Fall Out Boy Share Their Madness With The World

Dan Gibson | December 16, 2008 9:15 am

Our look at the closing lines of reviews of the week’s biggest new music continues with a look at reactions to Fall Out Boy’s Folie A Deux, which arrives in stores today:

• “Some songs, like ‘Tiffany Blews,’ are meant to be vampy but suffocate instead. There are moments when the oxygen floods in—like the Pharrell-assisted ‘w.a.m.s.’ which unexpectedly ends in stripped-down a cappella blues—but they are all too rare. It’s not that FOB can’t have grandiosity, but every stadium needs open air.” [LA Times]

• “The unlikely highlight is the piano ballad, ‘What a Catch, Donnie,’ where Stump shows off his R&B vocal chops on some of Wentz’s most over-the-top lyrics. (‘What a catch’ rhymes with ‘I’ve got troubled thoughts and the self-esteem to match.’) A backup choir features members of Panic at the Disco, Gym Class Heroes and The Academy Is … , and just when you think the song is over, Elvis Costello comes in to sing one line. Ridiculous? Very. Which makes it a very Fall Out Boy moment.” [Blender]

• “When in doubt, Fall Out Boy wants more, and the songs are packed to bursting with so many ideas (not all of them good) that the latter half of the album turns into a mess. Fall Out Boy conquered a segment of the world with pop songs that everyone can shout in their cars, and the band members should be applauded for wanting more out of their music as they mature. But sometimes more is simply too much.” [Chicago Tribune]

• “Rock stars have been making records about rock stardom for decades, but few have had such fun singing about the absurdities, the narcissism—and, as the album title suggests, the follies—of a life lived in fame’s strobelit glare. ‘I don’t care what you think/As long as it’s about me,” sings Stump in ‘I Don’t Care,’ adding what could be FOB’s credo, a summary of their trickster-ish approach to the emo game: ‘The best of us can find happiness in misery.’ ” [Rolling Stone]

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