The album was partially composed there and in their hometown of Minneapolis, during a period in which frontman Justin Pierre was seeking treatment for alcohol abuse.

The singles' music videos achieved rotation on cable channel MTV2 while the band toured alongside Fall Out Boy and Panic!

Club referred to the album as a pop punk classic, "full of hook-laden, keyboard-assisted songs whose bright melodies don't mask the despair and self-loathing lurking beneath them.

It went through several lineup changes, with the band gaining permanent members Tony Thaxton (drums), Jesse Johnson (keys) and Matthew Taylor (bass) in 2001.

[3] The next year, it was picked up for larger distribution through California-based independent label Epitaph, best known as the home of punk rockers the Offspring and Bad Religion.

The group were part of an abundance of Epitaph signings, including Matchbook Romance and From First to Last, amid concerns the label had strayed too far from its roots, or "a little too emo.

[5][6] Hoppus was developing an interest in recording music from a production standpoint, having recently acquired a large amount of gear and amplifiers.

[9] He left the band during the writing stages for Los Angeles where he moved in with Epitaph founder Brett Gurewitz and began attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.

[11] Recording sessions for Commit This to Memory were booked by Hoppus and scheduled over six weeks at Seedy Underbelly Studios in the L.A. suburb of Valley Village.

"Mark kept telling us, 'Your name is going to be a lot bigger on the front than mine is on the back'," recalled Justin Pierre, "So he would throw suggestions out there but always say, 'Feel free to turn these down.'

Hoppus was the one who advised the band to merge two previously unrelated songs—a slower, softer song and a pulsating drum track—into one, which became "Time Turned Fragile".

[14] With production completed, Hoppus was very excited for the band that he felt was on the cusp of "great things", recalling, "After six weeks of these guys living all together in two rooms of this house with a studio attached they created this amazingly beautiful and honest album.

[18] For the record, he intended to simplify his lyrics to enhance storytelling and he drew inspiration from Tom Waits, Ben Folds and John K. Samson's writing styles.

[16] Keeping in the Waits/Folds inspiration, Pierre strove to write from another person's point of view; in the case of "Time Turned Fragile", it is sung from the perspective of his father.

Fuad"—which stands for "Let's Get Fucked Up and Die"—grew out of a night on Motion City Soundtrack's 2003 UK tour with The All-American Rejects, in which the latter band's merchandise manager was severely inebriated.

After she had moved out, Pierre found a portion of her math homework in a couch cushion, leading to him imagining a scenario of finding a letter from a departed lover.

Scott Heisel of Alternative Press wrote that "Memory is an inspired, mature sophomore disc chock full of catchy, intelligent pop-rock.

"[25] Allmusic's Johnny Loftus considered the band more intelligent and sophisticated than their Warped Tour peers: "Motion City Soundtrack['s] wistful memories, tales of breaking up, and frantic searches for answers [are] realer than the next pop-punk combo on the quadruple summertime bill.

"[26] Jennifer Maerz of Entertainment Weekly ended her review with the note that "MCS' slick, soaring anthems ultimately unite the spirits of those who see themselves, like Pierre, as 'lifeless corners of this empty frame.

"[27] The Washington Post's Marianne Meyer opined that the record "nimbly moves from skittish rhythms to genuinely tender sentiment.

[29] Tony McMenamin of Blender deemed it the publication's album of the month, calling it "a charged mix of instantly catchy pop-punk lashings and somber acoustic wailings.

Club referred to the album as a classic of pop punk, "full of hook-laden, keyboard-assisted songs whose bright melodies don't mask the despair and self-loathing lurking beneath them.

"[2] Reyan Ali of Cincinnati CityBeat wrote that Commit This to Memory "absolutely bleeds charm", commenting, "Even with all the dire thematic matter Pierre's lyrics covered, [...] the band framed the words with music that sparkled, owing to spunky, inspired hooks, full-sounding record production and ample doses of Moog.

"[10] Alternative Press's Tyler Sharp deemed the record a "classic",[39] while Taylor Morgan of OC Weekly called it "the soundtrack of millennial youth, reminiscent of breakups, making out, goofing off, and growing up.

[4] After recording, the band set out on the inaugural Epitaph Tour, alongside Matchbook Romance and From First to Last, with appearances by the Matches and Scatter the Ashes on select dates.