Hello, everyone. It’s time for a review of Fall Out Boy’s new album, their eighth studio album to date, So Much (For) Stardust.

Going into this review, I decided to listen to Fall Out Boy’s first seven albums to get more familiar with this band’s music. And before I talk about this new album, I’m going to say something very controversial: after listening to their first seven albums, I can’t really say I’m a fan of the band.

And yeah, I know, it’s a controversial thing to say, but if I’m being honest a lot of their music just bores me. I have a ton of respect for the creativity of their music, but I can’t call myself a fan. I honestly wouldn’t say I’ve loved a Fall Out Boy album up to this point … I mean, I like Folie à Deux, which is my favourite Fall Out Boy album, but even that album kind of loses my interest a bit in the second half, despite the album having a few huge highlights.

But what might be even more controversial is how I would rank each of their albums/songs compared to others. Yes, I know I just said Folie à Deux is my favourite album of theirs, and it’s probably their most critically acclaimed. But here’s a massive hot take: do you want to know what my second favourite Fall Out Boy album is?

American Beauty / American Psycho.

Yes, you read that right. American Beauty / American Psycho is my second favourite Fall Out Boy album. I mean, I don’t love the album, and I don’t like every song on it, but it’s pretty consistently enjoyable … and there are a few songs on it that I love. Unlike a lot of critics, I think “Centuries” is a great song!

I’m not really a fan of Save Rock and Roll, but I like it more than either of their first two albums. And despite loving the song, “Golden”, I don’t really like Infinity On High that much.

But before this new album, Fall Out Boy’s most recent studio album was M A N I A, an album that disappointed a lot of Fall Out Boy fans, and even as someone who isn’t really a Fall Out Boy fan, it felt like a big step back, and to me that album felt like a total slog to get through.

So, now they have a new album out … what do I think of it?

Well … I like it more than M A N I A … but considering how I felt about M A N I A, that’s no surprise.

This album sees Fall Out Boy going back toward their 2000s sound, at least more than the material they’ve been putting out since returning in 2013. But as someone who isn’t really a fan of their first few albums, this isn’t really doing much for me. And it’s not that I can’t like that sound, it’s just that I don’t like this album for similar reasons why I don’t really like Infinity On High or From Under the Cork Tree, as I find a lot of the vocal melodies boring and a lot of the instruments sound underpowered to me.

The album opens with the lead single and second single, respectively. And I love the intro of “Love From The Other Side”, the first track on the album, which starts with some haunting piano and some crushing guitar and drums, and it sounds absolutely phenomenal! But the rest of the song after that is kind of disappointing … don’t get me wrong, I like the song, but the drums in the chorus are mixed quieter than I would have liked, and some of the vocal melodies are kind of boring to me.

“Heartbreak Feels So Good” has one of my least favourite choruses on the album, as the vocals sound drowned out by the instrumentation, and the post-chorus is especially annoying to me. It’s easily one of my least favourite songs on this album.

Next is “Hold Me Like a Grudge”, which is one of my favourite tracks here, but at some points it can feel kind of boring. But I like some of the vocal melodies and the guitar.

But then there’s “Fake Out”, which I don’t like at all. I’m a fan of powerful snares, but in this song it kind of sounds like the snare is drowning out other elements of the instrumentation despite not being super loud, and when the vocal melodies bore me this much, it leads to a song that I really don’t like.

“Heaven, Iowa” is another song I’m not a big fan of, but I like it more than the previous track. The first huge chorus just feels underwhelming to me as the vocals feel like they distract from the instrumental (I think it might be something in the mixing), but I like that the guitar is added in the later choruses.

But then there’s probably my least favourite song on the entire album, “So Good Right Now” … I personally find this song super annoying, with the bouncy sound of the instrumentation … and also, that chorus is super annoying in my opinion.

“The Pink Seashell” is a short track in the middle of the album that samples the 1994 film, Reality Bites. I’ve never seen the movie, but I watched the clip that this song samples, and I think it fits well into the album. I saw on Genius that the reason they removed the line about smoking is probably because they didn’t want to influence their fans to start smoking, and I agree that’s probably why, and I like that decision in the song.

“I Am My Own Muse” starts off with some really good strings, and I like the guitars, but the snare sounds underpowered to me … but then later, the snare is kind of annoyingly overpowering. Overall, though, it’s a decent song in my opinion, just not one I think I’ll be going back to much.

I like the rhythm of the drums in “Flu Game”, and I like the backing vocals in the chorus, and the next track, “Baby Annihilation”, is another interlude, and one that I really like.

The last few tracks don’t really do much for me, but they also aren’t among my least favourites here.

First, there’s “The Kintsugi Kid (Ten Years)”, which features some annoying ‘na na na’s in the chorus, and I’m not a big fan of the rhythm of the drumming here when paired with the rest of the instrumental, but I do like some of the vocal melodies in the verses, and the guitar sounds really good in the chorus!

The vocal melodies on the next track, “What a Time To Be Alive”, don’t really do much for me, but I do like the production, with the strings sounding really good in the mix. I can’t help but feel like it’s suddenly going to turn into “The Take Over, The Breaks Over” from Infinity On High … and as someone who likes that song, I don’t mean this as a positive thing or a negative thing, it’s just something I noticed.

The closing track (which is also the title track) is pleasant while it’s on but doesn’t really make me want to return to it, with the production sounding kind of messy in the chorus, and I don’t love the vocal melodies on this track, either.

But I haven’t really mentioned this album’s lyrics much … and, well, I usually listen for the way music sounds more than the lyrics, but I will say a lot of these lyrics don’t really do much for me personally, even if they’re well written. But there are a few lyrics on this album which I want to mention.

I like the line, ‘And I guess I’m getting older ‘cause I’m less pissed we didn’t make your year-end best list. Not the end of the world.’ And no, I don’t just like that line because this album won’t be on my year-end best list (although it won’t be) … that line seems to be saying Fall Out Boy are just going to make the music they want to make, regardless of what the critical reception is.

I also like the line, ‘So real that I feel fake’ in “Flu Game”, and also the line in the chorus of that song, ‘I’ve got all this effort to make it look effortless.’

Honestly, a lot of the lyrics here I don’t really understand (like most albums), and I’m bad at writing about lyrics anyway … I know I keep saying I’ll eventually get better at writing about and analyzing lyrics, and I think I will, but it’s happening slowly. And there are some other lyrics here that I really like which I just haven’t mentioned. There are also a lot that didn’t do much for me, but that’s a me thing.

So, overall … I don’t hate this album. I don’t even dislike it. I like a few tracks on here, but I can’t say I really love any of these songs, and it doesn’t feature any of my favourite Fall Out Boy songs on it, even as someone who isn’t really a Fall Out Boy fan.

I get the appeal of this band and this album, but their music just isn’t really for me for the most part. But feel free to let me know in the comments what you thought of this album and/or what you thought of my review. As always, it’s just how I personally feel about the album. I’m giving it a 5/10, but feel free to let me know what you’d rate it.

Thanks for reading this review, and I’ll be back with more reviews soon!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Love From The Other Side”, “Hold Me Like a Grudge”, “Flu Game”, “Baby Annihilation”
Least Favourite Tracks: “Heartbreak Feels So Good”, “Fake Out”, “So Good Right Now”