Eh, I don't think this one's for me. I appreciate that they went back to having more fun song titles though, I always liked that in their older stuff. No super long ones, but Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea feels like a classic FOB title.
Sounds like this record is up to the task then. In all seriousness, very disappointed in this. SR&R is great, AB/AP is mostly okay, but this is just... bleugh. At this point, I don’t know why they even bothered releasing “Young & Menace” as the first single, since none of the rest of the record contains even half the ambition or flat-out weirdness that song supposedly set the tone for. When a Flawed-But-Noble Experiment of a song is the best on your months-delayed album, you got a problem on your hands. Even more disappointing when you consider that Andy finally gets to cut loose on the drums for what feels like the first time in forever, and these songs still sound so lifeless.
I believe it! A lot of musical enjoyment is place and time. For me, Infinity and Folie will always be peak FOB but that has a lot to do with the fact that they fit snugly into my life like a puzzle piece.
I have to give this a few more listens, but on first play through as a collective album (albeit in the wrong song order), "Wilson" is the only one I've had to desire to play again ("Young and Menace" is really the only song I have listened to in-depth prior to the release of the whole album, but if I had not, I feel pretty confident in saying that would be another song I'd want to go back and listen to again after the first time) I can't even say whether or not I think this is good or bad off my first impression, because so little of it actually stuck with me. Gonna listen to it while at the gym tonight, though.
Haha it threw me off but like anything Pete writes i knew it had a reason for being written that way. It’s literally the thesis of Mania Via Genius:
I work in an office where people get to play Spotify playlists and Pandora radio. I actually tried to not listen to the last two singles but heard them. One was on in a gas station as well. So yeah, it can be hard to avoid singles from huge bands.
I wonder if I’m seeing the beginning of them “fixing” the order? I can see all tracks in album view but when added to a playlist it looks like this. https://imgur.com/gallery/UIZeu
So is Ed Sheeran going to sue them for ripping off "Shape of You" on "Hold Me Tight or Don't"...such a desperate attempt to get a song onto Top 40, its sad...
I enjoy this album in a vacuous sort of way. "Young and Menace" is definitely my personal favourite post-hiatus track and I'd love to see more experimentation from them along that vein. Other album moment highlights are "I'll stop wearing black when they make a darker colour" and "these are the last blues we're ever gonna have." It's interesting, because this album both brings back some fun in the song titles, lyrics, and features (although the lyrics have stayed relatively the same throughout their career), while doubling down on some of the things I've disliked the most about the post-hiatus releases (the airtight, claustrophobic songwriting on "Hold Me Tight or Don't"). One thing that is definitive for me about this release: it sounds better than the last two. I really hate the mix and master on SRAR and AB/AP, both were extremely grating on my ears. This one sounds really good (except for Champion, that one sounds like an old mix). I think I like this the most of any post-hiatus release, but at the end of the day, I'm still more likely to throw on FAD, IOH, FUCT, or TTTYG than the past three records. I can see why people are fans, but FOB meant something to me (and to a lot of people it seems) at a certain point in our lives, and I don't know if there's truly any way to recreate that anymore. Regardless, I hope FOB keeps trying because I'd rather have a couple good new tracks I enjoy every few years than nothing at all.
I mean, not to rock the boat, but Fall Out Boy themselves have said that the iTunes track listing is the correct one. Am I missing something? Have they changed it since? Maybe they have different orders for digital and physical releases like the Wikipedia page suggests?