Infinity on High review

Infinity On High will raise Fall Out Boy’s status on the highest level

If you think that loud days of pop punk are gone then you are deeply wrong. It turns out that it is still possible to find something new and fresh in this so well investigated style. And a young band from Chicago suburbs Fall Out Boy is proving it with an enormous zeal. Having two albums in their package they demonstrate so rapid growth of musical maturity that now they are already taking leading positions on the alternative rock-pop punk scene. And that’s quite obvious that Fall Out Boy are going to rise even higher with their new CD. Almost two years have passed since their major label debut From Under The Cork Tree which made Fall Out Boy one of the biggest break throughs of 2005, so it is not hard to imagine how eagerly their double platinum album follow up is anticipated. Staying at the crest of success Fall Out Boy just couldn’t afford making a weaker record, their new Infinity On High released on the first dates of February turned out to be not just simply better and more diverse then its predecessor but it became a peculiar megaphone which is ready to inform everyone about claims to a dominion over the entire pop-punk scene, at least during the following year.

Infinity On High sounds fast, loud and smart

The long and bulky phrases that Fall Out Boys like to use as titles for their songs became one of the most recognizable features of this band long time ago. And in this sense their new album doesn’t differ a lot from its predecessors. But it does differ in quality or rather in originality of the newly penned material. Take This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race for instance. The band here sounds really pop: sample drum beats, soft backing vocals and R&B-like vocal melody in the verse, but then it all bursts into speedy punk chorus with heavy distorted guitars at the background. The thing is not only in that the band isn’t scared to make such a mix, but they also do it on a highly professional level. Actually it becomes not really clear why did they chose This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race for the album promotion when there is such song as Thnks Fr Th Mmrs. It all starts with an intrigue strings intro, which evokes absolutely non punk rock associations; slowly increasing its tension the song opens up in a full measure within a few seconds and simply explodes with a solid guitar distortion. There is no sense in describing every track, there are no weak songs here, the entire album sounds as a single whole. It’s fast, it’s loud and it is smart, each song features a well thought composition and full of catchy little things.

Fall Out Boy expand the boarders of the style

The band’s creative forces are accumulated in a composer – writer unit that is combined from singer – guitarist Patrick Stump and bassist Pete Wentz. While Wentz is occupied with the band’s lyrics, Stump writes music. A high level of performing skills is also deserves praises. Stump’s voice possess a specific character, reminiscent of classic rock from 80’s, and its mixture with a modern sound, punky melodies and peculiar performing manner create an interesting result. The band achieves a high quality in the production works too: the tones sound crisp, the drums hit powerfully and if there are some additional instruments used in the song they’re interlaced with the composition’s body very precisely. Actually, the term pop punk isn’t good enough to fit the music of Fall Out Boy in its boarders, though it is still the closest definition. It is not quite clear what is happening, their artistic finds either expand the possibilities of the genre or let the band get rid of any tags? However this rhetorical question is not supposed to distract anyone from the predominant subject – Fall Out Boy’s Infinity On High. This is a great release full of nice and awesome songs, and it’s stylistic peculiarities do not play any role because good albums have only one definition and that is “great”.