With the start of each new decade, it is
only natural to reminisce on the last.
In the music world, the turn of the millennium brought a wide assortment of bands, some great ones and some that will all be glad to forget.
Motion City Soundtrack, the five-piece power pop group from Minneapolis, Minnesota, is surely one of the last decade’s brightest acts.
With three major albums under their belt, the seasoned veterans are looking to recapture the success that kept them at the forefront of the pop punk genre throughout the last decade.
My Dinosaur Life, the fourth installment from Motion City Soundtrack, opens with lead singer and lead guitarist Justin Pierre singing, “It’s been a good year, a good new beginning,” and no other line could summarize the effects of the bands last couple of years.
Pierre has been in and out of substance and alcohol abuse centers for years, constantly jeopardizing the bands future.
But with a new outlook on life and a pledge against drugs and booze, Motion City Soundtrack looks stronger than ever and ready to reclaim their crown.
My Dinosaur Life features the darker, more raw sound that made their first release, I Am the Movie so successful. Couple that with the more commercial appeal of their sophomore release, Commit This to Memory, and you have something very special.
Lyrics have always been a strong point for the band and past experiences for Pierre surface quite vividly in Delirium, a song that paints a picture of what had been going on in his head for so long.
“There’s a voice, there’s a voice, there’s a voice in my head,” sings Pierre.
“It’s rather soothing and it tells me I’d be better off dead, but if I beat it, maybe punch it, even kick it away, then everything will be alrightly.”
Pierre continues to self reflect as he confesses, “I swim in pharmaceuticals, I swim in pharmaceuticals.
The medicine deactivates the things I take, the things that take me.”
Other songs like, Stand Too Close and Pulp Fiction stand out on My Dinosaur Life with the signature Motion City Soundtrack charm, while the album’s first single, A Lifeless Ordinary (Need A Little Help), shows Pierre dealing with his past troubles and honestly asking for help.
“I think I can figure it out,” sings Pierre. “But I’m gonna need a little help to get me, need a little help to get me.
I think I can figure it out, but I’m gonna need a little help to get me through it, to get me through it.”
My Dinosaur Life is a 40 minute adventure into the lives of the members of Motion City Soundtrack and the glamorized hardships of the limelight.
If you take any message away from Pierre and company on this album, know this: the past is the past, so live for today.
- My Dinosaur Life by Motion City Soundtrack