Album
Motion City Soundtrack
My Dinosaur Life
Columbia (label)
22 March 2010 (released)
21 March 2010
My Dinosaur Life is Motion City Soundtrack’s fourth album and we find them as lyrically inventive as ever (leaving aside the juvenile swearing). While MCS deal in pop/punk/rock, on this album they’ve attempted to widen their sound, a bit.
Take Disappear, a compact, belter of a song which has a definite Iron Maiden gallop mid-way through. History Lesson is a rollicking tune with a folksy tinge to it, and shouty background vocals that give it a very communal gang-hut feel.
Her Words Destroyed My Planet with its terrific hook and riffs is one of the album’s highlights. Promising, and if the band had written more songs in this vein, we could have been looking at something interesting.
Unfortunately they didn’t, and overall, what we have is a collection of mediocre songs. Worker Bee, @!#@! and Skin and Bones are efficient, urgent, driving songs that are fine for their duration, but won’t linger in the memory. They should go down well live, but only to pad out the set, showstoppers they’re not.
One of the problems is the sound. The album has a gleaming production by Mark Hoppus (Blink 182), which while punchy and aggressive, lacks any real grit and so renders the songs pristine and sterile. Punk or rock, in whichever guise or variation, really should have some dirt under the finger nails.
Take Disappear, a compact, belter of a song which has a definite Iron Maiden gallop mid-way through. History Lesson is a rollicking tune with a folksy tinge to it, and shouty background vocals that give it a very communal gang-hut feel.
Her Words Destroyed My Planet with its terrific hook and riffs is one of the album’s highlights. Promising, and if the band had written more songs in this vein, we could have been looking at something interesting.
Unfortunately they didn’t, and overall, what we have is a collection of mediocre songs. Worker Bee, @!#@! and Skin and Bones are efficient, urgent, driving songs that are fine for their duration, but won’t linger in the memory. They should go down well live, but only to pad out the set, showstoppers they’re not.
One of the problems is the sound. The album has a gleaming production by Mark Hoppus (Blink 182), which while punchy and aggressive, lacks any real grit and so renders the songs pristine and sterile. Punk or rock, in whichever guise or variation, really should have some dirt under the finger nails.
