New Motion City Album Hits the Streets

Commentary Piece

“It’s been a good year, a good new beginning,” sings lead singer of Motion City Soundtrack, Justin Pierre on the opener song to Motion City Soundtrack’s latest album My Dinosaur Life. He’s most certainly right, since My Dinosaur Life is the first album the Minnesota native quintet has released on a major record label, Columbia Records.

Motion City Soundtrack is a band that could have disbanded when lead singer, Justin, had major issues in his life. Motion City Soundtrack survived due to the loyal support from fans and how Justin uses music as an outlet of all his emotions.

“I like Motion City Soundtrack because their lyrics are catchy and their sound is unique,” said freshman Victoria Molinari.

My Dinosaur Life is an impressive album, showing how the band has grown. Though it seems as if Motion City Soundtrack is going against their old ways and copycatting others, this album is still a great listen.

Through a calm acoustic guitar and hand clapping in the background spread across 3 minutes, the song “Stand Too Close” is a great hit to play for the radio. Lyrically, the song sounds like a man who has had awkward relationships, which is similar to Weezer’s lead singer, Rivers Cuomo’s writing style. Which is also awkward and nerd like.

With lyrics like “I fell asleep watching Veronica Mars again” and the verses where Justin sings about his life after his life changing break up, “I’m taking an online course. I’m learning to speak Japanese!” the song “Her Words Destroyed My Planet” is also another song that sounds similar to Weezer’s. The only difference is that this song has more dark undertones, and Justin’s voice sounds like he’s crying because he wants to get the girl back.

Though a remarkable album, there were a few songs that felt as if they didn’t belong. One of them is “Pulp Fiction”. The chorus of the song sounds like one huge fragment sentence.

“It’s like a bad dream, something from the back of a magazine. Black and white and cheaply put together like a slasher film. Torn in opposite directions, the plot sucks but the killings are gorgeous.”

The deluxe version of My Dinosaur Life, bought on iTunes, includes acoustic versions of “A Life Less Ordinary”, “Pulp Fiction”, “Worker Bee”, and “Disappear”. There is also a bonus track “So Long Farewell” which is alright, but is very drony due to repeating lyrics throughout the song and has a slow acoustic guitar as the main instrument.

Justin’s voice in the song and the single guitar being used, sound haunting, for a song that already sounds dark with the original track.

As a whole, the album is catchy rock, with a flavor of punk, pop and sensitive lyrics. For sure, this is Motion City Soundtrack’s best work to date.