Fall Out Boy – “Folie Ä Deux”

Rating: 6/10

Fall Out Boy is one of those bands that manages to polarize music critics into those who either love or loathe them. Unfortunately for bands that achieve such a status, it’s difficult for them to receive a fair review when they actually release good material.

F.O.B.’s latest effort, “Folie Ä Deux” is almost a siren song for the band’s lost fan-base from back when they used to consider playing “Knights” a big deal.

After exploding onto the scene with “Take This to Your Grave,” the band released the instrumentally boring “From Under the Cork Tree” and “Infinity on High” to unreasonably forgiving reviews. When the most memorable riff on a release is a four-note bass line, the band needs to mix things up a bit more.

The band’s previous two releases relied mostly on Pat Stump’s excellent singing to create the hooks to carry the songs. That said, guitarists Stump and Joe Trohman bring back the impossible-to-resist guitar parts that got the band a major-label deal in the first place.

“Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet” is a perfect example of the high-caliber pop-rock tunes of which the band is capable. The song is as interesting instrumentally as it is vocally.

Trohman’s use of tremolo in the chorus is a chilling complimentary part to the piano-driven section. Additionally, he throws in a melodic solo over the final chorus that gives the song an additional level of depth.

“Headfirst Slide” also features an excellent use of a horn section that doesn’t sound cheesy, as it often does in rock songs. The track is able to show off Stump’s improved singing as he hits much lower notes than he has in his previous work.

“Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes” and “20 Dollar Nose Bleed” are both excellent examples of F.O.B. getting everything right in pop-rock they’ve gotten wrong on the past two releases.

Lyricist Pete Wentz is no longer endlessly rambling on and on about the winning combination of sex and success. Instead, Wentz tackles topics like fatherhood and makes a commentary on the status-quo of the music industry.

The band, however, still struggles in a few areas. F.O.B. needs to drop the hip-hop beats. In “I Don’t Care,” the beats work out just marginally better than they did in “This Ain’t a Scene.”

Yes, punk and hip-hop are sister genres, no one is denying that. However, nothing annoys two sisters more than mixing them up.

Hopefully, F.O.B. looks back on “Folie Ä Deux” as a learning experience. They will probably never top “Take This to Your Grave,” but they’re still plenty capable of writing a future guilty pleasure.