Folie à Deux
Fall Out Boy put an extraordinary amount of activity inside Folie à Deux. Horns, strings, guest voices and changing rhythms compete for attention, with Patrick Stump singing as though another melody is always waiting around the corner. The record can be overcrowded, but its appetite for trying things produces some excellent songs.
Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes makes a broad, deliberate entrance before opening into a chorus with a strong emotional pull. Stump sounds assured without making the words seem entirely comfortable. The song establishes the album's main strength: an elaborate setting that still leaves a clear tune at the centre.
I Don't Care is more blunt. Its swaggering guitar rhythm and self-involved refrain make an effective piece of pop satire, though the repeated point becomes obvious quickly. Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet is much richer. Stump moves from a low delivery into a soaring range, and the changes in his voice give the arrangement a useful internal drama.
The (Shipped) Gold Standard finds another strong balance between movement and melody. Tiffany Blews is more playful, with electronic colour and a vocal hook that makes the band's pop instincts feel entirely natural. These tracks are busy because several good ideas have arrived together, rather than because an ordinary song needs disguising.
Other passages make that distinction less clear. The accumulated guest appearances do not always add a meaningful new character, and a few dense arrangements leave less room for the writing to breathe. Wentz's concern with fame and its surrounding damage can also become repetitive when the imagery is less sharp.
What a Catch, Donnie offers the strongest quieter centre, allowing Stump to anchor the song before the surrounding voices arrive. The piano-led 20 Dollar Nose Bleed then adds a welcome bounce. Folie à Deux asks a lot of a listener's attention, but the melodic rewards are substantial. Its excess is most appealing when the band sound curious about where a song can go, rather than determined to prove how much it can hold.
