The old Fall Out Boy can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Oh, because they’re dead.
After speculation, rumours, re-recordings and everything in between, Fall Out Boy’s seventh full-length is finally ready. The band have thrown out some curveballs already, but really, you haven’t heard anything yet...
Where they tripped up on 2015’s patchy ‘American Beauty/ American Psycho’, they thoroughly excel on ‘M A N I A’. Songs that really shouldn’t be kept in the same cage exist in perfect harmony and musical styles that they have no right to play with are spun off expertly. From soulful passion (‘Heaven’s Gate’) and Latin heat (‘HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON’T’) to dancefloor-destroying mayhem (‘Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea’) and arena-bound choruses (‘Expensive Mistakes’), it’s a smorgasbord of daring experimentation and fearless songwriting.
Sure, they’ve moved further away from being the plucky pop-punks who penned ‘From Under The Cork Tree’ than ever before, but in the process, have also jumped several steps closer to all-out world domination.
Like it or not, Fall Out Boy are once again tearing up their own rulebook and marching to a beat that only they can hear. This is brave, baffling, bonkers and most importantly, absolutely brilliant. Strap yourselves in, it’s a hell of a ride.
