The Wake

The Minneapolis music scene doesn’t garner international attention (or national for that matter) on too many occasions. Prince, the Rhymesayers crew and some notable artists flying under the radar are basically the extent of the Cities’ musical notoriety. Now, however, we have Motion City Soundtrack – the powerpop quintet repping our hometown to the fullest.

On September 18, the group released Even If It Kills Me, their 13-track third studio album. I am glad to say that we should be proud to have them call Minneapolis home. EIIKM is upbeat, synth-heavy and self-deprecating; everything a good pop punk album should be. Frontman Justin Pierre’s voice is perfect for the style and his lyrics are more clever and unique than 90 percent of the pop music out there today.

The album starts off with its strongest track “Fell in Love Without You” – a fast-paced, robot-influenced ode to moving on. “This Is for Real” is the basic and catchy second song and second single. It’s a great example of the completely fitting and justified over-production that carries throughout the album.

The band’s sound ranges on this album a little more than its previous efforts “Commit This to Memory” and “I Am the Movie.” The song last “Last Night” could almost pass for a late Blink-182 song, while “The Conversation” sounds like something out of Ben Folds’ playbook. The song that will probably bring the most attention to EIIKM is “Broken Heart,” the album’s first single. The track is representative of the entire album – it’s sad and depressing but it’s packaged in such a way that you can’t help but smile when you hear it.

Motion City is a standard for what pop music could be: lyrically strong, good musicianship, fun and catchy. Hopefully these are some trends that will catch on.

Rating: 7.5/10