I’ve been a fan of Fall Out Boy since 2006, and until now, I must say I never thought they could be so bland and boring. Say what?!Yes, being a fan does not mean I’ll think everything you create is great, and this time, Fall Out Boy did it worse than ever with American Beauty/American Psycho. Even though I love the play on words and the duality, the album is quite constant, and in a bad way.
The only thing I love about the album is Irresistible. That’s it. One song?! I never thought that could be possible, really, but the whole package makes me think „Go away, Pete Wentz, with your high school lyrics, and leave us alone!”. Too bad I can’t act on that…
So yeah, Irresistible is like Patrick Stump 2.0, it almost feels like it was torn apart from his first album – it has the same angst, the same stadium feeling, the same urge, same need, more of everything that’s good, and less of everything that’s bad. (9/10)
American Beauty/American Psycho, the track that gives the album its title, is headachey to say the least. Stump seems underused, and I can’t understand, for the love of god, what’s Nikki Sixx‘s job on this piece. (5/10)
Centuries is one of the songs released before the album. I remember thinking back then „hmm, wtf?!”. Now?! Now it’s more like „wtffffffffffffffffff!!!”. (5/10)
The Kids Aren’t Alright got me thinking of that one The Offspring song, but that was the only best part of it. The rest of it is totally forgettable – no rhythm, no lyrics, no music. (4/10)
Uma Thurman is something that in some circles people would call music, but in my book this spells boring in several languages, several of whom are already dead, just like my poor ears. (2/10)
Jet Pack Blues is the only thing remotely interesting besides Irresistible. And when I say „remotely”, I’m using the term very loosely. Press „Play” only if you miss your high school love and/or if you had a shitty childhood and wanna blame someone for going on a murder spree. (7/10)
Novocaine reminded me of Holy Roller Novocaine by Kings of Leon, but only because of the name. Of course, what did you expect? The song sounds like something Taylor Swift rejected, so what the crap. (5/10)
Fourth of July reminds me of Black Widow – THAT Black Widow, by Iggy Azalea and Rita Ora, but only because of the clapping at the beginning. The rest of the song screams „This is Patrick having a bad creative day, so bear with me”. (4/10)
Favorite Record seems to be the poor relative of the previous song, with a whole lot of do-do’s and nothing much besides that. Also, the guitars kinda sound like some 80s band I can’t quite pinpoint right now, and I’m not even trying. (4/10)
Immortals… And manele are on! What?! Apparently, this song was intended for Big Hero 6. To that I say „meh”. The song is mediocre at best, and Patrick keep stumping those vocals with religious fervor. (5/10)
Twin Skeleton’s (Hotel in NYC) makes me think of all those emo bands back in 2007-2008, and miss the greatness they were. Because this song is absolutely appalling. (3/10)
Maybe if I’d listen to the instrumentals…
Maybe if I’d pay more attention to the technical part of it…
Maybe if I ignore the stupidity of the lyrics…
Nope, not gonna happen. The album is a whole, and as a whole, I must say it’s pretty bad. I can only point out that it has the proof that Fall Out Boy still know how to title their songs in a punkish way, but the proof that this does not work anymore. Everything else is misery and high school trauma. Thanks, Wentz!
Pic.
Surprisingly, I’ve never been a Fallout Boy fan (I did enjoy some of the lyrics on their first albums, but I clearly associated their act with the emo punk movement – to its third wave, more specifically). However, even more surprisingly, I liked Immortals :)) (probably because Big Hero 6 was a great animation movie).
Immortals, the album version, is even lamer, if that’s even possible, than the one from Big Hero 6. The whole album is blah-blah-blah-da-dee-blah. Unfortunately. 🙁
The thing is, I always thought Fallout Boy was „blah blah da dee blah”, so Immortals was a welcome change. It had that extra „oooooooooo” and that weird Japanese inspired tune (which did have a connection with the movie, but not connection whatsoever with their genre…).