With every release of pop-rock-punk (prunk?) the stream of conscience gets polluted. If you feel that jumping up and down with a crowd of imaginary teenage girls - baby-tees and all - is invigorating and refreshing, then you'll get a real splash with to Motion City Soundtrack. The album is a highly polished effort, yet still a little dirty (much like faded jeans), which boasts twelve songs providing listeners with puffy realities filled with furtive girls, lonely boys, drunken miss-haps, and smiling storm clouds. Motion City are a very well rehearsed band, and the production of former Blink 182 front-man Mark Hoppus really elevates the sound to an ultra-pop, hmmm...squishiness, I'll say. But, I would have to ask listeners, at the age of eighteen and below, to try and avoid the conditioning of MTV and Much Music; find the importance of music, void of lifeless body-mashing and head banging.



*Personally I am tired of looking at the open mouths, sideways hats, and droopy eyes, of today's youth*



I must admit, writing reviews like this is a bitter sweet affair. I actually like Motion City Soundtrack because they play really well. They play on time, singer Justin Pierre sounds great, and the guitar work is very catchy and something you could really dig...if you were fourteen. But this is the very problem in essence. We have not assumed that kids will enjoy this music; the music industry has made them like it. I hate these reviews even more because Motion City Soundtrack probably aren't aiming to make music for these kids. I'm sure they like Radiohead just as much as the next man, but their very appeal is to these kids who wish to feel older than they really are. I suppose, it's asking the question "where have all the relevant bands gone?" Bands who weren't so willing to accept ideals, but who look at the world with a razor sharp eye, deflating the essence of life into three minutes of timeless scrutiny and impenetrable beauty. So, there you have it, that's the disclaimer, now the album.



The opener to the album is a catchy cosmic ride through one guys insecurities and yearning. Singer Justin Pierre sings "I am wrecked/ I am overblown" with that searing pop-punk voice as a fuming guitar starts on a rapid coarse to outer-space. The chorus line comments very well on the superficiality of the record "I just want to feel attractive today". This hopeful-hopeless confession fills me with little more than a slight urge to tap my foot.



Probably the song which I believe fuels the ever-present image of these kids, sideways hats, and these girls, baby-tees, is "Make Out Kids". The lyrics paint a picture of a nerdy girl with a strange "eye for contradiction" and a guy with a taste for "inexpensive wine with cordon bleu". Aha, oh I get it, that's a contradiction! Anyways, it's one of those stories which is too perfect to be real. Pierre sings in that cracking voice of insecurity he has, while still remaining potent and powerful (Bam, another contradiction!). The song flows in that same outer-space vibe with twinkling guitars and then mashes it all up in an explosion of crunching guitars, strained vocals, and energized drumming. The story layers on with experiences and events, little materials which littered these two lives, and then he re-assures "her" that "he's all right". Too bad these "Make out kids never had a chance to be best friends". The love which exudes from this track is syrupy and tangible, it's not that sublime feeling which grips your heart.



The whole record has that sweet-tooth feeling. I can only imagine in the studio the musicians saying "let's pump that up, let's pump this up, oh, pump that up too, hey Justin, you think you can pump up your vocals?". Everything is so pumped up it sounds plump, fat, obese. Isn't obesity that heath epidemic which has America in it's thick un-flinching talons?



Here, in my head, I hope for music that sounds timeless, that I can hopefully listen to fifteen years down the road and still be overcome with that overwhelming feeling of the first time. Motion City Soundtrack don't retain this quality. In-fact, I can't honestly think of any one band in this genre that captures this sensation. Perhaps Mark Hoppus's former Blink 182 came closest by dominating pop-radio with relevant music such as "Adam's Song" but after that, even they seemed pretty much doomed. There must be music out there which doesn't just touch on the current human experience but rips it apart and reveals it's entrails. The closest Motion City Soundtrack gets is on "Together We'll Ring In The New Year" when Pierre sings "But most of all I'm bored"; I couldn't agree more.



Track Listing

1 Attractive Today

2 Everything is Alright

3 When "You're" Around

4 Resolution

5 Feel Like Rain

6 Make Out Kids

7 Time Turned Fragile

8 L.G. Fuad

9 Better Open the Door

10 Together We'll Ring In The New Year

11 Hangman

12 Hold Me Down