American Beauty/American Psycho by Fall Out Boy
Posted in 2015, January, Q1, Uncategorized on February 12th, 2015 by Devin R Dougherty
Album: American Beauty/American Psycho
Artist: Fall Out Boy
Release Date: January 16, 2015
Label: Island/DCD2
Genre: Pop Punk/Pop Rock
American Beauty/American Psycho is Fall Out Boy’s sixth album. The album finally completes the band’s total transformation from one of emo’s least-inventive forerunners to one of pop rock’s most experimental groups. But their previous albums were so much fun! What happened? Fall Out Boy takes themselves so seriously now, and it sucks the personality right out of these mostly pretty good collection of tracks.
First of all, what happened to the band? It’s just become an electronic side project for Patrick Stump, since the only real instrument we can hear is his (granted) powerful voice. The other members are so masked by over-production that they just sound like synths and white noise. However, this doesn’t make the album bad, it’s got some really good songs on it, like “The Kids Aren’t Alright,” but then again, it has some really awful songs too, like “Favorite Record,” which is just a silly fluff song. Mind you, Fall Out Boy’s never been the face for great lyricism. It doesn’t take a harsh critic to point out that they mostly write about girls and dancing (Like on “Favorite Record”).
The title track concerns me for the future of the band, because they experimented with this sound on their EP PAX AM Days. A giant clashing of instruments fighting for the loudest spot; you know, if the background noise doesn’t eventually overtake them all and the band just becomes Merzbow (which I personally wouldn’t mind, but the transitionary period would be torture)! In regards to the popular singles, “Immortals” and “Centuries,” I really don’t have an opinion. They’re both songs with silly lyrics and an overly poppy sound, but a lot of good pop songs are that way. These are just fine.
Some songs really shine through, like the opening track, “Irresistible,” or “Uma Thurman,” despite the silliest sounding refrain on probably the whole record. They work sonically! The album isn’t grotesque or poorly made or anything, it lacks character and has meaningless lyrics (and I hope they’d agree to that second part).
Great tracks: “Irresistible,” “Uma Thurman,” “The Kids Aren’t Alright,” “Twin Skeleton’s (Hotel in NYC)”
Not-so-great tracks: “American Beauty/American Psycho,” “Novocaine,” “Favorite Record”
FINAL RATING: 5/10
