I don't know why or how, but Panic Stations has recently become one of my favorite albums, despite finding it uneventful for a final album at the time. Days Will Run Away is such a perfect send off.
I've even come around on it a bit. I don't ever reach for it really, but if I shuffle Motion City Soundtrack, the songs fit in just fine
I was one of the seven people who loved Panic Stations when it came out - I remember when they broke up I wrote Justin a long message in Facebook telling him how much I’d appreciated him and the band and told him some specific memories of how they’d been a positive force in my life. And I mentioned that I thought Panic Stations was their best work. So he wrote back and specifically, the fact I loved that record so much blew him away. He basically said no one felt that way, and it was nice to hear. It seemed like he disagreed with me saying it was their best work also lol.
I've for sure come around to Panic Stations a ton since it was released. Aside from a few songs, like Over It Now and Lose Control, it's not nearly as bad as I thought it was when it first came out. From Broken Arrow to the end is an extremely strong run of songs.
I loved Panic Stations when it came out and still do. Would put it above GO and MDL. (I like both of those albums a lot, before I get stoned) It’s a Pleasure To Meet You, I Can Feel You, The Samurai Code, Lose Control and Days Will Run Away are some of my favourites.
I still think like half of that album is super weak for them. It only really has 3/4 songs that are up to their usual standard.
I agree with this. A lot of the songs sound like b-sides. I do think I Can Feel You and Days Will Run Away are wonderful, but everything else is super hit and miss.
Panic Stations is the album by MCS I listen to the least. I don’t think it’s as strong over all and not as memorable as previous albums. It does have a few good songs I enjoy though. Great closer.
I think it's probably their weakest, but I also always felt it was pretty much as fun as the rest of their discography, just a little less insubstantial. Felt like a light callback to Commit The to Memory, which I appreciated.
Claudio is a great drummer but for me, Tony is integral to the sound of MCS. That’s what drags Panic Stations down the most.
I Can Feel You is a top 5 MCS song for me, It’s all about that bridge. Panic Stations is underrated for sure, it’s singles we’re just bad choices. Go is my personal favourite by them so what do I know haha
Panic Stations to me was their most straight forward album. It is a pop rock album. Also didn’t they record the instrumentation live? I could be mistaken.
Go is also incredible. I’ve brought it up before - a ton of Motion City Soundtrack fans are just Commit this to Memory fans. Or maybe they go you Even if it Kills Me and get off. When I saw the band live during the My Dinosaur Life tour, there were large groups of fans talking about not hearing that album and hoping the band didn’t play anything off of it (and I think they really only did play a couple songs from it). And when they got back together for some shows last year, the set was almost all from the first three albums, and there was nothing from Go or PS, and most people seemed fine with it. Unfortunately, it just sure seems like the fan base has decided that their early stuff is so good/their new stuff is so bad that they just want to hear 15 year old songs from now on. I’m not totally sure how that happened, but it can’t be a development that makes the band want to make more music.
I Can Feel You is top tier MCS and would be incredible live, but like others said it seems unlikely they'll ever play anything past EIIKY now
Unfortunate but not surprising to hear. This is very similar to Thursday, even though the latter was still dropping (misunderstood) classics late in their career.