Idolator’s Record-Review Round-Up: Gathering The “Infinity On High” Fallout

· “Scoff at all of this hype if you will, but Fall Out Boy’s melodic, exuberant and smartly written songs justify the excitement. And Infinity on High is a major leap forward, bringing a wild ambition to the simple genre patented by the Ramones, revived by fellow Chicagoans Screeching Weasel and turned into a platinum phenomenon by the likes of Green Day and Blink-182. The band’s roots are still obvious, but this ain’t your father’s pop-punk anymore.” [Chicago Sun-Times] · “Singer Patrick Stump has a voice that’s made for the almost-soulfulness that’s crept into the band’s otherwise gleefully traditional emo-pop. He also has a knack for sounding genuinely self-deprecating (best demonstrated on the rattling ‘FameWashington Post] · “‘A penny for your thoughts/But a dollar for your insides/And a fortune for your disaster/I’m just a painter… And I’m drawing a blank,’ Stump sings in the galloping power-pop blast ”Don’t You Know Who I Think I Am?” Like all Fall Out Boy lyrics, it’s not quite as clever as Wentz seems to think, and his obsession with posers, lame ‘scenes,’ and, above all, his own band might annoy listeners not currently enrolled in high school. But Wentz’s words have a pleasing vernacular spunkiness — this is the Esperanto of young American suburbia, poetry of the mall and the chat room. Who but Wentz would brag, ‘Every dotcom’s refreshing for a journal update’?” [EW] · “Every so often Fall Out Boy returns to the kind of messed-up relationship songs that made it so popular. And instead of gloating about success, the band stays wary about show business and its own status as a commodity: ‘I’m a salesman selling hooks,’ Patrick Stump sings in “Fame NYT]