Review Summary: This bandwagon's full; please catch another.
It’s pretty hard to believe that just three years ago, Fall Out Boy were a relatively unknown band from Chicago. First experiencing some success with moderate hits “Saturday” and “Grand Theft Autumn” from Take This to Your Grave, they soon exploded into the hearts of scene kids everywhere with the release of From Under the Cork Tree. Led by the powerhouse single “Sugar We’re Going Down,” the band released hit after hit, to the point where every time you turned on your television, you saw Pete Wentz licking the neck of his bass while Patrick Stump kills some vampires. Because of said success, certain members of Fall Out Boy developed rather large egos. Still, I don’t mind egos as long as the artist continues to put out good music, which is what Fall Out Boy do. Infinity On High is perhaps their strongest work yet. It falters a few times throughout, but as a whole it works very well and makes a great addition to their discography.
“Thriller” starts the album off quite strongly, with label owner Jay-Z spouting a bunch of stuff about critics saying the album would never happen and whatnot before the song starts. Strangely enough, Jay’s appearances throughout the song, although short and fleeting, really add to the feel of the track. The song starts with a clean guitar line, followed immediately by a metal-sounding section, with fast palm mutes and some double bass drumming. The song’s got the typical Fall Out Boy chorus and lyrics, which isn’t a bad thing because “typical” for Fall Out Boy usually means interesting, well-written lyrics and catchy choruses. If you don’t like “Thriller,” chances are you won’t like the rest of the album. It’s quite a good representation of the album as a whole, and a good sign of what you’ll find as you listen.
For the most part, the band stuck to what they’re good at, which proves to be a very good thing. When they stray from their signature formula, the result can be disastrous. For example, Fall Out Boy really are not skilled at writing a slow song. They can write slower parts and integrate them into fast songs, but for the life of them they cannot make an exclusively slow song interesting at all. The first ballad of the album “I’m Like a Lawyer With the Way I’m Always Trying to Get You Off Me (Me & You)” suffers from Stump singing out of his range, a recurring problem throughout the album, extremely cliché and overly sappy lyrics, and a generally boring melody. “The (After) Life of the Party,” along with having one of the dumbest song titles ever, is more of the same. Fortunately, songs like that are few and far between on this album.
Lead single “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” is a cheerful, clever, oh-so-intentionally-ironic satirical piece about the music business in general. The verse is somewhat out of character for the band, with a techno-ish beat playing underneath Stump’s scratchy vocals. The lyrics are really top-notch here, with Stump crooning “I am an arms dealer, fitting you with weapons in the form of words. And don't really care which side wins as long as the room keeps singing; that's just the business I'm in.” The band generally has a few songs about the state of the music business on their albums, and the songs always have a not-so-subtle hint of irony because Fall Out Boy seem to have realized that they are essentially a marketing tool, manufactured to appeal to teens all over the world, something that I will not give them flak for because they do it very well. However, even though they manage to do it in a new and enjoyable way every time they write about the subject, it does wear thin. Still, “This Ain’t a Scene…” is a definite standout.
One thing Fall Out Boy do especially well is setting themselves apart from every other pop-punk band out there right now. Incorporating minor techno and dance influences, and major pop and hip-hop influences into their music, Fall Out Boy have once again proven that they’re not about to let themselves sounds like every other band in the genre. At its worst, Infinity on High is a typical uninspired pop-punk album, but at its best (which is most of the album) it’s catchy, witty, and fresh. For the most part, instead of focusing on witty song titles (something they really need to stop doing altogether. I mean seriously, “Carpal Tunnel of Love?”), the band focused on making career-defining music that has the potential to be remembered for years to come, not catchy chart toppers that disappear and are forgotten within a few years.
Patrick Stump has always been a capable vocalist, and he continues that trend on this album. However, he needs to realize that he’s not Aretha Franklin. Taking his vocals into the higher ranges on many songs wasn’t the best move he’s ever made. If you’ve heard their earlier albums, then you know that he’s always done this occasionally, but with Infinity On High it’s become a regular occasion. While it does sound good on some tracks, most notably “I Got All This Ringing In My Ears and None On My Fingers”, on others it’s extremely grating and annoying. Aside from that, Stump puts forth a strong showing. Musically, the album is more of the same, as it is very similar to From Under the Cork Tree. Piano is used quite often, and they even incorporate some horns. The guitar riffs, while nothing new, are catchy and the drums are played well enough. Wentz’s bass isn’t heard too much, but he makes up for that with his lyrics.
Fall Out Boy have always been known for their witty lyrics. The songs on From Under the Cork Tree were full of great one-liners that kids everywhere quoted every second of the day. Wentz stepped up his lyrics on this album, making them wittier and more clever than ever, as well as original. However, at times it seems as if he’s trying
too hard to be witty, as demonstrated in “The Carpal Tunnel of Love” with the line “And we shake shake shake the hips in relationships.” Other times the lyrics are painfully generic, like in the chorus of “Bang the Doldrums” with the line “Best friends, ex-friends to the end, better off as lovers and not the other way around.” Occasional misfires aside, Wentz continues to display his lyrical skills. “You’re Crashing But You’re No Wave” definitely has some of the best lyrics in pop-punk. While Wentz’s lyrics are never really deep or emotional, they get the point of the song across very well.
A lot of pop-punk bands these days are moving away from what they should be doing. They should be making catchy, short songs that have mass appeal. Lately, bands are sacrificing catchiness and fun for an unnecessarily dark and “mature” image and sound. Fall Out Boy stayed true to form. Infinity On High is essentially more of the same from the band, but with a pleasing amount of progression and variety to set the album apart from their other works. All members put forth a strong showing in their respective departments. Despite a few missteps with some of the slower songs, some generic lyrics, and Stump’s occasional grating vocals, the album is the band’s strongest work yet. While none of the songs quite live up to the sheer awesomeness of “XO” or the catchiness of “Dance, Dance” from From Under the Cork Tree, as a whole the album works much better. Infinity On High only suffers from one or two filler tracks, something that’s very respectable from a band these days. Infinity On High is going to be up against some stiff competition this year, and even though it probably won’t even get close to being the best album of 2007, it’s an album that a listener can put on to feel happy and cheerful, and at the end of the day, that’s really all that pop music is supposed to do.
