Motion City Soundtrack – My Dinosaur Life

For once, I’m reviewing an album that’s actually new.

I’ll cut to the chase: this album has some of the most original and catchy melodies I’ve heard in anything approaching alt/punk rock. Whereas the new Green Day album seemed like a tiresome rehash of their old chord progressions and riffs, every song on Motion City’s newest album screams for attention, and each one is doing something a little different. Adrenaline-delivering drum fills and complex rhythms combine with perfectly-tightened lyrics to provide some truly breathtaking moments on this album.

That being said, some of the songs seem a little short to me. There’s certainly enough melodic interest to support more repetition of themes, but perhaps it would be difficult to write more lyrics, which I definitely understand. Basically, this album seems to have been optimized for radio play, although I don’t know whether that was actually part of Motion City’s plan. Each song is a self-contained, self-supporting package. The album doesn’t have a whole lot of cohesion as a result, but it’s still greatly enjoyable to listen to as a whole.

Oh look here are some music videos for “Her Words Destroyed My Planet” and “Disappear”, which, incidentally, are two of my favorite songs from the album.  They also provide a nice look at the variety on this album; “Her Words” is a poppy, catchy tune about breakups and self-improvement, while “Disappear” is an intense, dark song about…something.  Angst angst angst.  It’s quite good, though.