Motion City Soundtrack Panic Stations Impressions
I haven’t been shy about admitting on this blog that Motion City Soundtrack’s fifth LP, Go, was a bit of a letdown for me. Nevertheless I was still eagerly anticipating its follow-up. The first few tracks that the band released ahead of time showed a lot of promise, but how would the whole album actually turn out? I am happy to say that they did a great job on what is (for now) their final record.
I love the album art, and it is automatically one of their strongest. The title, Panic Stations, also pleased me, as it felt like more a return to form for MCS. One big deal going into this album is the fact that it is the first without Tony Thaxton on drums. While Tony is obviously missed, Claudio Rivera does an excellent job filling in. You can still kind of tell it’s not Tony behind the kit, but Claudio’s beats feel enough like Tony’s to get you by. With that out of the way, we’re going to dive into this thing track by track now.
Anything at All kicks off the album in glorious fashion. I’m not sure if this is sentimentalism speaking due to the fact that I heard this one prior to release during my MCS meet-and-greet, but I really love this opening track and it stands tall among prior Motion City openers. Justin’s vocals are the highlight here, as he seems to be lashing out against a lost love. Towards the end he hits a higher note, which pleasantly reminds me of Worker Bee (another one of their opening gems). The energy is high on this rocker and it does a great job of getting you pumped for what’s to come, which is everything that an opener is supposed to do.
TKO was the first single we heard from this thing and it still stands as one of the album’s best. I was impressed then and that hasn’t changed. If Justin’s vocals were the star of the opening track, the moog and drums steal the show for this one. This song kicks off with an infectious drum beat and the moog soon steps in and is dripping with that lovely sound that can only be Motion City. Everything gets even better during the “breakdown”, with the drums commanding top honors.
This next one goes places. Track 3, I Can Feel You, bounces back and forth between softer verses and a louder chorus as Justin is longing to meet his special someone. One minute and forty-five seconds in things really slow down and then build up to an explosive climax. Finally the moog comes in heavy as this thing ends with the whole band jamming loud. This song has a very progressive feel to it, which reminds me of some of Motion City’s earliest material (check out Promenade/Carolina). I Can Feel You is definitely a stand out track on this record and really showcases growth in this band’s songwriting craft. So far we’re three for three.
Next comes Lose Control, the antithesis of the previous track. The shortest track on the album starts off with what sounds like a drum machine, or else some very electronic sounding beats. There’s not much to this one; it’s just a straightforward song that’s fun to bop your head to dance along with in awkward fashion. The lyrics are also pretty uninteresting. Heavy Boots is next and has a bit more of a faster tempo and element of fun. The lyrics here help cement the oceanic theme found all throughout the album (which I’ll dive into more later). I love the guitar solo, as it reminds me very much of 90’s era Weezer (Pinkerton primarily). The fuzzy guitars are great.
The next one wastes no time, as it begins with its chorus. Since I initially heard it I have never been a fan of the melody on It’s a Pleasure to Meet You, and since that’s how it begins I tend to skip it pretty often. I do really like the first verse, where we’re reminded that MCS still writes about depressing material. Even so, there’s a fair degree of hope in the lyrics here. It’s almost as if it’s satire, like Justin is commenting on and making fun his own “Debby-Downer” lyrics. If I can stick it out until the first verse, I don’t mind this one, but it’s still one of my least favorites on this album.
Over It Now has always reminded me of Her Words Destroyed My Planet, which I dig. It’s almost like a retelling of that story, where before he was lamenting a lost lady. This time around he’s saying he’s done with it all and just feels like telling her to screw off. It is kind of hard not to criticize the irony here. He makes it so clear that he has moved on yet he just seems to be rehashing the past. Maybe that’s taking the lyrics a little too seriously, but it’s hard to ignore the slightly immature words here. The chorus isn’t great on this one either, but it’s a step up from the previous track. I really like the metaphors on display in the next song, Broken Arrow, and it holds strong throughout. These lyrics are more introspective and very relatable. I love the instrumentation in the breakdown as well as how the guitars wail in the background as the song ends.
Next comes Gravity, which was an early favorite for me. I described this to a friend as being “the most Motion City Motion City song” on this whole thing, and I still feel that way. The darker tone and lyrics about being lonely and helpless remind me a lot of I Am the Movie. The drums here are also killer. The Samurai Code starts off with catchy guitar and continues with the hopelessness lyrics. The difference here is that Justin is looking at the future and wanting something different and more out of life (which in light of recent news changes the meaning a bit). His voice sounds great on this track.
Panic Stations ends with Days Will Run Away, and unfortunately this is one of my least favorite MCS songs and I don’t know why. The songwriting here gets progressive again, much like on I Can Feel You, but the song is mostly dull to me. It’s the slowest and longest song on the record, and while I have loved what the band have done with their slower tunes in the past, this one is just drawn out and boring. The whole band comes in about halfway through but that doesn’t really help it for me. Things then get eerie and you think it’s ending (as many of their albums end with weird, static noise), but then things kick back in one last time before the end actually comes. They did nail the sound and feel they were going for here, as it fits nicely with the rest of the theme of the record. Maybe it’s because I can tell it’s a song about saying goodbye and now that they are calling it quits (hopefully temporarily), it just hurts that much more. Again, fitting but unsatisfying.
I was incredibly high on Panic Stations when it came out, and while I’ve cooled off on it a little bit, it’s still a solid record. I also initially liked it so much more than Go, but now I’m not too sure. It’s certainly livelier than Go, but maybe it’s just going to take more time before I can really compare them. I just hold their first four albums in such high regard and nothing the band have released since can touch them in my opinion. I do see a lot of progression in many ways here. Some of the songwriting is a step up, but I also feel like the some of the instrumentation just isn’t as good. Two huge things that I love about Motion City are the lyrics and melodies, and much of them aren’t as high quality this time around. I wonder what this record would have sounded like if Tony had never left and he was a part of it. Again, Claudio does a great job, but I wonder how much Tony would have influenced change here. I also appreciate the fact that they were going for a theme this time around. As the cover art shows, they were trying to give a very oceanic vibe on this thing and they did nail that. Throughout most of the songs they compliment that feel with very appropriate sounds. Panic Stations does feel like a re-invigoration of the band in many ways, and that’s exactly how they presented it in many interviews when it was released. Musically, it shows a lot of energy that was missing from Go and it’s also not as dark. All of this is why the news of them taking a break is so shocking. If this is really the last record we’re going to get from MCS, that’s too bad. It’s a strong record, but nothing would make me happier than getting more new material from them sometime in the future.