If this scene is really an arms race, Fall Out Boy is the supplier. As the hands-down leaders of the modern scene, the pop-punk group has to work even harder to impress the judges – and they hit it out of the park on Folie a Deux. In an era where the single is more important than the album, Fall Out Boy has come prepared.
Nearly every song on this album would make a perfect single. Each track has its own sense of being unique, but the album is still able to feel like a whole. The album starts off with the powerful “Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes”. The line “Nobody wants to hear you sing about tragedy” can be interpreted as referential to themselves and the many other artists writing overly emotional music. They understand that putting your heart on your sleeve all the time can become cliche and annoying. The album shifts from the anthemic opening track to the dirty blues-funk riff of “I Don’t Care” (the first single) without any warning. The way the mood shifts from feeling free in “Buffaloes” to dropping down to the slums in “I Don’t Care” is a feat that not every artist can pull off. From that point, the album goes through a variety changes. Jumping from genre to genre, you’ll never be sure what’s coming next. From the Depeche Mode-esque “Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On a Bad Bet” to the Vaudeville style of “20 Dollar Nose Bleed”, this album will make even the toughest Fall Out Boy critic humming a hook. There’s even a short bluegrass interlude thrown in for good measure.
But the music would mean nothing if the lyrics didn’t deliver on the same level. Like always, lyricist Pete Wentz tries his best to not include filler. Each line is carefully constructed to stand out on its own. Topics range from modern-day politics (“20 Dollar Nose Bleed”) to the public perceptions of being a celebrity (“I Don’t Care”) to everything in between. Lines such as “I will never believe in anything again” from the song “Coffee’s For Closers” or “You can only blame your problems on the world for so long/Before it all becomes the same old song” from the track “The (Shipped) Gold Standard” would easily go unnoticed on many other albums. But Wentz has an ace up his sleeve in vocalist Patrick Stump. The way Stump makes use of Wentz’ lyrics and renders them sound so personal is a gift. It helps that Stump has one of the most powerful voices in music today – a true soul voice in a pop band. It works, it truly does. It’s completely evident that the team of Wentz and Stump shines brighter than ever.
With all of this variety throughout the tracks, the band utilized many different guest vocalists to help out. The guests include the newcomer (Alex DeLeon of The Cab), the current “scene” poster boys (Brendon Urie of Panic at the Disco, Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship, Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes), to the immortals (Elvis Costello and Deborah Harry of Blondie). The recently-famed Hip-hop artist Lil Wayne even appears on the track “Tiffany Blews”, singing rather than rapping. The way the guests are incorporated in the songs is very unique. There’s the obligatory “Guest singing the chorus” technique, but it’s the track “What a Catch, Donnie” that stands out. The guest vocalists – of which there are 7 – don’t just sing the chorus or sing a verse. They each take a part of older Fall Out Boy songs and pour them into the track in a way that lets the listener recall older memories, but doesn’t pull them out of the song that’s playing. In essence, they turn the track into a brief history of Fall Out Boy. Any long-time fan of the band is going to enjoy the nostalgia trip.
It’s this sense of being able to stay unique with a varied style, while keeping true to themselves, that’s going to let Fall Out Boy stay around for a years to come. The band endures a lot of grief from the media, and it only seems to make them stronger. The personal growth each band member has made is made obvious. Critics often whine about lifestyles of the band off-stage. But if Fall Out keeps churning out records like Folie a Deux, it’ll be hard to complain.
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