Rocker (feedbot)
Gold Member
It never quite seemed fair that Motion City Soundtrack were painted with the brush of pop punk early in their career, or that their later albums were judged in that light. Certainly, ‘Commit This To Memory’ and ‘Even If It Kills Me’ were the closest the band came to straight genre records, but the seeds of growth and an individual identity were already flourishing in their debut, ‘I Am The Movie’. Ten years after their last release, ‘Panic Stations’, Motion City Soundtrack are back with an album that sounds unabashedly like themselves – catchy, melodic, and brimming with Moog.
Crucial to understanding Motion City Soundtrack’s sound, and how it has developed, is understanding where it came from. A mixture of early ‘90s indie and post hardcore – Pixies, Weezer, Fugazi, and Jawbox, to name a few. The result was a musical style that was as happy playing in a melodic meadow as it was willing to dabble in darker edges. Discovering them as a teenager in the mid-2000s was revelatory. Here was a band that had a similar energy to the pop punk bands of the era but felt somehow more evolved, more mature.
Those influences shine on ‘The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World’. It opens on ‘Some Wear A Dark Heart’, which twirls soft guitar melodies together with Pierre’s distinctive vocals before exploding into an alt rock anthem. Its a deliberate introduction, simply and shortly constructed, reacquainting fans with old familiar components that have matured over the years. Pierre’s vocal melodies are where that maturation rings through most; effortless and comfortable.
Lead single ‘She Is Afraid’ comes next, bringing in the poppy, catchy energy that Motion City Soundtrack are best known for. Again, the vibe is far closer to ‘90s pop rock acts like Weezer and Fountains Of Wayne than to pop punk. The pace is unhurried, trusting in the riffs, punchy chords and vocals to keep the listener hooked. It succeeds, building towards a brilliant final chorus that overlaps two catchy vocal lines in a way the band have been doing since ‘The Future Freaks Me Out’.
‘Particle Physics’ was written in collaboration with Patrick Stump, twenty two years after Pierre sang on ‘Chicago Is So Two Years Ago’ with Stump on Fall Out boy’s debut album. As could be expected, the two vocalists create intricate harmonies that play over an upbeat, poppy number. The Moog is out in full swing, the lyrics trip over themselves – this is Motion City Soundtrack in classic form.
The energy on display during ‘The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World’ is that of a band who aren’t worried about the direction of their career, but rather are able to reflect upon it. ‘You Know Who The Fuck We Are’, the second single to be released, feels like a natural evolution from the band’s latest output, ‘Panic Stations’ – perhaps more than ‘She Is Afraid’, which was originally written for that album. And yet it fits right alongside ‘Particle Physics’, a song that not only could easily have been written twenty years ago, but was explicitly begun by Stump as ‘a song Motion City Soundtrack would have written but haven’t written yet’.
Even with this level of reflection and an abundance of songs coated in catchy hooks, there are parts of ‘The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World’ that stick out as darker, more infused with the band’s post hardcore influences. ‘Your Days Are Numbered’, which features Mat Kerekes of Citizen delivering powerful vocals, alongside ‘Mi Corazón’ and ‘Bloodlines’, are the best examples of this. These songs feel newer in spirit and catchy in their own right, but in a very different way to the poppier parts of the album. The Moog becomes more of a textural element than a lead line, the chord progressions are darker and the vocals lean into a harshness that Pierre has always been capable of but rarely displays.
It is apt, then, that the closing title track hits somewhere between the two. Its lyrics deal with trying to move away from nostalgia. aiming to live in the ‘here and now’. It’s the album at its most anthemic, which is saying something, and yet still pushes boundaries. The song, and album, end with the booming instrumentals collapsing in on themselves, leaving Pierre alone with an acoustic guitar while the ghosts of feedback echo around him.
