Music

[Pop-Punk] Motion City Soundtrack

Julie Seabaugh

There’s something to be said for consistency, and the prodigious-haired Justin Pierre & Co. are easily the most dependably same-ol’ of their emo-tinged pop-punk peers. Unlike such Alternative Press-approved, hit-huge-then-disappoint peers as Yellowcard and The Ataris—or, using broader definitions, Taking Back Sunday, Brand New or Story of the Year—the mtvU darlings have painstakingly written the same infinitely catchy melodies for 10 years. They’ve slowly n’ surely been responsible for the majority of pogoing-youth-related injuries from 2003 on. They’ve defiantly refused to break outside their established “artistic” mode for fear of being buried under mounds of critical adulation.

Sarcasm, of course. But with their third studio effort, the Minneapolis fivesome, as always, deliver a collection that’s upbeat and well-crafted, clever and winkingly earnest. There are lots of “Whoo-oo-oo” choruses, spazzy synthesizers and songs about girls, doubt, girls, frustration, girls, heartache and girls. Tiny hints of evolution pop up in “The Conversation,” a wistful piano ballad that could easily be mistaken for a choice Ben Folds cut, and in “Hello Helicopter,” a war analogy in which Pierre wonders, “Are we ever going to get it right? Are we ever going to start making sense?” Getting it right, however, has never been an issue for Motion City Soundtrack. It’s the process of growing up that the band and their fans won’t be able to put off much longer.

MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK

Even If It Kills Me

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