Fall Out Boy – Folie à Deux

Releasedate: 12-12-2008; Label: Universal
By: Nina Mende

Fall Out Boy is an American pop punk band from Wilmette, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), that formed in 2001. The band consists of Patrick Stump (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, primary composer), Pete Wentz (bass guitar, backing vocals, primary lyricist), Joe Trohman (lead guitar), and Andy Hurley (drums, percussion). Although they are still a quite young band they have now released their fifth studio album.

“This band, what are they called again? You know these guys, not Panic at the Disco, but the other ones….” I think many people had this… let’s call it confusion. (The band themselves even joked about it, for example in the video with the apes) I don’t know what the new Panic at the Disco album will sound like, but this Folie à Deux album by Fallout Boy won’t make me forget their name again. As I listened to it for the first time I was still quite influenced by the newest The Killers album which I still love, so the sound of this Fallout Boy album simply couldn’t compete with it. But by now I have listened to Folie à Deux several times and I like it a lot as well by now. The album name is the term of a hallucinatory psychosis. Literally translated it means “a madness shared by two”. Maybe that is also the reason why you find two bears on the front cover. On the back cover you can find the track list in mirror writing. The inside is not much better: Next to each member of the band you can find a blank page which you can design yourself. So besides these pages, a complete band picture and the credits you are free to design the booklet however you like.

The music on the album is very different. Each song stands for itself, but almost every song reminds you of something and you will probably associate it so something. “I Don’t Care” for example reminds me of “So What” by P!nk, another one reminds of Take That… Each and every song is different, but all are great to sing and dance along, and of course will get stuck in your head. I catch myself singing or humming a song of them all the time. A great and powerful album with lyrics you can think about or just take them as is. Sound wise the album is a very happy and funny one, lyrics wise I don’t want to give you my opinion so that you won’t listen to it prejudiced but make up your own mind or have completely different relations to it. I will tell you this much though: it is different from what it sounds.

Fallout Boy have several guest vocalists on their album which are not that obvious to hear at all times. Enjoy your Folie à Deux.

The CD also has the link to a bonus song.

Links:
Fall Out Boy MySpace
Fall Out Boy Official