Review Summary: Nobody wants to hear you sing about tragedy.
If I ever get off my arse and learn an instrument, and eventually start a band, I’d totally name it after a character from The Simpsons. We’d write pop punk songs that sounded kind of gay, with long song names that are just a little bit clever, have a fanbase which consisted of legions of fourteen year old girls, and hopefully the penis of one of our band members’ would make its way onto the internet soon enough. Of course, with a band like that, how could we fail? We would sell plenty of albums, but after we’d released 3 (or 4, I forget) albums, where would we go from there? Well, Fall Out Boy just so happen to fit every single one of the criteria above (coincidence? Probably), and having progressed from a straight up pop-punk sound on
From Under The Cork Tree, to one with a greater pop bent on
Infinity on High, it seems that their reply to my question would be more hooks, more gayness and, inevitably, more success.
To be honest, the beginning of this review was going to look a whole lot different than it currently does; it used to feature a long winded analogy about
Folie A Deux and genital herpes, but I realised that catchy and contagious were kind of not the same thing (although a phallic mention still survived the edit, for the better I think). I mean sure, much like genital herpes, this album is annoying at first, you contract/hear it accidentally (most likely from a whore/radio), and it sucks at first, because you don’t need this, I mean, you’ve already had/heard Chlamydia/Infinity on High within the last year. And that’s roughly where the analogy ends, mostly because I couldn’t find a clever enough pun involving the album title and an STD.
But I digress,
Folie A Deux is one of the most contagious things since the ever popular bubonic plague, and the opening track ‘Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes’ (yes I agree, that title is terrible; more on this later), is a great indication of what’s to come, as it kicks off with Patrick Stump’s nasally vocals layered over some pipes. Unsurprisingly, this leads into some pretty basic pop-punk riffing/drumming backed by some tinkling on the piano. Now, by this point, I’d gotten slightly bored (I have musical ADD), but once this simple passage exploded into the chorus, I simultaneously stood up and danced, made love
and war, divided by zero, went and got a sandwich, and high-fived the Pope. This is the magnitude of the ‘feel-good’ factor in Fall Out Boy’s music which, while seeming contrived at first, is actually pretty goddamn genuine, as they keep this up throughout the entirety of the album. They make fun music and it rocks, and on
Folie A Deux, they’re doing it better than ever.
That’s not to say, however, that the music on
Folie A Deux is shallow; there’s plenty of depth to back up the carefree attitude that will no doubt make for some very popular singles. The lyrics are surprisingly poignant and not as ridiculously irrelevant as some of their earlier work, whilst the vocal melodies and hooks are even stronger here. Take for example the stunning ‘What A Catch, Donnie’, which not only features some superb high notes from Patrick and gang vocals during the choruses, but closes with a vocal medley of past hits (including ‘Dance Dance’, ‘Sugar We’re Going Down’ and ‘This Ain’t A Scene…’), which actually works, and comes as a very pleasant surprise. The variation amongst the first 8 or so tracks is also refreshing, making for an altogether more interesting listening experience; ‘I Don’t Care’ is carried by a groovin’ rhythm section, whilst ‘America’s Suitehearts’ relies more on its bouncy verses leading into huge choruses. ‘The (Shipped) Gold Standard’ has the best lyrical work on the album and is followed by ‘(Coffee’s For Closers)’, a song characterised by its horn and string outro.
Unfortunately, as much as I’d like it to be, this album isn’t perfect. There is a distinct lack of ideas once track 8 has finished, as the concepts begin to repeat themselves past this point (although the horns in ‘20 Dollar Nose Bleed’ are pretty rad). Not to mention that the song titles are hideously bad, even worse than the monstrously long ones on
Infinity On High, because they at least made one smirk, if not laugh. Overall however,
Folie A Deux is a fine album from one of the most commercially successful bands this decade, and will no doubt solidify Fall Out Boy’s place in the public eye (assuming Pete Wentz’s penis already hadn’t).
