Fallout BoyInfinity on HighGrade: B
Much has been made of bands like Panic! At the Disco and the soon-to-be-reviewed Fallout Boy and their penchant for, shall we say, over-elaboration. With lyrics that barely fit into the confines of the verses and choruses, many bands nowadays take a different route from button-lipped objectivity to emotionally confessional and verbose musings on life, love, and the pursuit of fame.
Now, the wordiness was expected. But with guests like Jay-Z on a very useless introduction to “Thriller” and producer Babyface, as well as chorales and samples of Leonard Cohen, it seems that Fallout Boy has gotten too ambitious, not just with words but with packing their latest album with as much as possible. Unfortunately, they somehow manage to neglect the development of the songs themselves and their melody. What was so impressive about Fallout Boy was their ability to balance paragraphs of text with a catchy hook and memorable riffs. This time around only the lyrics get off the ground. The melody stays sputtering somewhere below.
In fact, on the aforementioned opening track, “Thriller,” the melody’s engine doesn’t even start.
“By Fall, we were a cover story, “Now in Stores,” make us poster boys for your scene, but we are not making an acceptance speech.”
With the length of some of the lyrics, it feels like they’re making an acceptance speech. The listener might feel like pulling them off stage by the necks.
Of course, the saving grace of the album is the lead single, the surprisingly well-done “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race.”
“I’m a leading man, and the lies I weave are oh so intricate,” vocalist Patrick Stump calls out with some surprising conviction. Indeed, Stump’s vocals are the one big evolutionary step that seems to be going in the right direction. The man has great range, and he slips effortlessly from pop to punk to R&B as the tracks themselves switch.
That’s right. Fallout Boy decides to dabble in a little bit of smoothness and actually do pretty well. Of course, the title of the song doesn’t help their word problem any. The track, “I’m like a Lawyer with the Way I’m Always Trying to Get You Off (Me &You),” contains one of the most well-constructed choruses of the entire album with a soulful flavor.
“Me and you setting in a honeymoon if I woke up next to you.”
Hopefully, the song is a hint of more positive advances for the boys.
Of course, the only advance they haven’t made is lyrical content. Seemingly taken almost directly from bassist’s Pete Wentz’s journal, the lyrics cover terrain explored more than once before in past releases. On “Hum Hallelujah,” Patrick Stump sings about a girl whose allure has worn thin.
“I thought I loved you. It was just how you looked in the light.”
The song also contains a sample of Leonard Cohen’s haunting “Hallelujah” and seems a bit out of place. However, the song as a whole works and functions as a good return to Fallout Boy form. Frankly, the second half of the album is more of what we’ve come to expect from the band which is a good thing. Ambitious gets the best of some people, but consistency can often help a band as much as novelty can. The speed with which the band rose to fame may have convinced them they needed to grow just as quickly. As a result, they try packing as much as possible in their songs.
Less doesn’t always mean more. But more doesn’t always mean more either.