So Much (for) Stardust
The strings at the beginning of So Much (for) Stardust suggest that Fall Out Boy have arrived with a large statement to make. Then Love From the Other Side brings in the guitars, and the statement turns out to be a very good song. The arrangement is elaborate, but its energy comes from the way each part pushes towards the next.
Patrick Stump's voice is at the centre of the record. He can make a line sound wounded without draining its melody of pleasure, and producer Neal Avron gives that ability a clear, substantial setting. The band use their familiar strengths as material to develop, which keeps the songs from feeling like replicas of earlier successes.
Hold Me Like a Grudge is especially effective. Its bass-led strut gives the verses a firm shape, while the guitars add force when the song needs to expand. Fake Out finds a softer, more open rhythm and one of the album's most natural choruses. Neither track depends on a dramatic introduction to establish its personality.
The larger gestures mostly work too. Heaven, Iowa builds patiently before its powerful chorus, and I Am My Own Muse sets the voice against forceful orchestral parts. The arrangements sound considered, with the drama helping define each song rather than supplying the same effect repeatedly.
The spoken interludes are less necessary. The Pink Seashell connects clearly to the album's questions about purpose, but it interrupts the musical flow. Baby Annihilation offers another concentrated glimpse of Pete Wentz's writing without becoming an especially satisfying track in its own right.
What a Time to Be Alive restores the movement with a bright, danceable performance whose uneasy words keep the cheerfulness complicated. The title track then closes on a darker, more expansive note. So Much (for) Stardust is strong because it lets those different moods belong to the same band. The big production helps, but the lasting attraction is the quality of the melodies underneath it.
