Fall Out Boy - M A N I A

Fall Out Boy
M A N I A
2018
Spotify

It's hard to imagine a Fall Out Boy album in 2018. The pop punk and emo stalwarts have a dedicated following and will continue to fill arenas, but as time goes on their music just seems to get worse and worse. This album in particular M A N I A was pushed back months from it's original release date with the band going back to re-work some of these songs which were just not working. Pete Wentz and front man Patrick Stump were quite honest about this in interviews, but it still did not bode well for the eventual release. The album is in a word: odd. They certainly are not throwing back to their roots on this record and are trying to be more aggressive on the rock side of things at times, but also songs like "HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON'T" have almost nothing to do with who the band actually are. This album feels devoid of any personality, just making a record to make one. It is obviously produced well as the band has had major label backing for years now, but some of the decisions feel so weird. The albums opener " Young and Menace" has this EDM bend to it, that feels so out of place for Fall Out Boy to the point where you have to make sure you are listening to the right album. They don't sound like a band band anymore, instead they employ electronics and a ton of behind the scenes production which really dilutes their sound. You miss the sound of real drums and real guitars with Stump's vocal. It's what works for Fall Out Boy, this new sound simply does not.

The production is so big and so cluttered that it's hard to pick out any one thing to latch on to. The humor is totally gone from their lyrics and in it's place is stuff that is so serious that it makes your eyes roll. IN the end this is music and it should be fun, but this album feels like it was a pain in the ass to make and thus the results are, off. There was not one song on this record that moved me or made me want to listen again, instead the 35 minutes are a total slog. The album has no flow, absolutely nothing unifying it and then out of nowhere "Sunshine Riptide" comes on with trap skitters and Burma Boy turning it into a reggae track? There is just nothing here to really like, even for the Fall Out Boy fan. This album clearly didn't need a re-work it needed to be scrapped and a new one started from scratch. As it is M A N I A is probably Fall out Boy's worst album yet.

2.0 out of 10