Album Review
By now, US pop-punkers Motion City Soundtrack have become known for the darkly personal lyrics of frontman Justin Pierre. Since the release of the band’s debut album ‘I Am The Movie’ in 2003, Pierre has spoken openly of his inner demons and his struggles with drugs and alcohol. When listening to any of the band’s first three albums, it is difficult to miss the frequent references to insecurity and depression. However, while the singer has stayed true to his deep songwriting style on fourth album ‘My Dinosaur Life’, the record continues to feature a lot of the humorous lyrics that define the other side to MCS’s music.
Despite the doom and gloom that is heard regularly throughout the songs, Motion City Soundtrack are a surprisingly positive-sounding band. Their music is cheerful and upbeat, and could easily be enjoyed at a beach party or some other sunshine-filled event. In this respect, their songs are not unlike those of other well-known pop-rock acts, such as Weezer and Sum-41. As if to explain this mixture of joy and anguish, on the band’s website, Pierre states: “I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
To help record this latest offering, MCS enlisted Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus to produce it, as they did on their second album ‘Commit This To Memory’. Previously, Hoppus was new to the whole production thing (MCS had asked him if he wanted to produce their album while they were on tour supporting Blink-182). But since that time, he has gone on to produce records for a number of other bands, including New Found Glory and Fall Out Boy. The experience that Hoppus has gained during the four years prior to ‘My Dinosaur Life’ is evident throughout the album and, as a result, the music has a much stronger feel to it.
The album is filled with the same kind of infectious vocal melodies (‘A Lifeless Ordinary’) and good punk-rock riffs (‘Her Words Destroyed My Planet’) that fans will have enjoyed on other MCS releases. This is their first LP on Columbia Records following their recent move to the major label from independent record company Epitaph, which has previously helped to kick off the careers of numerous punk bands, such as The Offspring and Rancid. So far, however, MCS don’t seem to have lost any of their punk-rock ability and several of the songs here have continued to offer that sound.
In addition to the recognisable MCS presence, the band have tried to employ some other styles and influences. A few of the tracks have a more straightforward rock feel to them. One song entitled ‘History Lesson’ is a very good attempt at folk-punk. Complete with gang vocals, the track is not dissimilar to something that you might hear from the likes of Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys. The imaginatively-titled ‘@!#?@!’, which features some of the strongest language on the album, sounds a bit like Ben Folds Five with guitars instead of piano.
Although there is nothing especially new here, Motion City Soundtrack have managed to create another great rock album that fans of the melodic-punk genre will love. As their popularity continues to grow with each album, MCS will carry on making their music and, hopefully, we can expect this kind of result from them again in the future.