time turned fragile
a look back at 2005
inspired by jason tate’s look back into his absolutepunk.net lists (aka idea i am stealing from him) i will be looking back at my best of lists from my absolutepunk.net years and highlighting the number one album from my re-ranked list
when motion city soundtrack released their debut album i am the movie in 2003 it didn’t create many waves for me. i thought the music video for ‘my favorite accident’ was cool and i liked the breakdown but it released during the summer before my senior year of high school and i think i was just really more into heavier stuff at the time (hot damn! and you come before you both released on the same day a few weeks after and i think the first few singles from the fiction we live were circulating as well - really anything that was on ferret or vagrant was consistently in my rotation during this period of my life). so fast forward roughly eighteen months and it’s a late night during my first year of college. i was probably writing some bullshit paper for my english 201 class and the absolutepunk.net message boards were buzzing about the upcoming second album from motion city soundtrack, commit this to memory. the record had leaked five or so months before its street date of june 7, 2005. i had seen the video for ‘everything is alright’ on mtvU and thought the song ripped so naturally i hoped on instant messenger and went to the file share portion where a handful of my forum friends already had the album ready for download (this was a few months before i become a staff member for ap.net - another reason why 2005 was a pivotal year for me). from the opening soaring riffs of ‘attractive today’ to the bittersweet burst and bloom of ‘hold me down,’ i was immediately hooked. it was instantly obvious that the band had refined and taken what they created with i am the movie and took it to unreal levels. produced by mark hoppus (who had raved about the band prior to even meeting them, invited them to open for blink 182 on their 2004 european tour and the rest is history), commit this to memory features motion city soundtrack’s biggest and loudest hooks (‘everything is alright’ went gold and tracks like ‘when you’re around,’ ‘make out kids,’ and ‘hangman’ became fan favorites) while incorporating a lot of emo and indie-adjacent tracks (‘resolution,’ ‘time turn fragile,’ ‘lgfuad,’ and ‘hold me down’) into the record (this was before it was cool - the influence of bands like the rentals, superchunk, and the new pornographers is prevalent throughout).
each member of the band crafted their own material for the record - making it their first truly collaborative album and is a big reason why the record is so great. the cohesiveness and focus on commit this to memory is at an all-time high for the band, especially since vocalist justin pierre was seeking treatment for alcohol abuse during the writing and recording the album. the themes throughout the album deal with trying to be a better person but still fucking up and letting people down. a lot of pierre’s lyrics didn’t resonate with me at the time because i was a nineteen-year old kid with a lot of life to live ahead of him. i loved this record in 2005 because of the insanely catchy hooks and the blending of different rock styles and genres (this record is my favorite performance from jesse johnson - he knew exactly when to be vibrant or understated with the keys and ‘feel like rain’ is a prime of example of both).
as the years went on the more commit this to memory means to me - the dissolution of my first and second relationships featured a lot of spins of this record in the aftermath. ‘hold me down’ always breaks me because i’ve been that guy - the reason a relationship fails. and the older i got the more lyrics like i believe that i can overcome this and beat everything in the end but i choose to abuse for the time being. maybe i'll win, but for now i've decided to die hit harder and the more i realized that commit this to memory is somewhat a pseudo-concept album. pierre does an excellent job of being so personal and visceral with his lyrics - drawing inspiration from his life and the lives around him. essentially commit this to memory is the slow descent of losing control on the entirety of your life. the highs and lows, the alcohol and drug dependance, and ultimately being left by the person you loved the most. it’s a brutally honest take on life dressed up with some of the greatest pop-punk compositions heard in the past fifteen years.
so when i look back on my best of 2005 list and it’s a no-brainer to me that motion city soundtrack’s commit this to memory is my favorite album from that time - it’s one of the few records that have gotten better with age and one of the few records from this era that i still consistently listen to. a record that grew with me and was always there during the good and bad.
i know i say that i'm just fine but i hope you wonder from time to time
the best of 2005 - revisited
in october 2005, jason asked me to be a staff reviewer for absolutepunk.net - an opportunity i jumped at. below is the first end of the year list i submitted for the site.
