My Dinosaur Life

The complexities and dense topics still remain on Dinosaur, giving the album many layers for the listener to peel apart. Basically, My Dinosaur Life is the fusion of the best moments of Motion City Soundtrack's previous three albums and expanding on that, while maintaining all the uniqueness and quirks that fans love about the band.

On My Dinosaur Life, the Minneapolis quintet's winning fourth album (ably produced by blink-182's Mark Hoppus), frontguy Justin Pierre lets his geek flag fly, likening a breakup to the destruction of Superman's home world and puzzling over ephemera ranging from acid rain to Busta Rhymes, all backed by soaring choruses guaranteed to fossilize themselves into your brain.

In the end, Motion City Soundtrack has created another in a series of impeccably constructed pop albums.

Even after ten years of navigating the new millennium's punk-emo scene, Motion City Soundtrack sound positively hungry. My Dinosaur Life is a sugar rush without the crash at the end, just the insatiable need to hear it all again.

Instead of concerning themselves with matters out of their control, Motion City Soundtrack have knuckled down and at last knocked one out of the park.

My Dinosaur Life, on which the band strikes a radio-ready balance between mayhem and melody, may well trigger their long-awaited breakthrough.

Motion City Soundtrack's smart-aleck tendencies combine nicely with a harder sound on My Dinosaur Life, pushing the band back to its roots with enough twist to propel it in a new direction.

They have evolved their sound in this release with a host of much stronger tracks than ever before. While the immaturity remains in these tracks, the instrumentals are much more polished and infectious.

While the album has its share of radio-friendly anthems like "A Lifeless Ordinary," the real standouts on the band's fourth full-length are the grittier, unexpected moments such as the sinisterly syncopated "Hysteria" or post-hard-core masterpiece "Disappear." [Mar/Apr 2010, p.90]

Taking on the whole album without the aid of the skip button is likely to leave one feeling over-caffeinated and under-stimulated; you're better off going straight to the highlights, which are so generously hook-laden as to withstand any number of compulsive replays.

My Dinosaur Life, with it's punchy guitars and lyrics about ennui and breaking up and video games, would fit perfectly in any blink fan's iTunes library.