- Date
- Monday, May 19, 2008
- Author
- Corey Dutson
Motion City Soundtrack - Even if it Kills Me
- Category
- Music Reviews
- Tags
- 7/10, Even If It Kills Me, Motion City Soundtrack, music, Music Reviews, review, The Starting Line
I’m a bit of a sleeper fan of Motion City Soundtrack. I had their albums available to me for over a year before I listened to them. The only reason I really gave them a chance was because I was driving through a snow storm and the radio couldn’t pick up anything. I was really shocked when I went through both albums that I had of theirs (Commit this to Memory and I Am the Movie) and was craving more. Their bouncy, feelgood sound had me totally hooked. I listened through them all again, and I realized that in contrast to their sound, much of what was said bordered on major depressing.
Track Listing:
- Fell In Love Without You
- This Is For Real
- It Had To Be You **
- Last Night **
- Calling All Cops
- Can’t Finish What You Started **
- The Conversation
- Broken Heart **
- Hello Helicopter **
- Where I Belong **
- Point Of Extinction
- Antonia **
- Even If It Kills Me
**Clear Favorites
Their newest album doesn’t really introduce much new, other than a couple slower piano tracks and a slightly softer feel. MCS know what their sound is and they don’t really seem to want to step away from it too much at the moment. I’m not saying that that’s a bad thing, though I think that at this point you could start to find their music exhausting. My only complaint with MCS is that they sound pretty much the exact same every song. Sure you change up the words and the chords, but it’s all the same. This is also a great aspect though because you know what to expect and so a returning fan knows what they’re getting themselves into.
I also have to note that “Last Night” sounds eerily similar to The Starting Lines “Photography”.
My bitching aside, “Even If It Kills Me” is a solid album. I did notice that “Even If It Kills Me” seems to be a little slower, a little softer, and a little more toned down then its brethren, which I wasn’t fully expecting. I really liked the step into different territory by going with a couple piano-driven tracks, which bring about a totally different feel to what would be a purely typical album by them. The whole album seems a tad more reflective than the others, which is always a good thing in my mind.
I’m still not sure what they were trying to accomplish with this album. Did they mean to make it sound more reflective? Or was that just a side-effect of something else? Where did the piano-driven songs come from? Why the detachment from the norm? I have a feeling that the whole group just wanted to aim for something different, but didn’t want to step too far outside the comfort-zone that is their sound. I can’t blame them, but it does make what could have been an amazing (or disastrous) album, and settles it into the ‘pretty good’ category.
7/10
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