, but other than that, the album is lackluster. The production is done quite well though. Hoppus has come into this new area of music with a solid performance. Production is one of the characteristics of an album that if it is done properly, no one will even think about it. With a band such as MCS, it is even more important because the keyboard cannot become too overpowering or the vocals too dominating, otherwise the drums and guitars seem non-existent. Overall this album is well done and I like it a lot. The only problem is that it will entertain only a small following of fans. I think it will gain some popularity over the previous release, but will not be the big jumping point for the band. It does show a lot of promise and shows how far the band has come from I Am the Movie.