Fall Out Boy is the kind of band that people love to hate, and hate to love. But, I bet three out of five people who claim to despise this band secretly have hits “Sugar, We’re Going Down” and “Dance, Dance” on their iPod, and listen to them when they’re alone in their rooms.
Hate them all you want, but you have to admit they are good at what they do, which is write catchy radio-friendly songs. In fact their latest release, “Infinity on High,” is currently the number one CD in the country.
Too bad the album turned out to be their worst one so far.
Although there are a few keepers, most of these songs are so terrible that they should consider renaming the album “Train-Wreck.”
It’s hard to decide how to peg this album, because even though a majority of the songs are complete mess, the few that are worthy of listening to are actually the best songs the band has ever written.
“Infinity on High” opens with a solid track, “Thriller,” which features an unexpected spoken word introduction by hip-hop icon Jay-Z. The song has some strong lyrics, with the band confronting former fans who now consider them “sell outs.” Fans will appreciate this song musically as well, as it brings back that vibe they had from their first album, “Take This To Your Grave.”
But there’s another side to this album that is just pure crap. For instance, the first single, “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race.” This attempt at a dance/punk rock anthem is so horrible, that I would be ashamed to claim it as my own. Same thing goes for “Hum Halleluiah,” which is just a terrible song.
Then, after this handful of crappy songs comes the song “Golden,” which is an amazingly driven song that I never would have expected a band like Fall Out Boy to compose.
Another keeper is the song “I’m Like a Lawyer With the Ways I’m Always Trying to Get You Off.” This is an extremely catchy song that everyone will be trying to beat out of their brains.
This album, just like their previous two, is filled with another Fall Out Boy token: really long song titles… and I hate it. It’s obvious that they are trying to be witty and clever with their song titles, but titles like “I’ve Got All This Ringing in My Ears, But None on My Fingers” just come off as being very stupid and cheesy. It won’t be long until they release a single called “If I Could Rearrange the Alphabet I Would Put ‘U’ and ‘I’ Together.”
Either love them and embrace their pop/punk-type sound, or despise them for spawning new bands like Panic! At the Disco, (who in my opinion is the biggest disgrace to the music since Milli Vanili), Fall Out Boy hasn’t changed their tune with this album, but they have created some of their best songs to date.
So if you enjoyed their previous albums, then go pick up Fall Out Boy’s “Infinity on High.” If not, just go to Limewire and download the few good songs I mentioned and listen to them when you’re all alone. You won’t.
Or will you?
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