Fall Out Boy, the band behind pretty much everyone’s middle school anthem (“Sugar We’re Goin Down”) has started the new year off with a bang with the release of their 6th studio album, American Beauty/American Psycho on January 20th, 2015. As someone who was obsessed with Fall Out Boy in middle school (and quite honestly, the obsession has never gone away), I’m always incredibly excited when they release new music. And considering the album has been streamed on Spotify and YouTube over sixty million times, and has nabbed the Number 1 spot on Billboard’s 200, I’m definitely not the only one.
The album title comes from the title of an album by The Grateful Dead, and a movie title (American Beauty), and a novel by Bret Easton Ellis and the movie adaption of it (American Psycho). According to lead singer Patrick Stump, the album is full of “nods to other cultures.” The album definitely feels like a scrapbook of pop-culture references and influences, considering the references in its title, the references to Pulp Fiction in the song “Uma Thurman,” and just the sheer number of songs they’ve sampled, like Motley Crue’s “Too Fast for Love” on the song “American Beauty/American Psycho,” Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner” on “Centuries,” Son Lux’s “Lost it to Trying” on “Fourth of July,” and the theme song to the TV show The Munsters on the song “Uma Thurman.” Personally, I think this aspect of the album is really cool. I love it when bands use their music pay homage to the past songs, books, and movies that have shaped and defined our current culture, and according to bassist Pete Wentz, this album covers 100 years of it.
Focusing more on its sound, Fall Out Boy’s music has really changed and evolved since their first few albums (Take This to Your Grave, released in 2003, and From Under the Cork Tree, released in 2005). They’ve pulled themselves almost completely out of the pop-punk genre, but I think they’ve crafted a sound that is still definitively Fall Out Boy. Their lyrics in the songs on this album, for example, are consistent with the lyrics in their past songs; they’re extremely personal, metaphorical, poetic, and frankly, a little weird. The songs on American Beauty/American Psycho also have a very “anthem” quality to them that’s similar to past Fall Out Boy songs (essentially meaning they make you want to scream the lyrics at the top of your lungs and dance around your dorm with your roommate). In an interview, Patrick Stump said that the band wanted to keep the definable elements of their songs, the lyrics and his vocals, in the forefront, but “change everything else around it and see what happens.”
And for me, this experimenting works. A review from Alternative Press says that what makes Fall Out Boy great is “a desire to embrace the ridiculous and somehow miraculously pull it off,” and I think that really accurately describes what this album is about. Not every song works perfectly, as some are clouded with so many different instrumental and production elements that it’s a little overwhelming, but overall, the album is exciting, weird, catchy, powerful, and refreshing all at once. The songs that stand out the most to me are “Uma Thurman,” “Fourth of July,” “Centuries,” and “Irresistible.” Truth be told, I’m not that knowledgeable about music, but I think that if the songs on an album can make you feel emotional, relate to your life in some way, and keep drawing you back in to listen to them again and again, then it’s a success.
It’s been almost exactly two years since Fall Out Boy ended their three year long hiatus, and after listening to this album (along with their first album since the hiatus, Save Rock and Roll), it seems like Fall Out Boy is not only serious about their new music, but it looks like they’re here to stay. And while I can’t definitively say if the lyrics “you will remember me, remember me for centuries” are going to come true, I can say that they will be remembered for a really, really long time.
You can listen to American Beauty/American Psycho on Spotify, YouTube, or iTunes!