Motion City Soundtrack- My Dinosaur Life (***½)

Nerds don’t have it easy.

Sure, people like Rivers Cuomo and MC Lars have been on the forefront of geek chic in the 00s, but the constant battle they’ve endured for social acceptance (while remaining true to themselves) is as much of a universal constant as death, or taxes.

On some level, maybe that’s why bands like Motion City Soundtrack are so appealing. Coming from a genre that’s saturated with far too many A New Found Glory sound-a-likes, Motion City’s music comes across as charmingly inviting while retaining a quirky sense authenticity. No bad haircuts for them, instead they’ve remained true to themselves with a steady diet of pop culture references and quick hooks.

It’s with no surprise then, that the Minneapolis 5-piece keep things consistent on My Dinosaur Life, their fourth album overall. Tapping Mark Hoppus of blink-182 fame for the production duties, My Dinosaur Life finds Motion City name checking everything from Busta Rhymes to the Ocarina of Time, amidst furious, down stroked guitar and big choruses. The result is a record that plays to their strengths as songwriters, and less as an innovation on their current sound.

The record hits the ground running with the driving “Worker Bee” and the hard-hitting “A Lifeless Ordinary (Need A Little Help),” both tracks offering an energetic one-two punch. Against the backdrop of Joshua Cain’s bouncing guitar and Tony Thaxton’s enormous drums, vocalist Justin Pierre uses his smooth upper register to confess, “I think/I can figure it out/But I’m gonna need a little help to get me through it/Need a little help to get me through it!” Jesse Johnson’s airy piano provides some lightness to the song’s stompy chorus, but it’s all very clear that this is a different Motion City Soundtrack than the one that wrote 2007’s Even If It Kills Me.

In fact, there are two big differences that distinguish My Dinosaur Life from the rest of Motion City’s back catalog.

The first being Pierre’s newfound lyrical maturity, which is a welcome change from the band’s usual “so-invested-it-hurts” mentality towards life. On My Dinosaur Life, Pierre has found a more optimistic sense of self to combat the perils in his world. There’s more than enough blame for ex-lovers, but there’s also a proud sense of personal progress that stems Pierre's prose. Whether it’s lamenting on past tragedies for future wellness (“Her Words Destroyed My Planet”), a refusal to wallow in self-pity (“History Lesson”), or the defense of a specific social circle (“@!#?@!”), My Dinosaur Life shows Pierre as someone ready to take the unknown by the horns and wrestle it to the ground.

This brings us to the album’s other huge difference, and that’s the band’s stringently conservative take on its own sound. This is surprising, considering the risks Pierre is taking with storytelling this time around, but My Dinosaur Life sheds much of the experimentation and quirky synthesizers that made Even If It Kills Me such a breath of fresh air.

It seems that Motion City Soundtrack wrote a set of songs that’s primarily guitar driven this time around, light on ballads and heavy on vigor. Hoppus also seems to implement a “less-is-more” production style, where each instrument carries itself with clarity, but lacks richness. The bass is bouncy, and the guitars zoom from muted to buzzing, but none of it quite crunches or chugs along with much weight. Instead, Motion City Soundtrack relies on their energy, a quality that’s endearing, but also shows a band afraid to take the next big leap in their sound.

However, the album does find a comfortable groove midway through when Hoppus and Motion City decide to pepper these tracks with some expanded instrumentation. The acoustic strum turned dancey thump of “Stand Too Close” and the string laced “History Lesson” give the album a bit more character than its typical pop-punk by the numbers approach. Elsewhere, “Pulp Fiction” flies by with fuzzy melodies and twinkling keyboards. Pierre’s rapid fire wit goes into warp speed as he juxtaposes life’s style and substance with lines such as, “And like a nightmare/Covered in 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…”

Sadly, the filler on My Dinosaur Life relegates it to the status of a good record, rather than a great one. “Hysteria” is a rather vanilla mid tempo sing-along that shows Motion City coasting when they should be going for the jugular. Additionally, “Delrium’s” banal chant of “I swear/To pharmaceuticals…” and “@!#?@!’s” overly confrontational chorus of “You all need to go away/You mother ****ers!” tend to mar a rather consistent lyrical outing.

Despite those mishaps, however, My Dinosaur Life is the sound of a band that’s enjoying themselves. While they sport their share of growing pains, Motion City Soundtrack serves up another sweet and satisfying exercise in quirky pop-rock, their geeky fans hanging on every go-go-gadget guitar part and Miami Vice name check. If other bands indulged in what they loved as unabashedly as Motion City Soundtrack does, pop music might be less about fitting in entirely.

In fact, nerds might have the good life.

Key Cuts: A Lifeless Ordinary (Need A Little Help), Stand Too Close, Pulp Fiction

Sounds Like: You’re Awful, I Love You (Ludo), Pasadena (Ozma), Weezer (The Green Album) (Weezer)

Click on the artwork to sample My Dinosaur Life for yourself!