Motion City Soundtrack - The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World (September 19, 2025) • Page 5

CAC3 · Jun 17, 2025 at 8:50 AM

Really love this first song, can’t wait for this! MCS and TSL back to back weeks in September is a dream come true.

Greg · Jun 17, 2025 at 8:51 AM

CAC3 said:

Really love this first song, can’t wait for this! MCS and TSL back to back weeks in September is a dream come true.

And Yellowcard quickly after.

Aaron Mook · Jun 17, 2025 at 8:53 AM

Song is very good, the Weezer comparisons are spot on and it sounds closer to what would have come in-between EIIKM and My Dinosaur Life to me. Expectations are officially high!

contra11mundum · Jun 17, 2025 at 8:58 AM

It’s been driving me crazy what switchfoot song the guitar at the beginning reminds me of and I figured it out.

It’s both Chem 6a and The Loser.

Love this new song!

cricketandclover · Jun 17, 2025 at 9:29 AM

Give me the tourrrrrrrrr

cricketandclover · Jun 17, 2025 at 9:30 AM

CAC3 said:

Really love this first song, can’t wait for this! MCS and TSL back to back weeks in September is a dream come true.

August 8: Good Charlotte
September 12: Cartel re-record
September 19: Motion City Soundtrack
September 26: The Starting Line
October 10: Yellowcard
TBA: New Found Glory

These old bones are eating well.

SamLevi11 · Jun 17, 2025 at 9:56 AM

Aaron Mook said:

Song is very good, the Weezer comparisons are spot on and it sounds closer to what would have come in-between EIIKM and My Dinosaur Life to me. Expectations are officially high!

I thought exactly the same. It's grown on me with every listen too.

ChampsMusic · Jun 17, 2025 at 9:56 AM

Dig the Severance take on it. Sadly not their most powerful single, but "taking it out on me" is very catchy. Once again another epic bridge.

So very happy to have this band back.

Aaron Mook · Jun 17, 2025 at 10:05 AM

“ One day I’ll disappear and you’ll be just like me”

“Don’t Call It a Comeback” isn’t just the name of a song off Motion City Soundtrack’s 2003 debut I Am The Movie, it’s also an apt way to summarize the band’s mission statement. During Motion City Soundtrack’s initial run from 1997 - 2016, the Minneapolis-based group released six celebrated albums, toured the world countless times and achieved gold status for their hit single “Everything Is Alright.” After taking a three year hiatus, the band—vocalist/guitarist Justin Pierre, guitarist Joshua Cain, bassist Matt Taylor, keyboardist Jesse Johnson and drummer Tony Thaxton—started performing live again in 2019, but even the most optimistic fans didn’t necessarily expect a follow-up to 2015’s Panic Stations. “When we started conceptualizing the idea for this record, I was thinking about what we loved about doing this originally,” Cain explains. The result is The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World, an album that sees the band transmuting the last decade of life experiences into the most catchy songs of their career.

Some of these songs were originally conceived during the making of Panic Stations, such as the first single “She Is Afraid.” However it took some time and perspective for the songs to finally come together in their final form. “I love the opening riff of “She Is Afraid,” I knew it was one of my favorite things the first time I heard Josh play it,” Pierre says of the distorted guitar bends that immediately set the tone for this alt-rock anthem. “Sometimes we can get caught up with the idea of if a song is punk rock enough; we realized that for the song to be a success we need to have a great time playing it,” Cain adds when asked about the mindset behind Motion City Soundtrack’s first new collection of songs in a decade. That feeling of carefree exuberance is evident all over The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World from the instantly infectious palm-muted power of “You Know Who The Fuck We Are” to the motivational bent of “Things Like This,” the latter of which features vocals from Deanna Belos of Sincere Engineer.

Over the course of their career Motion City Soundtrack have worked with legendary producers ranging from Ric Ocasek to Mark Hoppus, but for The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World they reunited with Sean O’Keefe (Fall Out Boy, Plain White T’s) at the legendary Chicago studio, Electrical Audio. “Working with Sean was really comforting because he’s so laid back and I love that he’s a drummer, so he’s obsessed with drum sounds,” Taylor explains. “He’s super open to experimenting and it’s like hanging out with a friend you feel comfortable around.” That sense of experimentation is especially evident on the atmospheric, bass-driven “Mi Corazón,” which sees the band embracing their post-hardcore influences without sacrificing the keen sense of melody that has always defined their sound. “I don’t like hearing the demos with fake drums because I’ll get those parts in my head, so I literally showed up to the sessions not even hearing the songs,” says Thaxton, whose improvised creativity led to some of the album’s most memorable moments. “I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable doing that and trusting myself,” he adds.

