Motion City Soundtrack's Go

Okay, so the bad news about Motion City Soundtrack’s new album is that their best song is still “My Favorite Accident.” The good news is they’ve released their best album since Commit This to Memory. Too many times on Even If It Kills Me and My Dinosaur Life (though admittedly, much more frequently on Even If It Kills Me), the band had this sickness (and I listened through those two albums again to make sure I still felt this way about them) of coming up with an amazing sounding verse or a super catchy chorus and pairing it with a chorus that lacks punch or a verse I can’t bear to listen to because it’s so lame. That is gone on Go. And I’ll admit that several of the songs had the potential to be that way, but it seems as though they were able to get past that. What follows is my track-by-track analysis of Motion City Soundtrack’s Go:

The album’s opener, “Circuits and Wires,” was a song that almost didn’t make it onto the album. Written during the time of My Dinosaur Life, this song is better than nearly any song that actually made it onto that album. It has a great energy to it and already shows that it beats the curse from Even If It Kills Me [henceforth referred to as the “Kills-Me Curse”] of not being able to piece together a good chorus with a good verse. This song was the right choice for an opening track, as it gets the listener involved early in the excitement of the album.

The lead single from the album, “True Romance” starts off with the chorus, performed with just vocals and an acoustic guitar, before going into a verse reminiscent of the way “Everything is Alright” (off of Commit This to Memory) is constructed. “True Romance” is handled well instrumentally by the band. If the refrain’s vocals were performed over a less interesting and engaging arrangement, this song could have fallen prey to the Kills-Me Curse too. I do have to say that they should have gone with bigger instrumentation in the refrain following the bridge though. The bridge sets it up so well for it, but instead they go into the normal refrain.

The lyrics to the third track, “Son of a Gun,” are nothing special, but the band makes the song sound really good with the way the instrumentation blends with the vocals (melody and harmony). For a softer song, MCS nails this one. The opening really reminds me of Okkervil River.

I was so happy when I heard “Timelines,” the second single off of this album, because it was this track that made me feel like they’d broken the Kills-Me Curse. The layered vocals work again in their favor on this track. The song starts out with such great energy. I’m glad it was chosen as a single.

Track five, “Everyone Must Die,” is the ballad of the album. If you are an avid MCS fan who listened to this album from start to finish, you’d be surprised that “Son of a Gun” wasn’t the ballad of the album until you heard this song. It’s quite beautiful, and they use a real strings section, which the band members were particularly excited about.

“The Coma Kid” has an interesting idea in its lyrics. It’s a fairly simple song in structure (same chords throughout), but they put enough variance in the way they play it not to bore the listener, which is extremely important.

Motion City Soundtrack is experimenting with time signatures! The verse of track seven is in seven, and it works fantastically. The lyrics to the song are about this creature called a boxelder that, as a group, infest a tree because they need the tree to live, but in doing that, they kill the tree. Justin Pierre, the lead singer, likened this to a relationship, and that’s where he got the idea for the song. Interesting imagery. I don’t really need the “HEY, BOXELDER, TAKE ME WITH YOU” at the end, but oh well.

“The Worst Is Yet to Come” is a great song. The verse is so bare it just oozes emotion, and the chorus is executed so well instrumentally and vocally. One of the more up-tempo songs on the album, Motion City Sountrack succeeds in making a song that would be fun to drive to.

The next track, “Bad Idea,” was originally intended for Commit This to Memory, which is, as you know by now, the last album of theirs that I liked. They’ve said that they never felt like they could get this song right, but have revisited it for each album since. They finally reworked the instrumentation for it, and got it to work. I wish they’d only taken the time to do that with almost everything else they released between Commit and Go [end rant].

“Happy Anniversary” is probably my favorite song on the album right now, as it’s just a downright incredible performance. Justin Pierre has said that he kept breaking down every time he tried to sing it during recording, because it was so emotional for him. (Side note: I totally got goosebumps from it just now). I’d say that this song is a stronger, more grown up version of “Autographs and Apologies” from I Am the Movie.

Having been ready for “Happy Anniversary” to close the album (à la “Hold Me Down”), I was pleasantly surprised to hear “Floating Down the River.” This song rocks. “Caught beneath the weight of it all” is such a beautifully performed line, and the band made a good decision in letting that line happen nearly every time without any backing instrumentation.

______________________________

______________________________


Overall, Motion City Soundtrack’s fifth album, Go, is a much softer album than that which fans of the band are used to. There is a lot of acoustic or non-distorted electric guitar on this album, and it works really well for the songs they’ve written, which are slower-paced anyway. Personally, I felt like most of the music of Even If It Kills Me sucked, and most of the lyrics of My Dinosaur Life sucked, so this album was a welcome effort from a band that I absolutely loved in the middle of the 2000s. Whether you agree or not, I’d love to hear from you! Just post a comment below.

Go is available in three formats.
Standard Edition: the 11 track album as a compact disc.
Digital Edition: a high-quality mp3 download with three bonus tracks (“Bottom Feeder,” “Give Up/Give In,” and “Alcohol Eyes”)
Vinyl Edition: the 11 track album on vinyl.

