Listening Post

There's something very strange about the new Fall Out Boy album and it might be the way that it perfectly embodies, sometimes in a disconcerting manner, how quickly styles and fads roll over in our culture these days. The band went away for only about five years and within that time all kinds of new sounds and acts rose to prominence -- and now that they're back, they actually kind of sound like the bands they helped to inspire in the alt-pop world. So who's ripping off whom? Or is it simply that everything in alt-pop and rock sounds alike right now?

I'm not sure how much I love this song because to me it really does sound like it could be any one of the legion of other bands KROQ plays so deeply into the ground that they've likely come out the other side of the world. But I do appreciate Fall Out Boy having the ambition to create an ongoing serial out of the record, with every song getting its own video that reveals a new segment of the "story."

Anyway, here's Young Volcanoes.

Listening Post

I'll be honest: I don't love the new album, but Fall Out Boy remains, believe it or not, one of my favorite bands. They make the kind of shimmering, blistering pop-rock that seems to only come out of Chicago and I'm very much looking forward to seeing them live in the next couple of weeks here in L.A.

Here's their new single, Phoenix.

Listening Post

I've made no secret in the past of my affinity for Fall Out Boy. They've spent their career drinking from the same well as all the other Chicago-area bands and artists that seem to have an uncanny knack for writing damn-near perfect pop songs (Smashing Pumpkins, Cheap Trick, Liz Phair, Urge Overkill, Veruca Salt, etc. etc.).

This morning, after a three-and-a-half year "hiatus," Fall Out Boy announced that they're ready to reform and hit the road again. The thing is they've already reformed and have secretly recorded a new album. Which means that, as the guys on KROQ said this morning, they didn't really go on hiatus at all -- they just took three-and-a-half years to record a new record.

Here's the first single from it.

This is My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light 'Em Up).

Listening Post

Just like Sarah Palin figures that if writing crap on your hand is good enough for God, then by golly it's good enough for her -- if Elvis Costello shows up in a Fall Out Boy song, then that's reason enough for me to like them.

Actually, I'm not afraid to admit that these guys are one of the best straight-ahead pop-rock bands around.

Here's What a Catch, Donnie.

Listening Post

I'm past the point in my life where I have to apologize for liking a song or band, hence my unabashed enjoyment of the new Fall Out Boy single.

Sure, Pete Wentz needs to die, but this song has one of the catchiest choruses I've heard in a long time and I'm willing to cut myself some slack for liking it because somebody wise once said that there must be something in the water in Chicago when it comes to pop music. Liz Phair, Urge Overkill, Veruca Salt, Smashing Pumpkins and, of course, the great Cheap Trick all came out of Chicago and all have an uncanny mastery of the art of the great hook and the undeniable melody.

So, yes, Pete Wentz needs to die. But this is still a really good song.

Here's I Don't Care.



(And for a better understanding of why I actually "stooped" to choosing this for a Listening Post, read the piece directly below.)