Fall Out Boy’s Midlife Crisis

how the fuck is Last of the Real Ones not a huge single?!?! one of my favorite pop tunes this year

 

Give it another month and I think it could be.

Looking forward to this album.

 

I started at the gym doing this bar bell based high repitition classes to music the last 6 months and they have mainly dance tracks in their worldwide choreographed classes as the songs they use for it, though the only outlier is that they use every Fall Out Boy single since 2012,
I’m secretly convinced they write this new style of music just for the sweet sweet Bodypump womens gym class money $$$

 

None of the four tracks they've released have taken off, new single seems to have a slow build. Maybe another hit them but don't think it'll be this cycle.

I assume they'll do a summer co-headlining ampitheater tour. Who could they possibly have co-headline with them that would make sense at this point?

 

Another hit in them? Maybe, but it's hard for me to call it a Fall Out Boy hit. They've always had the pop angle, but when you lose any sense of instrumentation and it all sounds computer generated, I can't help but feel like they've strayed too far from what made them them.

And sure, this is a discussion/argument that's been so played out, but I've never felt this way about them before.

 

This is so dumb.

 

I´ve been a Fall Out Boy fan for a long time and recently I was doing a front to back listening of their discography and I love their evolution. To be honest I was worried with Young and Menace but The Last of the Real Ones and Hold me Tight... are really good.

I loved that as well, they are still going and evolving. Much respect and I await eagerly for January to listen to the record.

 

My gym plays all sorts, it even played Iggy Azalea into Smash Mouth followed by Rage Against The Machine the other day haha.

 

Yeah, so dumb to express the opinion that given the way the band has evolved, I don’t enjoy them the same way I used to. *rolls eyes*

Simply put, I appreciated the guitar driven rock more than, what I consider to be, computer fabricated pop. Patrick can still sing like a champ, though.

 

The idea of a band needing to have a huge radio hit has kind of gone out the window. There are other ways for known bands to continue being successful, as shown by the amount of times FOB songs get used in commercials for sporting events. At least two of the four singles have been used in that case.

And all four songs have been great so far, so that's all I care about. Fall Out Boy is one of the most consistent rock bands of my generation.

 

”yielding songs like the trap-infused Hold Me Tight or Don’t”

Trap-infused... sounds about right for a group of middle aged white dudes trying to be down with the kids.

 

Or "middle aged white dudes" who understand there's more to life than listening to pop-punk?

 

It’s the argument about it all sounding computer generated, not that you have an opinion about not enjoying them the same way anymore. It’s a tired, lazy generalization. People are constantly saying there’s “no guitars” and it’s all digital, which is a total cop-out. If anyone is listening to these songs and honestly hears “no instruments”, then they need to get their ears checked. I’m tired of people discounting what they’re doing while only offering up general statements. The four songs released from MANIA could not be more different from one another, but they always seemed to be lumped together and compared as if they were. They’re also lumped together and described in conversations about “post-hiatus Fall Out Boy” like that period of time is still unique enough to compare it as a whole to the the entirety of the “pre-hiatus” time.

Nobody is forcing you to like it. But you’re going to get push back if you’re going to simplify your reasoning, especially after the same discussions happens in every recent thread. There are instruments all over these songs, and there have been computers all over the songs for a long time.

 

Indeed my friend, indeed.

 

In my initial post, I acknowledged the argument has been played out, which is why I just generalized rather than getting into the specifics and rehashing the debate. You don't want to have that debate, I don't want to have that debate, and no one wants to read that debate, so there's no reason to argue over it. Bands evolve, their sound changes, I get that - I'm just saying that I enjoy one more than the other.

 

I worked at a bowling alley for a couple years. It happened to be the timeframe where Centuries was released, and I had to hear that song daily, multiple times per day. I could not complain about something more than I will complain about how annoying his voice is every line that leads up to the title of the song.

I completely agree with Trohman’s comments about not doing anniversary tours. It’s incredibly frustrating being a music fan listening to The Early November’s latest record and realizing I haven’t had an opportunity to see them headline a show that wasn’t on an old album in what is closing in on half a decade. They literally hit my state one time touring on the newest album, in a support slot where they played like 9 songs. Trohman is right, Fall Out Boy has found a way to stay relevant and financially successful at a time where all of their contemporaries from a decade ago cannot seem to make music that pulls new listeners in. They changed their sound and it’s worked for them to continue doing what they love doing and continue making an impact on new listeners.

 

I honestly can't believe people are still saying this about Fall Out Boy over five years since their return from the hiatus. It's frustrating really. I honestly think they must not actually be listening to the songs or something for them to much such a statement.

 

Ha you're bumming me out. Patrick and Joe are both slightly younger than me (I turned 34 last week) so I guess I'm officially middle aged now.

 

Haha sorry man! 34 is no age, belated congratulations to you!

 

I don't think Jason was implying it was dumb not to enjoy them anymore, I think he was saying it was dumb to suggest that any future hits shouldn't be considered FOB hits. The underlying message being that their sound has evolved so much over the course of their career that it's unfair to suggest there's a clear definition of what they should sound like.

 

I just realized my office shares an alley with Stump’s Burbank studio. I saw him out back one day earlier this year and thought maybe he was just doing a writing session there. Was pretty sure Tom Leykis does (or did) his podcast out of that studio so I didn’t ever think actual music was being done there. Rad.