Motion City Soundtrack – Even If It Kills Me

When a band breaks out onto a scene with a phenomenal debut, that debut can sometimes come back to haunt them in later years. From that point on every single song written by the band will be ostensibly compared to their debut. Look at Taking Back Sunday. Yeah, Louder Now and Where You Want To Bewere good enough albums but are they as good as Tell All Your Friends? The answer is a definite no. In fact, I doubt Taking Back Sunday will ever be able to recapture the glory that they had with their debut and every one of their future releases will be held up against it.

Motion City Soundtrack are falling into the same trap. Their debut, I Am The Movie, made waves in the pop-punk underground. The synth heavy pop-punk was devoured by everyone who heard it. Songs like My Favorite Accident, The Future Freaks Me Out, Boombox Generation, Capital H and more had everyone talking. Their sophomore album, Commit This To Memory, was received to great anticipation and suspense; however, it didn’t make nearly as many waves. It was still good, but missing that punch that made their debut so memorable. A few songs, When You’re Around and Everything Is Alrightbeing the standouts, became fan favorites but people still hung onto I Am The Movie.

Now the Minneapolis five-some are back with their third album, Even If It Kills Me; an album that seems to have taken yet another step back in comparison to their debut.

It starts off rather strong with a heavy keyboard melody that introduces the song Fell In Love Without You and the song never lets down. It packs an energetic poppy punch like that of 80’s new wave with a kick. However, the album soon tumbles as the band leaves behind the more pop aspect of their sound and seem to try for a more melodic rock sound. The most noticeable difference is within Justin Pierre’s vocals – the one element that really characterized MCS back in the day. His vocals are much more mellow and controlled as he leans for a more radio friendly approach and leaves behind the digitalized vibe that he previously had. They still sound like Pierre but fail to really grab the listener’s ear as it sounds far too similar to everything else out there.

This feeling stays strong for most of the album. A few songs in the first half, like Calling All Cops, stick out but most just blend into one another. That remains true until they throw the listener through a complete loop with the piano based ballad The Conversation which successfully pulls you back into the album. It was a needed change up because in all honesty, the album was starting to feel repetitive. They then pick up the pace with Broken Heart which actually sounds like it could have been a part of Commit This To Memory but they ruin it with a four and a half minute Hello Helicopter which sounds like a synth heavyRocket Summer.

Lucky for us though, from that point on Motion City Soundtrack find their feet and actually give out a consistently solid outing during the final four tracks. Where I Belong, Point Of Extinction, Antonia and Even If It Kills Me sees the band returning to their roots of electronic pop-punk. Pierre’s vocals are spot on, the beat is lively, the moog is there but not oppressive, the back-up vocals held lead the way with either gang chants or perfectly placed “woahs” and for the first time on the record, the guitar work starts to stick out.

Those four songs are the saving grace of Even If It Kills Me and shows that the band can still write songs that will get people talking. I only hope that on their next album they find a way to stay on this track and leave the radio rock ballads behind them.