Infinity on High
Patrick Stump sounds delighted by the possibilities on Infinity on High. Fall Out Boy give him strings, choirs, piano and a wider range of rhythms, and he treats the expanded setting as a reason to stretch his voice. The album can seem pulled between several ambitions, but the singing keeps much of it connected.
Thriller starts with Jay-Z before the guitars and drums establish a surprisingly heavy attack. The contrast is effective because the song itself has a strong chorus and a clear forward movement. The guest introduction announces confidence, while the band supply enough musical substance to support it.
This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race is the more successful collision of styles. Its verses have a firm, danceable rhythm, and the chorus accelerates into a much bigger performance. The backing voices make the shifts feel communal rather than merely busy. Thnks Fr Th Mmrs is similarly good at fitting dramatic decoration around a tune that does not need help being memorable.
The gospel-like lift in Hum Hallelujah suits Stump particularly well. He can give a melody warmth without losing the impatient edge that belongs to this band. Andy Hurley's drumming is another useful constant, supplying energy and detail beneath arrangements that could otherwise become crowded.
Not every expansion works as naturally. Golden places the voice over piano with an earnestness that can feel heavier than the song needs. Some of the highest vocal passages also sound more like a demonstration of range than the clearest way to deliver a line. The album's varied production does not always create an equally varied emotional result.
You're Crashing, But You're No Wave gives Wentz's writing a more specific setting and helps the later sequence recover its focus. Infinity on High is an ambitious pop-rock record with a few awkward joins. Its strongest songs are confident enough to make those joins interesting, showing how far a good melody can travel when the band allow it more than one kind of rhythm.
