Motion City Soundtrack Finally Step Up To The Plate
Tuesday, 06 April 2010
Written by Daniel Clark
Minneapolis quintet Motion City Soundtrack have spent an eternity in the pop-punk/emo-rock underground in the shadow of mainstream acts such as Fall out Boy and All American Rejects.
Like a shy and awkward kid at a school disco, MCS have never seemed to have the balls to accept who they are, embrace their music and step onto the dance floor.
My Dinosaur Life, their fourth full-length album and Columbia Records debut is a sweeping and bold acceptance of the bands inner geek. Even the album title has an awkward childish sting it is tail.
Lead singer Justin Pierre punches out upbeat lyrics with clear nostalgic nods towards old cartoons, slasher flicks and The Legend of Zelda all carried along on a carousel of cheeky riffs and punchy hooks and with a lesser reliance on the moog synth shtick of the bands previous three albums. The band can do serious too, but there is always an undertone of blatant geek, on Skin and BonesPierre likens a difficult break up to the destruction of Superman’s home planet.
My Dinosaur Life is a coming of age album for a band who aren’t ashamed to admit it. Worker Bee talks of a self improvement regime that involves selling the X-box, packing up the pot and enrolling in an online language course. There is also a feeling that the band have finally had enough of being criticised for past failures to live up to their own hype. On the jaunty chorus to @!#/@!, Pierre issues an earnest tell-off to some unnamed haters: "You all need to go away/You motherfuckers need to leave me and my sensitive homeboys alone."
Motion City Soundtrack have never aspired to make anything besides bright, punchy and radio friendly tracks. For some reason though they have never managed to convert potential into chart success in the way bands of a similar ilk have done.
Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus was drafted in to produce on My Dinosaur Life and seems to have added that missing ingredient. This album is cohesive and listenable from start to finish, with stand out tracks such as Disappear, Her Words and @1#?@! all worthy of some form of top 40 success for a band that have spent far too long failing to deliver a smash hit album or single.
STEREOBOARD RATING - 4/5.
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