To buy Go, visit http://www.bluecollardistro.com/motioncitysoundtrack/

311's Uplifter

Uplifter, the latest effort from Nebraskan reggae-funk rock band 311 will be released tomorrow, June 2nd. I had the privilege of listening to this album early, and I must say, this album is really good. The following is a track-by-track summary of the album.


It kicks off with the single, "Hey You," which was, in my opinion, incorrectly chosen as the first single. Don't get me wrong, I like the track, but it's not the obvious single. My brother put it perfectly, I think, when he said, "It doesn't match." The parts of the song don't go together. When they try to go from the heavier parts to the softer parts and back they sound like they had to try too hard to make it work, more successfully sounding like a mash-up of two completely different songs than like a radio-worthy single.

The next track, "It's Alright," took 7.5 seconds to completely draw my attention (seriously, 7.5 seconds). The verse is put together so beautifully that it makes me think of it as one of the most successful attempts at a reggae/rock fusion ever. Nick Hexum's and Tim Mahoney's guitar parts beautifully complement each other. Going into the chorus, S.A. Martinez's harmonies couldn't work better. After the second chorus, 311 continues to surprise me with their versatility as they turn the song minor for a split second, then lead into a slap bass solo by P-Nut. Just when you think that couldn't sound tighter, Hexum starts singing on top of it, followed by the layered vocals provided by Martinez.

Track 3 ("Mix It Up") is a heavier track than the preceding two. The lyrics get slightly monotonous, with the chorus talking about the "sum of all the parts when you add it all up" and the prechorus describing how Hexum was "never really good at math." All in all, this song seems like a less good version of their self-titled album's "All Mixed Up" (which appears as track 3 on their greatest hits album).

"Golden Sunlight," track 4, starts out with an almost asian sounding riff. Despite the overdrive on the guitars, this song is almost Zen in nature, and Hexum's voice helps that with its smooth timbre. Martinez's chorus sounds almost like a power ballad, while still being relaxing. For the bridge, 311 reverts to their typical sound of heavy laden guitar riffs over a pounding, strong rhythm section as Martinez sings a melody that brings the reggae feel to their songs. Overall, they are really successful in bridging the differing styles of each part of this song.

I didn't expect to like "India Ink," because it's track 5 of a 311 record. I have both their Greatest Hits and 2005's Don't Tread On Me, and both of the tracks on those albums that I do not care for are track 5. This song starts out with one of the coolest faux metal riffs I've heard. Hexum's voice comes in singing in reggae style, and the thing that makes it sooo awesome is the atypical low harmony provided by who I can only assume must be Martinez. The chorus then is something you'd expect to hear from a 311 hit: semi-repetitive lyrics, whoas, and harmony throughout. They go into a guitar solo after the second chorus that is reminiscent of The Beatles' "Across the Universe," if only because it is on that Indian instrument George Harrison was fond of playing. The bridge then involves Mahoney using an experimentally ambient sounding guitar effect while Hexum pounds a faux-metal riff and sings against his own rhythm, leading to a "this is the breakdown" feel.

"Daisy Cutter" starts off with just a palm muted electric guitar and Hexum's voice. Every time I hear the lead-in to the chorus of this song, I think they're going to go elsewhere musically, and I think that in that sense, they made an unfortunate decision in their songwriting. I feel like the chorus of this song is lacking comparatively. I also noticed that they refer to a "beautiful disaster," which is the name of a song of theirs off of their '97 release, Transistor. I'm not sure if they were making a reference to that song or if they ran out of oxymorons in writing their songs. The bridge is really cool though, but mainly because it includes a surprising 3 note stop-time section.

"Too Much Too Fast" starts in 3/4 time (peculiarly different for 311), and then moves into 4/4 for the rest of the song. The verse has a very cool sound to it, with a standard (enough) drum riff backing an almost stop-time guitar riff that eventually moves into a riff using the idea of triplets but only hitting the first and last beats of each one. There's a short break during which Mahoney plays a riff on top of Hexum's short strums on every beat, and Hexum sings a beautiful melody followed by a recurring riff. After the short break, they go into another verse. The prechorus utilizes that 3/4 riff from the intro, and then the first time you hear the chorus, it just has an uplifting, fun feel. This song has many instrumental mini-breaks that just sound awesome. The one flaw is that every instrumental mini-break leaves you craving for a guitar solo. Mahoney manages to slip one in during the last chorus as Hexum croons "oohs" over Martinez's solid "too much too fast" lyric.

"Never Ending Summer" starts out with a bit that makes me want to immediately change it. After the almost unintelligible spoken word by a currently unknown man, I expect it to have a certain traditional rap feel (most likely in the vocals). After a few seconds, my assumptions appear to be partly correct, as distorted growling vocals "sing" the band name over and over again. After that, though it sounds like a normal 311 song--a heavy-ish rock riff with reggae inspired vocals. The chorus has really awesome harmonies and is led into and out of perfectly. The bridge comes in with just drums and bass and makes me feel like this unknown guest is going to start rapping... and then he doesn't. Instead, Tim Mahoney comes in with a SCREAMING guitar solo that just melts your face off. Starting and ending with complete silence, the band succeeds in creating undeniable awesomeness in their creation of this guitar solo.

