Fall Out Boy's Bracket Mania Bracket • Page 28

wams
Donnie
Headfirst Slide
Disloyal Order

 

She's My Winona
(Coffee's For Closers)
Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On a Bad Bet
The (Shipped) Gold Standard

 

She's My Winona

What a Catch, Donnie

Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On a Bad Bet

Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes

 

W.A.M.S.
(Coffee's For Closers)
Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On a Bad Bet
Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes

 

Winona
Coffee
Cooperstown
Butfalo

 

Winona
Coffee
Headfirst
Shipped

 

The reality of probably having to choose between Coffee and Headfirst in this bracket just kicked in :(

 

My Winona

(Coffee's For Closers)
Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On a Bad Bet

Disloyal Order ofWater buff

 

W.A.M.S.
Coffee
Cooperstown
Gold

 

She's My Winona

(Coffee's For Closers)

Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On a Bad Bet

Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes

 

Winona
Donnie
Headfirst
Disloyal Order

 

Winona
What a Catch
West Coast Smoker
Disloyal Order

 

Winona
(Coffee’s for Closers)
Headfirst Slide
Disloyal Order

 

W.A.M.S. (hardest choice of this round)

(Coffee's For Closers)

West Coast Smoker

The (Shipped) Gold Standard

 

She's My Winona

What a Catch, Donnie

Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On a Bad Bet

The (Shipped) Gold Standard (This is a brutal matchup)

 

Heads up, I wrote a lot again!!! This time I pointed out a ton of minor details that stand out to me, probably most annoyingly all the harmonies and background vocals (which I really feel are a huge part of my adoration of this album and maybe an aspect I feel is undervalued when it comes to this record’s identity).


She's My Winona– Kinda hard, I do really love both, but Winona takes the edge overall. The song has yet another knockout chorus, arguably one of the best on the album, and I’m a sucker for well-done key changes, and the one in the final chorus absolutely falls into that category.

Little moments to love on this one: the way everything cuts out around the “ba ba bada”s at the end of the second verse, the acoustic beginning to the final chorus (and the pounding accents provided by the drums, bass and distorted guitar), oh and the drum production on this song is absolutely wonderful.

(Coffee's For Closers)– Hard to vote against Donnie again, but Coffee has been one of my favorites lately. I’ve gone into detail about it already so I’m just gonna point out little moments I love.

Harmonies: “come together, come apart”, “they broke the mold” and “when I got cold” in the second verse, the low harmony in the chorus is really nice too.

That final chorus in general is spectacularly structured, the drum roll into the final “I will never believe in anything again” is wonderful and that part feels so much more impactful on that repeat imo after the acapella one before it. Also a nice little detail is the strings during the final “we will never believe again” are playing the same parts as the outro of the song (which isn’t what they play in the previous iterations of that refrain). I also really like the lead guitar part in the chorus, as well as the ebowed guitar that appears briefly in the verses, simple stuff but really nice touches. I have a feeling it’s going to be this song and Headfirst Slide in the final round.

Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On a Bad Bet– Yeah, again, nothing stands a chance against this song for me. West Coast Smoker is a good song though, not one of my favorites, but still good and an interesting way to close out the album. Again, gonna point out the little things.

Harmonies: “lean in to listen”, “old headlights sniffing model glue again”, “just want to be a foot note”, “get unique”, “shine like shark teeth”, call and response “it’s a sign”, and “what if you peaked early?”, and obviously the entirety of the pre-choruses and choruses.

I already kinda said this in the previous round, but I love how intricate and diverse the instrumentation is on this song, there’s really no one instrument that you could call the driving force of the song, the horns and guitars bounce off each other, synths add depth and atmosphere, the drums are great, and they guide the song as need be but they never steal the show. In the second verse, the guitars start playing these awesome, funk-ish parts starting at the “peroxide princes” line, that’s something I didn’t notice until fairly recently I think. Along with the strings and, I think, church bells (?) in the final chorus. This song is so, so well layered, I’m sure I’ll find even more new things in the mix eventually.

Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes– This is the hardest one, I think. Both very, very high in my favorites list. I think I have a bias towards openers, especially when they so perfectly encapsulate the album’s sound and provide a great introduction such as this one does.

Here we go again, this one has a ton of great harmonies: “you’ll never remember your head is far too blurry”, “he needs his head put through a cat scan, hey editor I’m undeniable, hey doctor I’m certifiable”, “What a match I’m half doomed and you’re semi-sweet”, “got me staring odd, or was it just a telescopic camera nod?”, the delayed “doors in the highway truck stop stalls” background vocal, “all the rookies leave your badge and your gun on a desk...”, the call and response “I’m a— loose bolt”, and yeah, again obviously the entirety of each chorus.

I love how the cymbal crashes hit in sync with the piano chords in the beginning of the verse, really nice detail. The bass line in the pre-chorus is really cool!! It’s rare that a bass line stands out for me in a FOB song tbh, aside from the more obvious examples. Also really love the drum fill into the second verse, and how Andy switches the beat for that verse and how it changes the feel of it compared to the first one. Honestly, he’s just in top form in this song all-around. Also, the transition between this song and I Don’t Care is flawless and, in general, this album just flows so well and has such wonderful transitions between songs.

 

W.A.M.S.
What a Catch, Donnie
Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On a Bad Bet
The (Shipped) Gold Standard

 

Current scores:

She's My Winona - 16
W.A.M.S. - 5

What a Catch, Donnie - 7
(Coffee's For Closers) - 14

West Coast Smoker - 4
Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On a Bad Bet - 17

Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes - 13
The (Shipped) Gold Standard - 8

 

She's My Winona
(Coffee's For Closers)
Headfirst Slide
Disloyal Order

 

She's My Winona
(Coffee's For Closers)
West Coast Smoker (actually listening this song as I type this)
Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes

 

Winona
Coffee
Headfirst
Disloyal

 

She’s My Winona
Coffee’s for Closers
Headfirst Slide
Disloyal Order

 

I never in a million years imagined Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown was this well-liked. It's a really good song but this album has better on it (including West Coast Smoker).

 

Headfirst is my favorite FOB song

 

It’s one of my favorite songs period.