Fully realizing the potential of their music without overthinking the execution is the secret to The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World’s success—and it’s evident on “Particle Physics,” a song co-written with and featuring Fall Out Boy guitarist/vocalist Patrick Stump. “We met Patrick in the early days of Fall Out Boy and had more recently talked about having him contribute to this album,” Cain explains about the song’s origin. “He told us he had an idea running through his head about a song Motion City Soundtrack would have written but haven’t written yet. It was this little riff and chorus to ‘Particle Physics’ and even though it was just part of the song, the vibe was completely there.” From there the rest of the band scaffolded the verses and bridge around that section while Pierre added his signature brand of pop culture-influenced lyrics, which reference everything from the indie band That Dog to celebrated neurologist Oliver Sacks. The result is a track that sounds distinctly like Motion City Soundtrack while still featuring one of rock’s most recognizable voices.

However the most impressive aspect of The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World is the fact that instead of relying solely on nostalgia and album anniversary tours, Motion City Soundtrack continue to experiment outside their comfort zone. In that spirit, another standout song is the moody meditation “Your Days Are Numbered,” which features an impassioned cameo from Citizen’s Mat Kerekes that Pierre describes as “fucking brutal.” “ It's a very interesting thing to feel like we made the most important record of our career this late in the game,” Johnson says when asked about how he views the album in the context of the group’s discography. “ You might have some callbacks to some older stuff but it wasn’t intentional, it was because we were just being ourselves.”

Motion City Soundtrack will be the first ones to tell you that The Same Old Wasted Wonderful World wasn’t necessarily an easy album to make, but now that it’s finished it’s a document of the last ten years that shows them growing as people alongside their music. “I think that if you look at a lot of our past records, it’s about ‘What’s wrong? What am I not getting right? Why do I feel fucking crazy? Why can’t I figure this out’… and I figured it out,” Pierre admits. “It’s almost like I felt I didn’t have an identity [in the past] and now by working through the hard stuff, I know who I am.” That sense of self-discovery is mirrored by the music, so when the final track fades out with just acoustic guitar and Pierre’s vocals it may be the conclusion of the album, but it’s the beginning of another chapter for Motion City Soundtrack’s collective journey.

Good press release. Makes me really excited for "Particle Physics" and "Your Days Are Numbered." Also sounds like the album isn't likely to be a one-off!

Drew Beringer · Jun 17, 2025 at 10:11 AM

I think the song is really fucking good.

brothemighty · Jun 17, 2025 at 10:12 AM

good song! pumped to hear the whole thing

ScubaSteve182 · Jun 17, 2025 at 10:27 AM

contra11mundum said:

It’s been driving me crazy what switchfoot song the guitar at the beginning reminds me of and I figured it out.

It’s both Chem 6a and The Loser.

Love this new song!

Oh god lol I hear We Were Meant to Live.

Also, this song reminds me nothing of panic stations as in it is actually good, so high hopes for this record. Sounds in between MDL and Go

mattfreaksmeout · Jun 17, 2025 at 10:48 AM

Very pleased with this song. 9/19 can't come fast enough

irthesteve · Jun 17, 2025 at 10:49 AM

mattfreaksmeout said:

Very pleased with this song. 9/19 can't come fast enough

A quick look at this, I thought you were rating the song a 9 out of 19

sam_might_say · Jun 17, 2025 at 10:50 AM

irthesteve said:

A quick look at this, I thought you were rating the song a 9 out of 11

oh no

mattfreaksmeout · Jun 17, 2025 at 11:31 AM

irthesteve said:

A quick look at this, I thought you were rating the song a 9 out of 11

I'm officially going to move to an 11 point rating system

SpeckledSouls · Jun 17, 2025 at 11:48 AM

mattfreaksmeout said:

I'm officially going to move to an 11 point rating system

Peak if true. You'll become my most trusted reviewer.

Chcurry182 · Jun 17, 2025 at 11:55 AM

Love the video. Makes me love the song that much more.

It's been mentioned numerous times but it feels so good to be anticipating new albums from Motion City, The Startling Line, etc.

irthesteve · Jun 17, 2025 at 12:08 PM

sam_might_say said:

oh no

Shit

irthesteve · Jun 17, 2025 at 12:34 PM

new song is pretty solid

fredwordsmith · Jun 17, 2025 at 3:47 PM

Absolutely fucking love all the dual guitar work. I also think the Moog is used very effectively here after being sidelined or deadened the last two records.

i’ve gone from six to midnight and it’s still the middle of the evening here as far as my expectations.

SpeckledSouls · Jun 17, 2025 at 5:03 PM

The song is definitely growing on me

contra11mundum · Jun 17, 2025 at 5:14 PM

Man. This has grown on me immensely with each listen

fredwordsmith · Jun 17, 2025 at 6:51 PM

The chorus is classic MCS, and the bridge alone is better than most songs on Panic Stations.

Supernova · Jun 17, 2025 at 8:03 PM

One listen. That's all I needed. Teal vinyl secured. Glad that was still available this late at night.

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