Article By: Ashley Maceli

Motion City Soundtrack has once again returned with another delightfully melancholy album that is just too awesome to not listen to over and over again. It could easily become an album that you could continuously listen to all the way through and add to your favorites list. My Dinosaur Life (Columbia Records, 2010) may just be one of the best albums the pop-rock quintet has released.

Front man Justin Pierre doesn’t sound anymore different than he did on other Motion City albums, but the constancy of his voice is what is wanted. What may have to change, though, is the overly done pessimism of the past songs and albums. Upbeat music is most likely the saving grace of the band.

The short and fun song “Worker Bee” opens the album with a great start. Next, “A Lifeless Ordinary (Need a Little Help)” is a little laid back like many of the songs on the album, which gives the listener a chance to really listen to the words for once, and bob their head lightly with the steady beat that this album has seemed to nail. The same goes for another short, fun song, “History Lesson,” and the sweet “Stand Too Close,” where Pierre brings up that message again of self-deprecation, but still has some funny lines such as “I have apologized a billion times when I’ve gone off the wall like Busta Rhymes.”

The single “Disappear” features a fast upbeat sense with a solid chorus. Unlike some albums, the single is not the only song that you can listen to numerous times. A slightly depressing song, “Her Words Destroyed My Planet,” still has the fast-paced and sarcastic, uppity beat to overshadow the words. While Motion City Soundtrack is well-known for their woe-is-me lyrics, the originality of the lyrics can sometimes make you giggle from the silliness yet cleverness of the words as well.

“Pulp Fiction” brings some more memorable melancholy lyrics that may just make the song, with Pierre singing “and like a nightmare covering the tracks that brought you there/Paranoid and frozen in the heathers like a slasher film/I’m torn in opposite directions/The plot sucks but the killings are gorgeous.”

The familiar message of “@!#?@!” sends the clear point of “screw you!” when Pierre lightly sings “you all need to go away/you mother f**kers/you all need to leave me and my sensitive homeboys alone.” Guess the band can’t take the criticism of being told they are too touchy.

The album finally ends with “The Weakends,” which is surprisingly triumphant and the best song to end My Dinosaur Life with. Perhaps this is a hint that their next album will perhaps have the upbeat music match the lyrics that could, dare we say it, have an optimistic swing.

Motion City Soundtrack has not released an album since Even If It Kills Me (Epitaph Records, 2007). Their last album was a little bit of a disappointment, but My Dinosaur Life has completely made up for it. There isn’t a bad song on this album, or any song sounding identical to any other on the album. Motion City Soundtrack has made it back on the map and it will be exciting to see what they will do after this accomplishment.