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Motion City’s sound evolving

Motion City Soundtrack's sound is unmistakable with their quirky lyrical content, huge melodic hooks and synth-studded tracks. With their newest album release, Even If it Kills Me, Motion City is taking a line from "This is For Real" with a shaky step toward deepening their still-present adolescent voice.

"Fell in Love Without You" is the perfect album-opener for a Motion City Soundtrack CD. It rocks with a quick-paced tempo, eccentric lyrics and recklessly wailing synth lines that resurrect the feel of their sophomore album Commit This to Memory. "Antonia" has the trademark MCS lyrics, as lead singer Justin Pierre nonsensically describes a girl with lines like "She's really into snowmobiles/ She owns a lot of nice flashlights." This song undoubtedly resembles the persona heard in "The Future Freaks Me Out" from the band's first album, I Am the Movie, but the musicality provides a more mellow and laidback feel.

Yet Motion City Soundtrack still convinces its audience that they are not afraid to take risks. Expanding from MCS's distinct use of the synthesizer, new instruments are introduced throughout the album. MCS finds success with varied instrumentation in songs like "Last Night," in which a piano riff, instead of a synth line, is the anchor of the melody.

In others, such as "Conversation," the first Motion City Soundtrack piano ballad, the lyrics seem more intimate, but the opening lines don't mesh with the instrumental feel. "Calling All Cops" is also a disappointment in Motion City's attempt at breaking new ground while not upsetting fans. The straightforward verses are classic pop-punk, but the string-filled breaks seem canned and out-of-place, and even the lyrics fail to impress.

Even If it Kills Me also seems to have replaced the driving instrumental intros for initially subtle solo instrumentation or vocal lead-ins that swell to larger choruses, which works well for this album in "Last Night" or "Can't Finish What you Started." Motion City Soundtrack has slowly adopted a more polished, controlled sound. The rough, raw emotive songs similar to those found on I Am the Movie are disappointingly nonexistent here, but the lyrics seem more carefully executed, which pays off in cases like "Broken Heart." The sincere, darker content still proves to be easily relatable.

"Even If it Kills Me," the closer, fails to deliver on the promise of earlier tracks and lend resonance to the album. While it is a well thought-out song, its soft-pop feel results in a weak ending, leaving the listener expectant of another track. Despite the ending line's echo of the album title, this track was poorly placed and should have been exchanged with something more explosive, such as "Point of Extinction."

With so many new attributes to this third album, it is obvious that producer Ric Ocasek of the Cars and sidekicks Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne) and Eli Janney (Girls vs. Boys), took on quite a challenge. Some songs on the album fail to live up to past MCS standards, feeling like half-hearted experiments.

Still, in juggling usage of new instruments, incorporating more intimate lyrical content and continuing the mellower feel of Commit This to Memory, Even If it Kills Meappeals to old fans and new listeners There may be some pains and voice cracks, but Motion City's signature sound is growing up without growing old.

3 stars out of 5