As I sat down to write this review of Fall Out Boy’s
comeback album, Save Rock and Roll, their first album since the criminally
underrated 2008 full-length Folie à
Deux, I tried to decide what I would make my lead for this review. I
could talk about how this is the most cohesive Fall Out Boy album yet. I could
talk about how this new Fall Out Boy album was worth the wait. I could even go
the now terribly trite and cliché route and talk about how the title of the
album is a misnomer. But I didn’t want to do any of these things. Instead, I
sat here in my room for about a half an hour wallowing in self-pity because I
believed I had writer’s block. But just now I’m realizing that what I was
experiencing was not writer’s block at all, but something much more complicated.
It’s not that I have nothing to say, because I certainly have a lot to say
about an album like this; rather, it’s that I don’t want what I have to say to
not do this album justice. I want what I have to say about Save Rock and Roll
equate in importance the incredible album which my words will be discussing.
That’s a hell of a lot of pressure. So instead I will end this lead by giving
Fall Out Boy an award that is completely deserved- I am officially handing Fall
Out Boy the “Comeback of the Year” award.
Now that I got that intro out of the way, I can get
right down to brass tacks and drop this bombshell right away: Save Rock and
Roll is completely and unequivocally Fall Out Boy’s best album.
While a comeback album that starts off with a song
called “The Phoenix,” would seem overtly cliché if any other band did it, Fall
Out Boy makes it work better than anyone could have possibly expected.
Pulsating with a driving orchestral section that seems plucked straight out of
an action movie climax, the song is constant energy from start to finish. The
repeated battle cry “Put on your war paint,” destined to be a staple of Fall
Out Boy fan’s tumblr post for years to come, kicks off this album in a way that
seems so remarkably well-placed. Perhaps most fittingly, guitarist Joe Trohman’s
lead guitar backing in the chorus consists of him playing a near-perfect rendition
of the James Bond theme, as vocalist Patrick Stump delivers a flawless vocal
performance, belting the the lyrics which are uniquely fitting for this band, “I’m gonna change
you like a remix, then I’ll raise you like a phoenix. Wearing our vintage
misery, no, I think it looked a little better on me.” I have been quoted several
times since the song’s release as saying “The Phoenix” my personal favorite
song that Fall Out Boy has ever produced.
By the intensity does not begin and end with “The
Phoenix.” Lead single, “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light ‘Em Up)”
with its massive hip-hop drum beat, infectious vocal melodies, and the calculated
bravado of Stump’s repeated “I’m On Fire” falsettos sets the tone for what will
be Fall Out Boy’s most self-assured collection of songs. As bassist Pete Wentz
has been quoted as saying since the band’s reunion, the band had to record Save
Rock And Roll in secret to preserve the sanctity of it and make sure it wasn’t affected
by outside influences. As a result, it is an album that is authentically Fall
Out Boy–the band finally achieving the realization of the sounds they tried on Infinity
on High and Folie a Deux. Nowhere else in Fall Out Boy’s discography could you
find “Alone Together,” with its confident, pop hooks and MGMT’s “Kids”-esque
shouts of “Yeah!”- from what sounds like a group of children- in its chorus.
Same goes for “Death Valley,” with its faux-dubstep bass wobble.
Wentz, the band’s primary lyricist, has completely
and totally outdone himself on this album. If listeners thought that Wentz’s
often emotionally-charged lyrics were relatable before, they will be shocked to
hear that haven’t yet experienced Wentz at his most vulnerable. Much of the
album’s lyrical themes deal with getting older and the fracturing of relationships
that can occur as a result. In “Where Did the Party Go?” Wentz address the
passing of time with the line, “My old aches become new again, my old friends
become exes again.” However, perhaps the best example of this is in “Miss
Missing You,” the 80s alt-pop leaning track, when Stump sings, “The person that
you’d take a bullet for is behind the trigger,” a line that really encapsulates
the feelings of betrayal and heartbreak that run throughout the album. Meanwhile, Wentz seems to be facing his own
mortality through his lyrics, as the lyrics “We’re gonna die, it’s just a
matter of time” find their way into the carpe diem-themed number “Death Valley.”
Big Sean, part of G.O.O.D. Music’s current roster of
young, talented MCs, takes his place alongside Lil’ Wayne and Jay Z as rap artists who
have graced Fall Out Boy albums with guest vocals. Delightfully silly as Big
Sean is capable of, his verse gives Save Rock and Roll a much needed breath of
levity, in the face of the serious lyrical themes I discussed above. “I’m
either fucking or working, so the grind don’t stop,” he sings at one point in
the verse, a line so delightfully cheeky that I’m still not sure how the
aforementioned Lil Wayne and other “punchline” rappers haven’t come up with it yet.
The verse then closes with what I can only assume is an allusion to Simple Plan’s
“Addicted,” as Big Sean raps, “Hell yeah, I’m a dick girl, addicted to you.” Unfortunately,
the track seems oddly sandwiched in the tracklisting between two of the album’s
more serious songs, and as a result does not stand out as well as it could have.
Perhaps it could’ve benefited from being placed alongside “Where Did the Party
Go?” As for Fall Out Boy’s collaboration with Courtney Love- I must first start
off with my reaction when I first saw the album’s track-listing. I immediately
wanted to let out one of Big Sean’s signature “Oh, gawd”s. This was further
emphasized by the cringe-inducing “It’s Courtney, Bitch” intro to the song. But
luckily, I gave her collaboration a chance, and was rewarded with one of the
album’s most aggressive, angry tracks. Love’s snarl fits the tone of the song
perfectly, and her chaotic delivery of the lines works with the explosive
nature of the drum beat that Andy Hurley provides.
The best guest vocalist comes not from these two songs,
but from relatively-unknown British folk singer, Foxes, who absolutely slays in
“Just One Yesterday.” She takes what would’ve otherwise been a weak Adele
knockoff track and creates one of the album’s standouts. Getting to sing the
bridge solo, she gives a heart-wrenching take on Wentz lyrics overtop a
simplistic, echoing piano run. The song then blasts back into the chorus, with
her improvised vocal melody soaring overtop of Stump’s capable lower-register.
This diverse collection of guest vocalist all
culminates in a conclusion fitting of the album’s scope. What do you do when
the first ten tracks are some of the most grandiose you have ever released?
Why, I’m glad you asked. First, you include a sample of one of your most
beloved songs (“Chicago Is So Two Years Ago”) and second, you have Sir Elton
John do a very prominent guest vocalist performance, and turn track eleven up to eleven (judging by Fall Out Boy’s
recent Conan performance, it seems like they are familiar with Spinal Tap’s
line of thinking). Save Rock And Roll comes to a climax with one of the
greatest vocalists of the Baby Boomer Generation harmonizing with one of the
icons of Generation Y. “Wherever I go, trouble seems to follow, I only plugged
in to save rock and roll,” they sing together, as the album fades out. It is a
perfect conclusion to one of the nearest-to-perfect albums that I have ever
experienced.
Bottom Line: Fall Out Boy and producer Butch Walker have
crafted the most massive sounding pop-rock album since The Killers’ Hot Fuss, and I mean that in the best
way possible. These songs were meant to be played at maximum volume, with the windows
down in the car on a summer night, or, in some cases, through the PA of a
20,000-person capacity arena. Save Rock And Roll is Fall Out Boy at their most
anthemic, and, luckily, their most authentic level yet. It remains to be seen
whether these songs will still resonate 8-10 years down the line, as Fall Out
Boy’s first two albums have, but right now I feel confident that they will.
9.5/10
Key Tracks: “The Phoenix”, “Save Rock And Roll”, “Alone
Together”
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