Artist: Motion City Soundtrack
Album: My Dinosaur Life
Label: Columbia
Grade: A
For all those people who didn't commit it to memory, Motion City Soundtrack returns to ravage the airwaves like a velociraptor tearing into Samuel L. Jackson.
Motion City Soundtrack makes their major label debut as My Dinosaur Life begins its inevitable climb to the top of the charts.
After MCS released Even If It Kills Me, a lot of critics and fans feared that the band would soon fizzle out to a hollow shell of what used to be one of the most promising bands in pop punk.
Well, MCS extinguishes all of those thoughts as My Dinosaur Life returns the band to the dark, but extremely catchy, end of the genre that garnered them fame for their first two albums.
This comes as no shock, since MCS brought Blink-182 bassist Mark Hoppus in to produce the album – the same man that produced their 2005 breakthrough album, Commit This to Memory.
The first track, 'Worker Bee,' begins the album with a slow intro that gets replaced quickly with an upbeat melody. The lyrics from this song alone show the vast changes that MCS has undergone.
'It's been a good year, a good new beginning/ I'm through with the old school so let's commence the winning/ I've been a good little worker bee/ I deserve a gold star,' Justin Pierre bellows.
As the record continues to unfold, MCS show that they truly have been good little worker bees.
'Her Words Destroyed My Planet' is one of the catchiest songs on the whole album. It's impossible for the lyrics to not become trapped in one's head and the beat can cause spontaneous dancing.
Motion City begins to plunge My Dinosaur Life into darker material as 'Disappear' and 'Delirium' propels the listener through a gloomy look at addiction and the immorality that comes along with it.
MCS brings the mood back up with 'Stand Too Close.' The acoustic guitar the band sports during the song perfectly accents Pierre's soothing voice as he reflects on a past love.
The track 'Pulp Fiction' first draws the listener in with a synth-heavy intro, but soon introduces the listener to the lyrics, which are arguably the best on the album. The song is littered with the geeky references and nerdy innuendos that first got them into the spotlight.
'It's like a bad dream, something from the back of a magazine/ Black and white and cheaply put together/ Like a slasher film/ I'm torn in opposite directions/ The plot sucks but the killings are gorgeous,' Pierre chants.
MCS continues the dorkiness as they start to make it a little personal with '@!#?@!.' The band decides to chew out the people that hate on them and their friends.
'My friends get wicked s*** from all the foul-mouth fools you roll with/
Just push your luck, there will be blood/ Most likely your own carnage/ We all just wanna do our thing/ Without the misery you bring/ Go f*** yourselves/ Leave us alone,' Pierre sings.
Motion City explores the unknown in the song 'Skin and Bones,' questioning life and what it truly means. The song is the perfect way to segue into the end of the album as it starts to slow back down.
As My Dinosaur Life draws to a close, 'The Weakends' ends the album perfectly. The verses are slower and dark, but the chorus and bridge are more upbeat with more uplifting lyrics. The dynamic song ends as the band recites the chorus till the album finally fades out.
Motion City Soundtrack is prone to take over the pop punk world with their latest release, which happens to also be their best.
My Dinosaur Life will remind everyone why Motion City Soundtrack got so much attention and proves that they are not going extinct any time soon.
E-mail: arts@ubspectrum.com
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