In the tradition of my review of Fall Out Boy's last album, "From Under The Cork Tree", I am going to start my review of their latest album with how it looks in my iTunes:
The tracks and the stars of Fall Out Boy 3.0
While I have been listening to this album a fair amount, I do have to admit that I am a bit disappointed with this album. The first two singles off "Infinity On High" - "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race" and "The Carpal Tunnel Of Love" are very, very, good. In fact, FOB made these two songs available for streaming on their website, before the album came out. I listened to them repeatedly, which really built up this album in my mind. As a result, I think that things were a bit over-hyped for me. I was expecting an album that should have been absolutely transcendent. Instead, I got something that was merely pretty good.
That isn't to say that this album sucks (my resident Music Critic has it stuck in his craw that I declared this album to be sucky. I hereby declare that I did no such thing!), it's just that I expected more.
In general, the Music Critic and I differ on the songs that we like -- I tend to like the harder ones ("Thriller", "Carpal Tunnel"), while the Critic is more taken with some of the tracks in the middle (which I don't find to be as memorable). For example, we both agree that the beginning of the fourth track, "I’m Like A Lawyer With The Way I’m Always Trying To Get You Off (Me & You)", is pretty fantastic. But 40 seconds in, the song totally changes, and while FOB loses me, they retain Kevin. To each his own, I suppose.
On the upside, I think that this album shows a lot of promise. The experimenting that the band has been doing, with more dance beats and R&B influences has the potential, I think, to make for some truly ground-breaking work. For example, the last track, "I’ve Got All This Ringing In My Ears And None On My Fingers", starts with a combination of a really great beat, and a nifty horn section. I am really taken with the entire first minute or so of that song, but unfortunately, it wanders off a bit at the end, thus denying it the coveted 5-star rating. So, I'll continue to enjoy what I have now, and hope for more greatness in the future.
If you don't know if you should pick this album up or not, stream some songs off of the 'net, or borrow a friend's copy, and see what you think. You might find it to be more to your liking than I do.
-Andy.