a cathartic moment for a band that now feels comfortable not only with their legacy, but their future
Author’s Note: Time for Catch-Up Week! I’ll be covering a bunch of albums and EPs that released across the span of 2023 that I missed out on originally. Happy reading! 🙂 – Ryan
Once upon a time, Fall Out Boy released once of the most forward thinking, unique, and vibrant rock albums, and everybody hated it so much, they disappeared for five years.
Back in 2008, legendary emo outfit Fall Out Boy dropped their fourth album, ‘Folie a Deux‘, and received immense backlash from their fanbase for taking such a turn from their classic pop-punk roots. That, combined with the painful recording process that saw the band plagued with in-fighting and personal issues, led to the album becoming the black sheep of the discography. The band would take a long break before their 2013 comeback, with their new pop oriented sound. ‘Folie a Deux‘ would go down as their worst album…
…is what many might have thought. Ask any fan these days, and there’s a strong chance that they would like ‘Folie a Deux‘ as their favourite Fall Out Boy record. It’s ambitious, honest, and brimming with character, with orchestral elements woven in between the bombastic alternative rock layers. But what does all of this have to do with ‘So Much (For) Stardust‘?
As stated by the band themselves, ‘So Much (For) Stardust‘ exists almost as a retelling of the band’s story; the album that they would have made had they not gone on hiatus. The original true successor to ‘Folie a Deux‘, releasing fifteen years and three albums later.
Don’t mistake this for the band re-treading old ground however. Packed with theatrical emo blended with catchy pop hooks and melodies, ‘So Much (For) Stardust‘ is the sign of a band that has once more found their stride, feeling comfortable in their own identity and reconciling with their own past.
From the opening adrenaline shot of ‘Love From The Other Side‘, to the dance-rock tinged ‘Hold Me Like a Grudge‘, this is an album that carries an overtone of a band having fun and doing what they desire. Patrick Stump sounds more confident than ever, his vocal performances weaving in soul and blues influences to giving tracks a delightfully theatrical flair.
This is especially the case on the album’s slower moments. Typically, Fall Out Boy are strongest when they’re raging with up-tempo punk ferocity, but ‘So Much (For) Stardust‘ certainly subverts those expectations; ‘Heaven, Iowa‘ is a remarkable glittering affair that grapples with existentialism and legacy in a genuinely beautiful way, and acts as a real highlight across the span of this album. Stump sounds simply immense during the soaring choruses.
‘Fake Out‘ and ‘Kintsugi Kid (Ten Years)‘ are simple stripped-back emo affairs that are sure to appeal to those who prefer the band’s pop punk roots, whilst the title track is one of the band’s strongest closing songs in their entire discography, beaten out only by the legendary ‘Save Rock and Roll‘ (although the Elton John feature will always be an unfair advantage). It’s an album packed with well-crafted and well thought out variety, truly feeling like a love letter to one of the band’s darkest periods, whilst also maintaining a clear intention to not get bogged down in nostalgia.
Certainly, it’s not perfect. ‘So Good Right Now‘ is actually a little bit irritating, with its interpolation of Thurston Harris’ ‘Little Bitty Pretty One‘, and the 44 minute run-time just feels a little too padded out, with tracks like ‘Flu Game‘ and the interlude ‘Baby Annihilation‘ contributing little to the overall end product.
However, for a band that many had written off not once but twice in their career, with the deeply negative response to 2018’s ‘M A N I A‘, what Fall Out Boy have produced definitely feels like not just a major comeback into the limelight, but a cathartic moment for a band that now feels comfortable not only with their legacy, but their future.
2023 has seen sold-out arena shows across the globe, with setlists that show a deep appreciation for material that many expected never to have returned again. We may no longer be at the height of the ’emo renaissance’, but this year has proved to be one of the highlights of that era with Fall Out Boy’s return to a legendary status.
Now, feel free to get in touch with me when we start reappraising ‘M A N I A‘. That was a great album, and you’re all just mean.
RATING: 81/100 – Very Good
For Fans Of: My Chemical Romance, Paramore, Holding Absence, Creeper, Hot Milk
Physical copies of the album are available here.
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