areuonsomething.com

Commit This To Memory Motion City Soundtrack
CD Review by Mike D'Ariano / 9/2005

Man I love that line, and what's better, it's just the first of many that I've discovered and continue to discover as I listen to this record over and over and over again. Here's a few more:

"She put up with so much of my madness and my self abuse. She would tend to my wounds and fill me with food when I'd stumble in drunk for breakfast. She was right to take off before she was consumed"

"She's into math and magazines, Director's cuts and gray cell green Armed with an eye for contradictions, She sees completely through me. I'm fond of Twin Peaks afternoons, Inexpensive wine with cordon bleu. Armed with a plethora of insecurities, we keep each other amused."

"Let's get fucked up and die. I'm speaking figuratively, of course. Like the last time I committed suicide, social suicide. Yeah, so I'm already dead on the inside, But I can still pretend with my memories and photographs, I've learned to love the lie. I wanna know what it's like to be awkward and innocent, not belligerent. I wanna know how it feels to be useful and pertinent and have common sense. yeah Let me in, let me in to the club, cuz I wanna belong, And I need to get strong, and if memory serves, I'm addicted to words and they're useless. "

I don't know if it's doin' it for you, but from a strictly lyrical standpoint, this is one of the best albums I've heard in a long, long time. It manages to be really intelligent and interesting without crossing the line and becoming pretentious. Throughout the album, there's this overwhelming concept of leaving something or someone you love behind, and the sadness that comes with that. But what's also either there literally or at least is implied is the hopefulness that also comes with making a big change in life. You don't know if everything's going to work out, but it might, and that's a start. I said to my buddy Tom, that there was a simultaneous darkness and hopefulness to the songs that kinda reminded me of the Pogues, and he replied, "Yeah, or life." That sounds about right.

As for the music, I was going to say it sometimes sounded like The Descendents, and sometimes sounded like Weezer, and sometimes even sounded like Ozzy (at least the vocals) but then I played it for a guy I work with named Troy. Without knowing anything about what I was playing, Troy asked, "Is this Blink 182?" and since Blink's bassist Mark Hoppus produced the album, I guess I'll just go ahead and say it sounds like them. Although somehow, MCS sounds sweeter and less bratty.
Seriously though the strength of the album lies in what it's saying more so than in how it's saying it. The words really do have meaning.

Highlights: "Let's Get Fucked Up and Die," "Together We'll Ring In The New Year," "Everything Is Alright," "Resolution," "Attractive Today"