From the song title alone, you would expect "Two Drops in the Ocean" to be a mellow song with either a reggae feel or a pop song. In this case, it is the former. After the first verse, they go into a part during which the bass and guitar playfully duel, and makes you feel like laying in the grass lazily at a park. Unfortunately, the chord progression in the chorus is borderline mediocre. Fortunately, the chorus doesn't last long. The guitar solo, while not face-melting, reprises the idea of sounding so beautiful that it makes you want to lay in soft grass somewhere lazily listening to it.

The ominous first few chords of "Something Out of Nothing" makes you feel like this song is for sure going to be something. This is one of a very few songs on the album where Martinez sings the first verse, and his voice seems to work better for the riff than Hexum's would. The chorus is a letdown from the awesomeness of the verse, but after the first chorus and before the second verse, Mahoney has another wailing guitar solo, albeit a short one (more of a fill, really), that excites the listener for the rest of the song. Sure enough, after the second chorus, Mahoney plays with his wah pedal a bit more, tearing the listener apart with the riff that works so well for the faux-metal riff the rest of the band is playing. The outtro is surprisingly cool as it follows the chorus.

"Jackpot" reverts to the old 311, when Hexum and Martinez typically tone-rapped over heavy guitar riffs. It's one of those songs you lip-synch loudly in your room in front of your mirror. Yes, I did just suggest that you could lip-synch something loudly. Its downfall, if you can call it that, is that it must be listened to loudly. Oh and it ends on a really strange chord.

"My Heart Sings," simply put, is an amazing closing track. Mahoney revisits the guitar effect he used in the fan-beloved "Amber" and in "Champagne" (both from 2001's From Chaos), and yet manages to make it yet again sound original and distinct of the other two. After the riffs using that effect, there is acoustic guitar predominantly used in the verse, followed by mixed electric and acoustic instrumentation in the prechorus and chorus.


BONUS TRACKS
"I Like the Way" features Hexum singing followed by Martinez rapping, followed by Hexum singing, followed by Martinez singing really high. It almost makes me envy Martinez for how high he can sing. During that part, the guitars hit a chord and then slide down, which makes for a mildly interesting sound. The guitar riff/fill after the verse almost sounds synthesized. After the second verse, Hexum and Martinez take turns talking, followed by a bridge during which Hexum sings over a very impressive bass riff by P-Nut. Overall, this is a weird song, and I understand why it isn't included on the final cut of the regular edition of the album.

"Get Down" starts out as a mellow track that will lull anyone into a daydream (HINT: you may want to skip this one if you're driving). Hexum's voice croons you to sleep until the second part of the verse, during which he almost tone-raps over distorted guitars. After the chorus bit, Martinez takes a verse and then Hexum takes over for the prechorus and chorus. It ends on a guitar solo that sounds more like an outtro riff than a soloI don't quite understand why this track didn't make the cut for the regular version of the album, but I guess they had to have something to draw people to buy the deluxe edition.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

On a whole, I fully enjoyed this album. 311 continues to prove to me that this reggae-funk rock fusion can work without being ska, and they do it so naturally it makes a guy wonder how this sound could have come out of Omaha, Nebraska. Nick Hexum and S.A. Martinez, the two lead singers of the band, seem to still be in their prime, as far as the quality of their voices are concerned. Tim Mahoney and Nick Hexum have gotten even better at complementing each other on their guitar parts. P-Nut and Chad Sexton (who I have not yet mentioned), continue to provide the other members with a rhythm section that, plainly, kicks ass. P-Nut has always impressed me with the facility with which he plays his instrument, and the bass lines he plays are almost always unexpected, but fit magically, and Sexton tends to consistently come up with the perfect drum riff to fit what the other musicians are playing, and to add another element to the reggae feel of their songs.



Uplifter is available in four formats, each with a digital and a physical form.
Standard Edition: the 12 track album as a compact disc or as an mp3 download.
Deluxe Edition: the complete 12 track album, the 2 bonus tracks mentioned above, a collectible vinyl sticker, and a DVD including behind the scenes footage, interviews, and live performances from 311 Day '08 (also available in digital format as the 14 mp3s and the video file, but does not include vinyl sticker).
Double-Vinyl Edition: the complete 12 track album on two 12" special etched vinyl discs in deluxe gatefold packaging.
Super-Deluxe Edition: the complete 12 track album in physical form with the two bonus tracks mentioned above and the DVD, a 12x12 Uplifter lithograph poster, the double-vinyl album, and downloadable versions of the album (with bonus tracks) & documentary film on release date.


To buy Uplifter, visit http://311.skyroo.com/se/view/music/index.html.