Being a bubblegum pop-punk star with more media exposure than the pope isn’t easy work, just ask Fall Out Boy. Better yet, listen to rap tycoon Jay-Z in the opening lines of the first, and “originally” titled, track “Thriller” off of its newest Virgin Records release, Infinity on High: “What you critics said would never happen, we dedicate this album to everyone who ever said we couldn’t make it, to the fans that held us down because everyone came around, welcome, it’s here.”
Unfortunately, Jay-Z is correct; it is here. Although it’s painful, it is indeed here.
What was once a musically pleasing and boarder-line genius pop-punk quartet, Fall Out Boy has become the latest band to inevitably succumb to the depths of the MTV and TRL generation. One must have seen this coming after their 2005 major label debut From Under the Cork Tree blew up like a peep in the microwave, but for whatever reason, the original fans of the Chicago-based rock outlet maintained hope that their sound would eventually drift back to their Fueled by Ramen days. Infinity on High confirms that those days are dead and gone; they will take it to their graves.
This 14 track effort is full of forced vocals, redundant musical work, and lyrics that either pertain to their discontent with the music industry or all too similar to what they have used in the past. Unfortunately, this album will again explode and go multi-platinum. FOB will continue to be popular as long as there are still junior high girls around.
In various interviews, the band has stressed it isn’t going for a new sound with this record, thus the first single, “This Ain’t a Scene, it’s an Arms Race.” While it is true that this particular song is animatedly different than anything they have ever released, it is untrue to think that the rest of the album follows the same trend. This is the only track on the album that stands out in terms of a new found sound. It is nearly impossible to differentiate the tracks “The Take Over, the Breaks Over,” “I’m Like a Lawyer With the Ways I’m Always Trying to Get You Off” and “Thnks Fr Th Mmrs” from any of the songs from Cork Tree. They even decided to take a page out of Panic! At the Disco’s book with the big bandesque songs “The (After) Life of the Party” and “I’ve Got All This Ringing in My Ears and None on My Fingers,” both struggle to meet even Panic!’s standards.
However, the entire album isn’t completely brutal. The tracks “Hum Halleluiah” and “Don’t You Know Who I Think I Am” serve as the lone bright spots on the dusty, unoriginal record. So, when you get down to the math of it, one out of every seven songs is listenable, and that’s not too bad, right?
The boys of Fall Out Boy have finally buried themselves from any tie they had with whatever punk genre they were apart of. Infinity on High is a weak release from a band that is capable of accomplishing so much more than the monetary successes they have obviously become attached to. What was once good music has become a compromise to earn the No. 1 spot on every music video countdown cable television has to offer. As track 13 on IOH implies, “You’re Crashing, But You’re No Wave.” No, it’s not a wave at all, it is Fall Out Boy itself crashing.
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