American Beauty/American PsychoStudio AlbumRecorded: 2014
Released: 16 January 2015
Band lineupPatrick Stump (lead vocals, guitars, keyboards, atdditional programming, percussion)
Pete Wentz (bass guitar)
Joe Trohman (guitars, lap steel, additional programming, keyboards)
Andy Hurley (drums, percussion)
Jake Sinclair (additional percussion, programming, backing vocals, keys)
Michael Bolger (horns on "Irresistible")
All tracks authored (except where noted) primarily by Pete Wentz (with band input) and composed by Fall Out Boy.
1. Irresistible (3:36)
2. American Beauty/American Psycho (
Wentz, Sebastian Akchoté-Bozovic, Nikki Sixx) (3:15)
3. Centuries (
Wentz, Jonathan Rotem, Michael J. Fonseca, Raja Kumari, Justin Tranter, Suzanne Vega) (3:51)
4. The Kids Aren't Alright (4:20)
5. Uma Thurman (
Wentz, Jake Sinclair, Waqaas Hashmi, Jarrel Young, Liam O'Donnell, Jack Marshall, Bob Mosher) (3:31)
6. Jet Pack Blues (2:59)
7. Novocaine (3:46)
8. Fourth of July (
Wentz, Ryan Lott, Sinclair) (3:44)
9. Favorite Record (3:23)
10. Immortals (3:09)
11. Twin Skeleton's (Hotel in NYC) (3:40)
ReviewMy journey has finally come to an end. I’m not sure how I feel. In some aspects, this record is a big improvement on
Save Rock and Roll. In others, it’s a big step back. When the songs are more pushing boundaries, they’re great. But when they’re not…
“Irresistible” is a good start; it’s very different from their usual stuff and Patrick’s vocals have a swagger I’d only heard before on
PAX AM Days. I was hoping that meant they’d taken some cues from that EP, both stylistically and in terms of putting together music. It almost feels like they’re reinventing old Fall Out Boy, but…
The title track, “American Beauty/American Psycho” is more modern than anything they’ve made before. Blurring the lines between electronic music and rock at times, it’s a sort of scathing view of what it’s like to be in love in America. The way love is put on this unachievable pedestal, how the idea of love is this perfect, fairytale romance with a perfect, Photoshopped princess. How you, the poor boy pining for such a princess, are not cool enough, manly enough, handsome and/or rugged enough for her. Expectations, realizations and imagination. The American dream.
“Centuries” is one of the oddball greats. It’s got such an epic feel to it; it’s just a huge song, one that feels grand and adventurous. “You will remember me for centuries”, Patrick shouts with all the intensity he can muster, and I can almost believe him with that sort of inspired rage. Which is bizarre, given that one of the driving piece of the song is a sample from “Tom’s Diner” (do do do do, do doodoo do…you know the one).
“The Kids Aren’t Alright” is a pretty pretty but also pretty sad piece. It’s not all that “together”, it’s a bit vague, but I think it’s a pretty straightforward tale from its title. Most notable in it for me is the line “It twists my head a bit to think/All those people in those old photographs I’ve seen are dead”, if mainly because that’s a bit of a stomach-wrenching feeling/thought I’ve had before. “Uma Thurman” is just a fun song, with another bizarre sample (this time the TV theme song for “The Munsters”).
“Jet Pack Blues” could have been a really pretty song, but it’s betrayed by its simplicity. It’s a simple reminiscing about a relationship that was and no longer is, backed by pretty standard music. “Novocaine”, however, is a very angry song backed by very non-standard angry, distorted “na na na”s. Fall Out Boy seems to be at their best when singing about things that piss them off, and this just drives home the point. Singing once again about the way modern life has made real love feel numb, and distorted our emotions and feelings to the point that we feel practically nothing in comparison to what we’re told we’re supposed to feel. Patrick has some great rawr vocals here.
Then the album takes a nosedive into a few seriously forgettable tracks. “Fourth of July” and “Favorite Record” aren’t even worth talking about. They’re very standard pop with a slight tinge of rock to them. Bleh. “Immortals” is a bit better, but you can almost tell it was written to be a film’s token “big name song” on its soundtrack (in this case, Big Hero 6).
More sentimentally, my journey comes to an end with “Twin Skeleton’s (Hotel in NYC).” It could have closed on a better note. Well, not literally, since the ending to the song is actually my favourite part (a haunting [I use that word a lot], wordless outro). This is a good song, but it highlights one of my least favourite things about this album, in that it’s very repetitive. Not only does it strictly follow the VCVCBCC format (sometimes even going VCVCBCBCBC or VCVCCCCC), but it has a lot of Patrick repeating lyrics (“I love the way, I love the way, I love the way you hurt me, baby”, “hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on”, “the kids aren’t al-, kids aren’t alright”, “I can work a, I can work a miracle” and later “the blood, the blood, the blood of the lamb”…you get the idea). It’s tiring, and it just feels like filling time because they don’t have as much to say. The lyrics are rarely as biting as they used to be, and I rarely felt any emotion other than anger. If a song wasn’t brimming with anger, even under the surface, it was just poppy. At least their older stuff contained sadness and joy, ecstasy and despair, both ends of the spectrum and many things between.
It’s safe to say I’m disappointed with this album, but, weirdly, I do like it considerably. About half of it feels like continued evolution, it’s just such a letdown that the other half or so didn’t continue that, rather feeling like it succumbed to the pop music formula for success. Which sucks, because, as much as they have always been somewhat pop, it’s never felt like they’ve tried to be, or like they ever went out of their way to make songs that would sell. I don’t know if they’ve done it consciously here, but they’ve done it nonetheless. It’s a shame. I’ll continue to enjoy the album, as it’s very good on its own, but I hope their next is more cohesively a step forward. They said they wanted to, one day, make rock’s
Yeezus, and I’d love to see them give it a serious shot.