So yeah…don’t judge an album by it’s cover.
I cannot deny that when I first heard Motion City Soundtrack’s newest album would be called My Dinosaur Life and saw its kiddie cartoon-y cover, my heart sank a little. I fear that MCS might have jumped the musical shark (a la Weezer) and had decided to regress in emotional maturity and overall quality.
Thankfully, I was wrong. My Dinosaur Life not a sign of musical decay. In fact, it’s the band’s best album since their fabulously stellar debut LP I Am The Movie, and the band’s most mature album to date.
To say My Dinosaur Life is kind of catchy is akin to saying LeBron James is kind of a good athlete. The hooks on the album burrow into the listener’s skull like a diamond coated drill bit. Oddly enough, it’s not an immediate impact. On first listen the album seemed pretty unspectacular in this sense, but by the third listen I knew all the choruses and couldn’t shake them from my noggin.
Beginning with “Worker Bee,” the album carries a sense of buzzing ferocity through each sugary melody and metaphor. “Her Words Destroyed My Planet” underscores what make My Dinosaur Life work so well. It returns MCS to the hyper detail oriented and pop culture infused lyrical style of I Am The Movie and forcefully reels you in with the amazing sound of the scream vocal lead (which sounds like it was done with a talk box of the gods). More importantly, every track on the album has a distinct feel. “Delirium” sounds nothing like “History Lesson” which bares no resemblance to “Stand Too Close” which isn’t like “Hysteria” in the least. It’s all MCS, but it’s so varied that everything stays fresh listen after listen. Heck, there’s even “@!#?@!,” which not only drops an Ocarina of Time reference, but has to be the most peppy song ever with a refrain keying upon the phrase “you motherfuckers.” All together, it’s like a finely prepared stew of fetching ditties that has been simmering long enough to make it all deliciously tender.
However, all this pop artistry might be for not if frontman Justin Pierre’s growing up thematically with his lyrics. On tracks including “A Lifeless Ordinary (Need A Little Help),” Pierre shifts the focus from his typical wallowing in all his idiosyncratic problems to a self-reflective tone. The songs combine a realization of personal faults with a strong desire to work it all out (with bouncy chords providing the backdrop). “Skin and Bones” is as close a pop punk can come philosophizing, and it’s pulled off without feeling forced or preachy. Pierre seems to finally be trying to sort out his problems rather than just bitch about them. It’s so bizarre to see a band of MCS’s ilk grow up gracefully, but My Dinosaur Life is proof it’s possible. It’s simply delightful to know at least one band committed to fun-loving pop punk isn’t stuck in a permanent state of arrested development.
It sure doesn’t look like Motion City Soundtrack will be leaping over sharks anytime soon.
Review Score: 8
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