‘The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World’ is a labour of love. While many people have been wanting this album since Motion City Soundtrack reformed in 2019, there was no expectation for them to write and release new music. It felt as though ‘Panic Stations’ had marked an end for their songwriting that could have been insurmountable. With ‘The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World’, the band have proven that they can still flourish creatively, especially when the burden of expectation is stripped away and all that is left is their love of the music.
WILL BRIGHT
Crucial to understanding Motion City Soundtrack’s sound, and how it has developed, is understanding where it came from. A mixture of early ‘90s indie and post hardcore – Pixies, Weezer, Fugazi, and Jawbox, to name a few. The result was a musical style that was as happy playing in a melodic meadow as it was willing to dabble in darker edges. Discovering them as a teenager in the mid-2000s was revelatory. Here was a band that had a similar energy to the pop punk bands of the era but felt somehow more evolved, more mature.
Those influences shine on ‘The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World’. It opens on ‘Some Wear A Dark Heart’, which twirls soft guitar melodies together with Pierre’s distinctive vocals before exploding into an alt rock anthem. Its a deliberate introduction, simply and shortly constructed, reacquainting fans with old familiar components that have matured over the years. Pierre’s vocal melodies are where that maturation rings through most; effortless and comfortable.
Lead single ‘She Is Afraid’ comes next, bringing in the poppy, catchy energy that Motion City Soundtrack are best known for. Again, the vibe is far closer to ‘90s pop rock acts like Weezer and Fountains Of Wayne than to pop punk. The pace is unhurried, trusting in the riffs, punchy chords and vocals to keep the listener hooked. It succeeds, building towards a brilliant final chorus that overlaps two catchy vocal lines in a way the band have been doing since ‘The Future Freaks Me Out’.
‘Particle Physics’ was written in collaboration with Patrick Stump, twenty two years after Pierre sang on ‘Chicago Is So Two Years Ago’ with Stump on Fall Out boy’s debut album. As could be expected, the two vocalists create intricate harmonies that play over an upbeat, poppy number. The Moog is out in full swing, the lyrics trip over themselves – this is Motion City Soundtrack in classic form.
The energy on display during ‘The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World’ is that of a band who aren’t worried about the direction of their career, but rather are able to reflect upon it. ‘You Know Who The Fuck We Are’, the second single to be released, feels like a natural evolution from the band’s latest output, ‘Panic Stations’ – perhaps more than ‘She Is Afraid’, which was originally written for that album. And yet it fits right alongside ‘Particle Physics’, a song that not only could easily have been written twenty years ago, but was explicitly begun by Stump as ‘a song Motion City Soundtrack would have written but haven’t written yet’.
Even with this level of reflection and an abundance of songs coated in catchy hooks, there are parts of ‘The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World’ that stick out as darker, more infused with the band’s post hardcore influences. ‘Your Days Are Numbered’, which features Mat Kerekes of Citizen delivering powerful vocals, alongside ‘Mi Corazón’ and ‘Bloodlines’, are the best examples of this. These songs feel newer in spirit and catchy in their own right, but in a very different way to the poppier parts of the album. The Moog becomes more of a textural element than a lead line, the chord progressions are darker and the vocals lean into a harshness that Pierre has always been capable of but rarely displays.
It is apt, then, that the closing title track hits somewhere between the two. Its lyrics deal with trying to move away from nostalgia. aiming to live in the ‘here and now’. It’s the album at its most anthemic, which is saying something, and yet still pushes boundaries. The song, and album, end with the booming instrumentals collapsing in on themselves, leaving Pierre alone with an acoustic guitar while the ghosts of feedback echo around him.
‘The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World’ is a labour of love. While many people have been wanting this album since Motion City Soundtrack reformed in 2019, there was no expectation for them to write and release new music. It felt as though ‘Panic Stations’ had marked an end for their songwriting that could have been insurmountable. With ‘The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World’, the band have proven that they can still flourish creatively, especially when the burden of expectation is stripped away and all that is left is their love of the music.
WILL BRIGHT