Album Review: Fall Out Boy - Folie a Deux

Fall Out Boy has always been an interesting band to me, but in an effort to prevent this review from turning into an essay I will only explain this briefly.

By having an introverted bass player who writes all of the band's sharp and poignantly lyrics and having a lead singer who, among other things, is a producer and good friends with most of the popular music industry, Fall Out Boy teeters the line between band with substance and MTV's Flavor of the Week. By mixing intelligent lyrics with a knowledge of what sort of music sells, Fall Out Boy is essentially what would happen if the smart nerd and the popular student council president ruled the school.

Through their emergence on the music scene to Folie a Deux, the Chicago-based band's fifth album, Fall Out Boy has embraced both sides to their coin quite fervently. So it isn't a surprise that the album, which is named after a medical condition for shared psychosis, is the biggest example of that bond yet.

From the opening "Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes," it is apparent that Pete Wentz's lyrics are still as confusingly in tune as ever, as he questions his place in the world of love: "I’m a loose bolt of a complete machine/What a match:
I’m half doomed and you’re semi sweet." All of the matrimonial happiness that should have lifted Wentz's spirits didn't lyrically, and the result is that Fall Out Boy's words are just as strong as ever.

Comparatively, Patrick Stump's composition of the songs shows that he is very comfortable being categorized as a pop artist. The lyrics are spliced with intermittent "woahs" and falsettos, almost to the point of annoyance. This has become the style of the band since their last album, Infinity on High: Pete loads the feelings, and Stump launches them in a style that radio listeners love.

The biggest problem with Folie a Deux in comparsion to Infinity on High, though, is that in this most recent album the mix doesn't always go well. What would normally be an instant classic in "Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet" is marred by Depeche Mode-like low notes. Similarly, "America's Suitehearts" is almost doomed from the start with the line "You could have knocked me out with a" followed by a painfully high-pitched "feeeather."

Luckily, the duo combine to make very good choruses for most of the album. What hasn't changed is that Fall Out Boy still can make consistently catchy music. What has changed is the journey to that point is not as smooth.

Besides having catchy choruses, most of the songs run together and aren't exactly highly memorable, mostly because Fall Out Boy still subscribes to the interesting method of making the song title as long as the song itself. The titles usually merit a chuckle, but an unfortunate consequence is that the song loses an identity and sometimes doesn't immediately connect with the listener.

When it comes down to it, this album was saved almost entirely by "What a Catch, Donnie," the eighth track.

While the other songs are enjoyable, it isn't until "What a Catch" that you truly see how far as a band Fall Out Boy has come. The lyrically-simple-yet-thick song is accompanied beautifully by Stump's vocal work, and the arrangement of having guest stars sing excerpts from their earlier songs is a great touch. It creates an epic feel that Fall Out Boy has never reached before.

Besides "What a Catch, Donnie," there are a few songs that are good the whole way through: "The (Shipped) Gold Standard" and "Tiffany Blews" are well-crafted pop songs that continue to impress through repeated lessons.

In the end, it isn't that any of the songs on Folie a Deux are particularly bad; it's just that none of the songs really catch a hold of the listener besides the few that were listed above. It's not the best they could do, but it certainly wasn't the worth either, and whether or not you get this CD you need to get "What a Catch, Donnie," their best song to date.

Scoring:

Replayability: (17/20) Most of the songs have catchy choruses, and that's worth listening to a few times, but "What a Catch, Donnie" and "The (Shipped) Gold Standard" are the real reasons for listening to this album more than once.

Music: (15/20) This score isn't as high as it could be because, for the most part, the pop accoutrements that Stump creates does not capture the mood of Wentz's lyrics. This is the first time that their connection was off, and it made the album less enjoyable as a result.

Lyrics: (17/20) Pete Wentz's lyrics are still witty and poignant, and his mixing of simple elements in different songs actually helps make the songs better.

Completeness: (17/20) It is a solid album with no real let-downs except for the end of "20 Dollar Nose Bleed," when they do the dreaded speaking thing that has haunted the other albums. They should really not continue that trend.

Emotional Pull: (16/20) I'm not sure what it is, but the relatability of their music is much lower than usual. It may be the extra pop treatment, but something about the album makes it less powerful in that respect. The songs that received Check Pluses are the main contributing factors to this score.

Total Scoring: 82

Grade: B-

Check, Check Plus, X
Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes √+
I Don’t Care √
She’s My Winona √
America’s Suitehearts √
Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet √
The (Shipped) Gold Standard √+
(Coffee’s for Closers) √
What a Catch, Donnie √+
27 √
Tiffany Blews √
w.a.m.s. √
20 Dollar Nose Bleed √
West Coast Smoker √


Due to the holidays and all, I might not be as active as I'd like to be over the next few weeks. But if there's some music news or an album I want to review, you will be the first to know.

Sit tight til the next grade,
RRC