Kaley Patterson
A&E Editor
@KaleyKayPatt
Fall Out Boy: three words describing any college kid’s emo-pop-rock middle school years. The boys Pete Wentz, Patrick Stump, Joe Trohman and Andy Harvey released their sixth album “American Beauty/American Psycho” on Jan. 20 – just one year after claiming they were getting back in the music business to save rock and roll.
FOB formed in the early 2000s and received underground buzz for their first album “Take This to Your Grave” before catching the limelight with their second double platinum album “From Under the Cork Tree.” In 2007, the group released their third album “Infinity on High,” which sat at number one on the Billboard 200 during its first week.
The next year, fans thought all was lost for FOB when the band released their flop album “Folie a Deux” that undersold expectations.
After the band produced “Believers Never Die – Greatest Hits,” FOB took a hiatus from 2009-2012. The band regrouped to save the music industry and released “Save Rock and Roll” in 2013 with the triple platinum Top 20 single “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up).”
Now FOB is back with their second album after their three year departure, “American Beauty/American Psycho,” which sat at number one during its first week making it the band’s third album to do so.
This goes to show that FOB has a long history in the music industry and with millennials. Both have evolved from the pop-rock teenagers they were when their romance first began.
“American Beauty/American Psycho” still has the band’s original pop punk feel, but this is created by Stump’s nostalgic wide ranging vocals and iconic voice. Wentz’s lyrics are still eclectic, but the song titles have received a hacking when compared to their older work.
The album’s debut platinum Top 10 hit “Centuries” has 53,363,775 listens on Spotify and was unwillingly heard on repeat by anyone who watched the college football playoffs on ESPN this season.
The band allegedly apologized on Fox Sports Buzzer to anyone who was annoyed by the excessive plays of the song. The tune is a good stadium pump-up rock song, but it’s not the best on the album.
“Uma Thurman” – FOB’s ode to Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” and the film’s leading actress – has to be the best song on the new album. In an interview with BuzzFeed, Harvey and Wentz proposed it as one of the greats.
“Our upcoming single ‘Uma Thurman’ is the best song we’ve ever written,” Harvey said.
“The best song ever written,” Wentz said.
Second to “Uma Thurman” has to be the number one track on the album “Irresistible.” The song intros with trumpets giving FOB a defiant entrance to their sixth album, but then the title track, “American Beauty/American Psycho” ruins all the pomp and circumstance with its fast paced, in-your-face beats and yell-singing. If listeners make it past the title track and they’re not already annoyed by “Centuries,” they might just make it to the enjoyable slow jam pop rock song “The Kids Aren’t Alright,” which sets the tone for the rest of the album.
The album “American Beauty/American Psycho” does not live up to the expectations “Save Rock and Roll” set in 2013. Two years ago, the bar was set high because FOB fans survived the hiatus, and all were rejuvenated by the bands resurrection album. “American Beauty/American Psycho” currently sits at number three on iTunes Top Albums, but the album will probably decline slowly in ratings within the next couple of weeks.
FOB will continue to evolve and fight to save rock and roll, but they won’t do so without some misfits along the way. “American Beauty/American Psycho” is no “Folie a Deux,” but it’s also no “From Under the Cork Tree.” This is a new era of FOB, and after a couple of listens, fans will begin to appreciate it.