Motion City Soundtrack: My Dinosaur Life

On roughly the same level with watching X-Factor and losing the will to live, it's impossible to listen to Motion City Soundtrack without breaking out into spontaneous smiles.

For the last seven years, their four albums have kept to the same basic sound: ridiculously upbeat, fierce melodies, palpitation-inducing pacing and Justin Pierre's unmistakable voice which is often aped (*cough* Fall Out Boy *cough*) but rarely better. His acumen for ripping through the octaves with complete disregard for the natural order is unparalleled. Over the years the songs have got tighter, the melodies catchier, the production cleaner and the message relatively deeper, but the blueprint remains the same.

Essentially Motion City Soundtrack are what you get if you take From Here To Infirmary-era Alkaline Trio, slap them in the face, take them out into the sun and tell them to get a grip because the world's not that bad. Such similarities are exemplified perfectly on "Her Words Destroyed My Planet" which begins with our narrator falling asleep watching Veronica Mars (A* for the pop-culture reference) before veering off into a tale of divorce and self-hatred. It's a testament to Pierre's writing prowess that we're still smiling through these lines. Sure there's a little heaviness in our hearts and those seeking to delve into the deeper meaning of his writing will likely find many melancholic gems, but hey: still shiny. They'll also find a sobering tale of self-improvement and hope in the face of tragedy.

With My Dinosaur Life being the band's major label début, the focus will be on any so-called compromises made for the sake of commercial concerns. To these we highlight the fact that MCS are a pop-punk band, the only way they can sell out is if they grab acoustic guitars, retreat to a cabin in the woods and write French poetry to a mournful breakbeat. The added budget has clearly had an incredible effect upon the quality of the songs. Now afforded some real sonic depth, every instrument sparkles and when the choruses or breakdowns come a-knockin' you can practically feel the tremors. Better yet, we can barely hear the 80's synths which plagued their previous work. We're almost tempted to tell producer Mark Hoppus to quit his day job.

As we touched upon before, this is not just an album of pretty songs. MCS have a welcome tendency to show up the kids on the scene with witty and wry little splashes of humour or insight littered throughout Dinosaur. "Like a slasher film / I’m torn in opposite directions / the plot sucks, but the killings are gorgeous." is one we could mention. Then there's also the gangsta-geek obscenity of "@!#?@!" which gives us this: "In early '99, I beat the Ocarina Of Time / I'm quite the legend in this town / My friends get wicked shit / from all the foul-mouthed fools you roll with... / We all just wanna do our thing / without the misery you bring / Go fuck yourselves, leave us alone."

My Dinosaur Life is one of those albums that we need every so often to remind us that pop-punk is still a going concern, and still a necessity in a world which favours maudlin introspection. It also eschews the shallow vapidity of some of their peers proving once and for all that although a comedian holds less esteem than a poet, he's the one who people want in their lives.