MANIA- Fall Out Boy Review

No one can deny, MANIA(I'm not gonna spend the time to write out the whole name with the exact spaces) has had some serious trouble. It was delayed all the way to January of this year when the first single came out summer of last year, and there apparently a bit of trouble between FOB and Island(their label) over the way it was going to be done. This was shown in the forced quality of the first two singles, not fitting into a groove til the third, The Last Of The Real Ones, and the lack of any charting singles on the Hot 100. And honestly, I don't even hear it on 92.3, the most basic alternative radio station that doesn't try anything new, and plays only music by established artists like FOB. It even plays their old songs, and none of their new ones! So obviously, Fall Out Boy has been having some trouble.


The album is pretty much one high-powered, grandiose arena blast, with a heavy pop punk influence but just as much pop and trap also figuring into the mix. Shouts, guitar riffs, vocal loops, electronic drumbeats and generally massive things that can only be described as "Fall Out Boy" weave throughout. Then Church, a mix of The Neighbourhood-like synths and wordplay with the cinematic power of Russian rap (check out AMG, it's hilarious), leads into Heaven's Gate, essentially a FOB ripoff of Love on the Brain. Before the boring, dragging obviously unoriginal song that is Heaven's Gate, the highlights are the prechorus (and most of the rest) of Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea, and the left-field beginning of Wilson (Expensive Mistakes). FOB gets too caught up with all the different pieces of their songs that they mix everything up, into a comprehensive but definitely cohesive mix. Sunshine Riptide is a decent song, a perfect end for an album in a track which feels like the end of a day that you enjoyed but accomplished nothing, with a bit peculiar and disappointing appearance from Burna Boy, a normally energetic rapper (see: Streets Of Africa) who kind of gets lost among his own verses. Bishops Knife Trick ends the album on a hopeful and a bit melancholy note, albeit a boring one.

This album was a flawed concoction, which I doubt FOB even thought was well planned out, but doubtlessly had some good moments. There were some pretty great instrumentals, mainly coming in the form of guitars that were shoved aside by random electronics, and some good vocals/lyrics that were balanced out by mediocre ones. I think that Fall Out Boy is going in a good direction, but this album really feels like an attempt to start out along that road, not a major leap. Saying that, their next album should be good... fingers crossed! By the way, the purple of this album, a break from their normal blue/red pattern didn't fool me- it's just a doorway to the blue waves, with the previous album being the red Make America Psycho Again. Nice try, Fall Out Boy.