sufjan stevens - illinois
thrice - vheissu
every time i die - gutter phenomenon
latterman - no matter where we go…!
fiona apple - extraordinary machine
nightmare of you - nightmare of you
gatsby’s american dream - volcano
motion city soundtrack - commit this to memory
bright eyes - i’m wide awake it’s morning
kanye west - late registration
death cab for cutie - plans
minus the bear - menos el oso
sleater-kinney - the woods
sigur rós - takk…
fall out boy - from under the cork tree
against me! - searching for a former clarity
modern life is war - witness
emery - the question
armor for sleep - what to do when you are dead
the academy is - almost here
boys night out - trainwreck
the national - alligator
bright eyes - digital ash in a digital urn
comeback kid - wake the dead
circa survive - juturna
copeland - in motion
alkaline trio - crimson
jack’s mannequin - everything in transit
bloc party - silent alarm
spitalfield - stop doing bad things
so let’s dissect this original list first - just reading through it i can exactly pinpoint where my head was at fifteen years ago and how my tastes would eventually evolve over the next fifteen years. this year was the first time i’d ever heard of sufjan stevens and i only listened to that record because of all the praise it was getting on the forums - illinois obviously left a mark on my taste then and now. thrice’s vheissu was thee ap.net album in 2005 so no surprise there but I am glad I stuck to my guns with gutter phenomenon because I remember a lot of fans being disappointed by the hot damn! follow-up but that record only got better with age. i absolutely forgot that sigur rós was a band and thought that silent alarm made a bigger impact on me in 2005. major mid-aughts emo vibes with the spitalfield, emery, gatsby’s american dream and boys night out records and holy shit remember nightmare of you? that record is great but it’s one that just didn’t stand the test of time for me. I am also glad that twenty year-old drew wasn’t too cool for school with from under the cork tree - it can’t be understated how vital that record is. my biggest blind spot was paramore’s debut album all we know is falling, along with coheed and cambia’s first volume of the massive good apollo series. other 2005 records that i’ve got into much later are bob mould’s body of song and darkest hour’s undoing ruin. those are definitely reflected in my re-ranking of my 2005 list, which follows:
motion city soundtrack - commit this to memory
every time i die - gutter phenomenon
the national - alligator
sleater-kinney - the woods
circa survive - juturna
sufjan stevens - illinois
death cab for cutie - plans
kanye west - late registration
bright eyes - digital ash in a digital urn
fiona apple - extraordinary machine
modern life is war - witness
bloc party - silent alarm
fall out boy - from under the cork tree
bright eyes - i’m wide awake, it’s morning
paramore - all we know is falling
bob mould - body of song
comeback kid - wake the dead
thrice - vheissu
the academy is - almost here
the bled - found in the flood
the white stripes - get behind me satan
darkest hour - undoing ruin
between the buried and me - alaska
coheed and cambria - good apollo vol. one
minus the bear - menos el oso
copeland - in motion
jack’s mannequin - everything in transit
against me! - searching for a former clarity
silverstein - discovering the waterfront
boys night out - trainwreck
over the past fifteen years, the national and circa survive have emerged as two of my all time favorite bands plus you can see my shift from pop-punk into appreciating heavier stuff more (the bled, between the buried and me, and darkest hour) reflected as well. digital ash has become my go-to bright eyes record along with my love of every time i die’s gutter only being solidified. illinois falls a bit because it’s probably my third or fourth favorite record of his now while vheissu is a record i rarely go back to (although i still appreciate the dynamic shift within the band’s compositions). Silverstein’s second album finds a place here years later for two reasons 1. I played college baseball 2005 on my ps2 obsessively that summer and ‘smile in your sleep’ was a staple of that game and 2. the title track on this record still goes and is one of the best mall emo ballads of all time. i still adore boys night out swinging for the fences with that insane concept while it’s a shame that the academy is didn’t become one of the biggest pop-rock bands today. anyways find me on twitter if you wanna argue about this.