EP REVIEW: Permanent Midnight – Justin Courtney Pierre
Singer-songwriter JUSTIN COURTNEY PIERRE is back with his fourth solo EP, continuing to flex his songwriting muscles with five wistful and melancholy pop-rock songs. As the title suggests, Permanent Midnight is a dreamy affair that sees Pierre exploring both fresh and familiar themes on a record that should help fans cope with the long wait for a new MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK project.
The tone is established with Used To Be Old School, a lamentation on aging and the forward march of time. Despite the downbeat themes, the jangly pop song sparkles, with Pierre’s lilting vocals filling the verses with an irresistible sense of yearning.
If the opener was a little too naval-gazing for your tastes, then Back At 45 is a great pick-me-up. On this joyful bop, Pierre enlists his child to assist him with vocals as he muses about the ups and downs of fatherhood. It’s not the strongest song on the record, but it’s undeniably joyful and Pierre’s chemistry with the kid is simply adorable. So Beautiful And Difficult is an aching ballad that sounds more adjacent to COLDPLAY than MCS’ pop-punk peers. The meditative track sees Pierre crooning about lost love, as chirping keyboards create a pleasantly cosy ambiance throughout the chorus.
House Of Strangers is probably the most straightforward rock song on the EP, incorporating some country-tinged guitar leads in an upbeat pop-rock track that could easily fit onto an album from Pierre‘s main musical project. One could even imagine this track showing up on one of their earlier albums if the lead guitars were swapped for Moog lines. This is to say, it handles this record’s more mature themes with the emotional punch of the band’s earlier work.
Pierre turns the emotion up to 11 on closer, You’re The Reason. This love letter to his wife is a little saccharine (“You’re the reason there’s a flutter in my heart / You’re the reason that nothing ever falls apart”) but it’s also endearingly sincere, and at points, genuinely stirring. The song has shades of JIMMY EAT WORLD’s softer ballads, but with the secret sauce of Pierre’s sparkling vocal tone and self-effacing charm, the song is far more than an imitation.
On Permanent Midnight, Pierre has continued to experiment with new sounds, this time looking to dream pop for inspiration. Despite a lack of variety, the five tracks presented are all thoroughly enjoyable and packed with charm. A worthwhile listen not just for MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK fans, but pop-rock listeners everywhere.
Rating: 8/10
Permanent Midnight is out now via Epitaph Records.
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