Review Summary: The fact that their giddy, upbeat temperament sounds so sincere is almost enough to forgive Motion City Soundtrack for their gratingly unvaried 2010 output... but not quite.
Motion City Soundtrack sing about “Veronica Mars” and Xbox. They not-so-subtly place a cartoon dinosaur on the cover of their LP. “Gossip Girl” is riddled with their tunes. Obviously, nobody is mistaking Motion City Soundtrack for Godspeed You! Black Emperor, in that they’re unabashedly simple, topical, and a bit childish. The band’s past has been labeled aptly as
pop-punk (not to be confused with the subgenre that balances the hybrid of genres, “pop-punk”), and
My Dinosaur Life is an obvious continuation of their well-defined sound. Giddy and sunny, any edginess from
Even If It Kills Me or
Commit This To Memory have been polished off with squeaky clean production and an unremitting buoyancy from frontman, Pierre. Disappointingly,
My Dino Life is the low point of their career. Even listeners with a soft spot for jovial, catchy pop-punk have to see the diminishing effects of utter homogeneity and repetition that
My Dinosaur Life delivers.
My Dinosaur Life begins with a cheerful, unserious, catchy tune with a ton of repetition, “Worker Bee.” My Dinosaur Life closes with a youthful, equally catchy ditty, “The Weakends.” Guess what’s in-between? Motion City Soundtrack have a one-track mind on their latest. There’s no diversity in neither temperament nor music.
My Dinosaur Life’s utter homogeny is the single, striking aspect that sinks what could have been another successful pop-punk outing. In the past, Motion City Soundtrack often indulged in their power-poppy side, with songs that sound similar to Blink-182 and their buoyancy, minus any semblance of angst; but a whole album of this? Sorry, Motion City, but you just crossed the line. The lyrical matter is highly indicative of this facet, and stays straight on line with the overarching attitude of sprightly, carefree, blitheness. On
My Dinosaur Life, Motion City are utterly callous towards anything that varies from the happy-go-lucky, melodious tunes, and it gets old quickly.
The pop-rock ordeal is well-executed for the most part. A wonderfully irresistible chorus is always a stone’s throw away; but sadly the pros of
My Dinosaur Life so easily succumb to the cons. Pierre’s tongue-in-cheek lyrics about smoking weed, playing videogames, and of course, girls, fit the aesthetic of the album suitably, but aren’t quite the highlight of the music as they were on previous Motion City work. With such a uniform creation, it’s difficult to distinguish song from song. “Stand Too Close” succeeds simply because it’s a tad different than the rest; although in comparison, it’s
still merely a slightly softer version of the rest. “Disappear” stands as the most obvious single-material of the bunch, but there’s nary a song on
My Dino Life that wouldn’t fit that role- as they’re all so identical. Pierre’s “wittiness” feels more forced than ever, and with punchy guitars, and inflated choruses
literally throughout, my disappointment is making it excruciatingly difficult to not make a, “Dinosaurs went extinct for a reason...” joke.
The worst part is, Motion City Soundtrack seem to enjoy their failure so much on
My Dinosaur Life, that it makes me, the disappointed, feel guilty. The giddy pop-punk band’s 2010 aesthetic is obviously an outfit that suits them very comfortably, I just wish it weren’t such an ugly ensemble.
My Dinosaur Life is a stain on the discography of a band that’s capable of better; but with all the fun they display in their mediocre output like the album at hand, it’s difficult to disparage them for doing what appears to be second-nature for Motion City. Still, I expected
something more satisfying than a collection of immature, middling tracks with no semblance of variety or ingenuity. That’s not asking too much, is it?
