New FOB Album for Beauties, Psychos, And Everything In Between
This Tuesday, American rock band Fall Out Boy released their new album, “American Beauty/American Psycho.” Overall, it was quite spectacular.
January 22, 2015
On Jan. 20, at midnight, Fall Out Boy, released their new album, titled “American Beauty/American Psycho.” Even before I started listening to the music, I spent a good few minutes just looking at the cover art. It first was shown when they released “The Kids Aren’t Alright,” and depicts a child with a sad face, one half of his face adorned with the American flag in black paint.
After my moment of enjoying the cover art, I actually started listening to the music. It started with “Irresistible,” an upbeat song with a chorus that could easily get stuck in your head.
Next up was “American Beauty/American Psycho,” the song the album is named after. It strayed from what people assume is their style, which had lots of instruments, percussion, and the like for the whole song, to using more a cappella with yelling and drums.
Then, you get the single that went viral at the speed of light – “Centuries.” As you know, this was more their usual style, and had some sound effects that enhanced the music and added a nice background to crescendos in Patrick Stump’s, the lead singer and guitarist, voice. But near the end, the song started getting repetitive, and it wasn’t quite my favorite song on there.
Up next was “The Kids Aren’t Alright,” with a happy but haunting tune comprised of whistling. The whistling was stopped for the verse, but returned for the chorus, which was catchy. Alas, once again, by the end of the song, it was getting repetitive.
“Uma Thurman” began after, and although it should have been repetitive, it was quite catchy. With an upbeat tune, a minimal chorus, and elaborate verses, it was one of those songs that you sing in the bathroom mirror with a hairbrush as a microphone.
“Jetpack Blues” began quiet, but at the chorus, Fall Out Boy’s signature style shone of loud music and lyrics shone through. When you hit the bridge, it takes on a Western tune. Even if it shouldn’t have fit, the quick few seconds of the style melded perfectly with the song.
Beginning with a low pitched sound effect, “Novocaine” had you curious from the first measure. The lyrics were catchy, and although it sounds like the song would send a bad message, the chorus has lyrics that speak about a poisoned relationship and his freedom from it.
A song called “Fourth of July” had an upbeat, catchy tune, although it was a bit hard to understand what he was saying. However, this is a well-loved quirk of the band, common in lots of their older songs. “Fourth of July,” however, had a very unique tune, and sound effects in the background enhanced the whole song.
“Favorite Record” was a song of memories, featuring Stump singing stories with a happy tune to highlight the good points. It was a lot of memories of dancing, although that fits perfectly with the title of the song.
“Immortals,” featured in “Big Hero 6,” is one of my personal favorites, with lots of sliding along the scale and a high-pitched tune playing through the whole song. At one point, all of the music stops, and “future” is sung, completely warped but is a pleasant twist to the song, with was very techno.
Last, but not least, was “Twin Skeleton’s (Hotel in NYC).” It played perfectly from lots of instruments to almost none, and then we get a wonderful moment that was almost dubstep, where they dropped the bass right after the chorus. In the song, there was a part that sounded like it was sang by a choir with Patrick Stump leading. The bridge was lengthy and repeated the same “hold on” for a while, but it was still interesting. The song ended with the choir, and it was a close to the newest album.
The album really experimented with using sound effects. Although there were some points that were a bit repetitive, the songs kept me hooked, and I’m excited to get footage from live concerts uploaded to YouTube.