When I was 13, I got two albums for Christmas. One was Weezer’s Make Believe, a really bad album with a ubiquitous single that I wish didn’t exist. The other was From Under the Cork Tree, the second album by Chicago four-piece Fall Out Boy. I loved that album. It was pretty stupid, and it was hard to tell where the sincerity ended and the parody began, but it contained so many fun songs that it didn’t really matter. It was commercialized, polished pop-punk at its best.
Fall Out Boy has changed a lot since then. They got progressively poppier and poppier, leading to the criminally underrated Folie a Deux, an album which contained a ballad that features the Decaydance Records roster singing snippets of old FOB songs and Elvis Constello. It works, and it’s a good album, but it wasn’t so successful. The band went on hiatus, with lead singer Patrick Stump going on a well intentioned but failed solo career and bassist Pete Wentz doing…stuff.
FOB is now back, picking up where they left off, with a new record titled Save Rock and Roll. Now would probably be a good time to mention that Save Rock and Roll is barely a rock record at all (remember the sincerity/parody thing?). The first song and second single, “The Phoenix,” has zero guitar until about the minute mark, and even then it acts as more of a compliment to the song’s driving strings than to the actual lead instrument. They’ve completed their transition to pop band with an alt rock edge, which might have been a disaster if they weren’t so damn good at it.
The album’s lead single, “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em’ Up),” is one of the best examples of this. It’s got some palm muted guitar to guide it along, but it also grooves, letting Stump get progressively more anxious until he finally wails “I’m on FI-AH!” at the end of the chorus. Fall Out Boy always knew how to write a hook, but on Save Rock and Roll they’ve decided to center those hooks around things other than power chords. They’re able to experiment a bit. “Where Did the Party Go” is lead by a rumbling bass line and some arena rock drums, and “Alone Together” is nearly entirely synths. Both are great fun, and both feature some of the best hooks Fall Out Boy has written.
The album isn’t totally bereft of rock songs, though if you’re looking for anything as traditional as “Sugar, We’re Going Down” I’d look elsewhere. “Rat a Tat” is a great little arena rock number, though it’s weighed down a bit by a ridiculous guest appearance from Courtney Love where she rants about bombs or something. “Young Volcanoes,” with its hand claps and acoustic guitars, is sort of a nod to the current state of alternative rock, but it works quite well.
Love isn’t the only one guesting on the album, and amazingly she’s not the worst. The worst would be Big Sean, who appears to drop a verse on “The Mighty Fall” that sounds unbelievably out of place and features the memorable line, “Hell yeah I’m a dick girl/Addicted to you,” which, you know, is great. The best turn is from British singer Foxes, who adds some vocals to “Just One Yesterday,” a track that features what may be one of my favorite Fall Out Boy choruses ever. Finally, Elton John features on the album’s final, self titled track. The ballad seems to serve as the album’s statement of purpose, as Stump sings “I will defend the faith/Going down swinging/I will save the songs/That we can’t stop singing.” They’re back because there are songs they want to write. It’s a little cheesy, but it makes sense.
I suppose that’s it, really. Fall Out Boy’s reunion was always going to seem mundane and predictable, so instead of trying to write an album to prove their relevance, they wrote the album they wanted to write. Time will tell if anyone cares, but, for now, I’m glad they’re back.
