{"id":4612,"date":"2018-01-25T00:45:48","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T00:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/?p=4612"},"modified":"2018-01-25T00:45:48","modified_gmt":"2018-01-25T00:45:48","slug":"review-fall-out-boy-mania","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2018\/01\/25\/review-fall-out-boy-mania\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Fall Out Boy &#8211; Mania"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fall Out Boy has been in an unpleasant place since their big comeback in 2013, at least if you ask me. While their post-reunion albums have received a consistent amount of critical and commercial success, <em>Save Rock and Roll<\/em> and <em>American Beauty\/American Psycho<\/em> were overall not very good, as someone who spent a decent amount of his middle school years marinating in their breakthrough albums. Even taking them on their own merits, the best I could say about their last two records is that they\u2019re marginally better than any current period Maroon 5 record, going down a similar path of watering down a full band project with pop\/EDM trends to the point of functioning as a solo project for the lead singer. The same can also be said of their newest release <em>Mania<\/em>, which was originally scheduled for last September before being delayed to 2018, as the album felt \u201cvery rushed,\u201d according to the band. Well truth be told, I hate to imagine what that earlier version sounded like, because even after the delay, <em>Mania<\/em> still sounds like it was rushed out the door.<\/p>\n<p>The lead single \u201cYoung and Menace\u201d serves as the opening track and immediately raises many red flags. The obvious point of contention is the flow of the song, utilizing soft verses with moody piano chords and building drum\/vocal performances before exploding into an irritating EDM chorus with choppy squealing vocal samples. This annoyance is made worse by the incredibly predictable song structure and the fact that the chorus drags on for what seems like an ungodly long period of time. While Patrick Stump\u2019s vocal performances sound par for the course, the lyrics feel oddly limp and unmemorable, with the only standout line being \u201cI think god is gonna have to kill me twice, kill me twice like my name was Nikki Sixx.\u201d It\u2019s the worst possible way to start off an album.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VtVFTuIZFYU?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cChampions\u201d follows suit, and while it\u2019s significantly less obnoxious than the opener, it\u2019s still supremely unimpressive and uninteresting. The spaghetti western-style guitar leads in the verse sound decent, but the structure is also repetitive beyond belief and the lyrics are even less special, being a generic inspirational anthem to those feeling disillusioned with life, which leads to one of my biggest points of contention with <em>Mania<\/em>. One of the most divisive aspects of Fall Out Boy\u2019s music has always been the unusual and absurd lyrical pastiches they come up with, something that was especially prominent on their last record (I still don\u2019t know what \u201cUma Thurman\u201d was supposed to be about). Perhaps in an attempt to rectify this issue, the lyrics on <em>Mania<\/em> are incredibly simplified and streamlined to the point of generic, relying on obvious metaphors with scant few memorable lines.<\/p>\n<p>Tracks like \u201cThe Last of the Real Ones\u201d use incredibly simplistic celestial language to describe how much the narrator loves one particular woman, while \u201cChurch\u201d and \u201cHeaven\u2019s Gate\u201d are reliant on religious descriptions so obvious you\u2019re probably already transcribing the lyrics in your head while reading this. The minor handful of lyrics that actually do stand out can be counted on one hand, and sadly they\u2019re not that much better. \u201cWilson (Expensive Mistakes)\u201d quotes \u201cI\u2019ll stop wearing black when they make a darker color\u201d straight from Wednesday Addams, which is as clich\u00e9 a reference as could be made in this song, and the awkward lines about stitching and fuzz in \u201cHOLD ME TIGHT OR DON\u2019T\u201d are not appealing in the slightest. Perhaps most nonsensical of all is \u201cStay Frosty Royal Milk Tea,\u201d featuring the line \u201cI\u2019m about to go Tonya Harding on the whole world\u2019s knee,\u201d a reference which makes absolutely no sense considering that Nancy Kerrigan\u2019s knee was broken by a hitman hired by Harding\u2019s ex-husband, with Harding\u2019s crime being the interference of the investigation and not direct assault herself.<\/p>\n<p>Fall Out Boy knows they can Google this stuff, right? They released a movie about this last month and everything.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"747\" height=\"421\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wH-by1ydBTM?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Aside from lyrical deficiencies, the music is woefully sub-par. The same issues seem to permeate throughout every track, from incredibly repetitive structures to riding pop trends in the most obnoxious manner possible. \u201cWilson (Expensive Mistakes)\u201d has some annoyingly wailing vocals mixed in with trap drums and ethereal guitars that more resemble a bad DJ remix of a Mac Demarco tune than anything else. \u201cChurch\u201d makes some decent use of church gospel choirs, but the similarly processed drums lack any impact and the chorus drags longer than any other song on the record. \u201cHOLD ME TIGHT OR DON\u2019T,\u201d which may be the worst song on the record apart from \u201cYoung and Menace,\u201d takes a limp shuffling rhythm and tosses together a curdled mix of obnoxious singing\/whistling, barely noticeable syncopated guitar riffs, and similarly suffocated steelpan drums. All of this comes together in a way that sounds like a really bad attempt at crafting a mainstream dancehall track, like if Fall Out Boy was covering something from Drake\u2019s <em>More Life<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Fall Out Boy may have delayed <em>Mania<\/em> because they felt it needed more time to be polished and fleshed out, but even then the album is a waste of however much time went into it. Lazy song structure, lyrics that are incredibly simplistic and uninspired, annoying vocal performances, and being drenched in so much pop nonsense that half the time you forget this is supposed to be a band. While \u201cHeaven\u2019s Gate\u201d might be the least annoying track on the album with its laid-back folksy blues vibe, I can\u2019t imagine what purpose this album could serve to any audience. Long-time fans will be displeased with the band\u2019s further musical degradation, and their sound doesn\u2019t do enough to distinguish itself from any other currently active pop act. Maybe it\u2019s time for Fall Out Boy to hang it up again\u2026 possibly for good this time.<\/p>\n<p><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><strong><em>Final Verdict:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><em>Skip it. There&#8217;s just no point to this album or any of the songs on it.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Mania is available from Island Records on CD, vinyl, digital download, and streaming services. Check out Fall Out Boy on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/falloutboy\/\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/falloutboy?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\">Twitter<\/a>, and their <a href=\"https:\/\/falloutboy.com\/\">official website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fall Out Boy has been in an unpleasant place since their big comeback in 2013, at least if you ask me. While their \n<a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/2018\/01\/25\/review-fall-out-boy-mania\/\"> [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","yasr_overall_rating":1,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[631,788,786,790,787,381,362,789],"class_list":["post-4612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-album-review","tag-dancehall","tag-fall-out-boy","tag-fall-out-boy-mania","tag-mania","tag-pop","tag-rock","tag-young-and-menace"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.surrealresolution.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/mania-review-thumbnail.png?fit=1152%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GYHU-1co","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4612"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4621,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4612\/revisions\/4621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.surrealresolution.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}