INFINITY ON HIGH

So Fall Out Boy managed to make a third album.

And it’s good.

Oh yes.

Set aside the cheap thrills of internet scandals and feuds with much celebrated old friends, Fall Out Boy has written a record that is not only brilliantly catchy, but that (unlike Pete Wentz’s orange complexion) sounds genuine and touching and passionate.

If there is something that Pete Wentz knows how to do (apart from being the best at selling himself) is to write lyrics. Often criticized for being over the top and with a sensibility more pertinent to a 14 years old girl, this time Mr. Wentz has set aside the easy tricks for something that, even among the grammatical acrobatics he forces singer Patrick Stump, feels and resounds real, suffered, sometime even breathless.

This new turn of event dose not mean that Fall Out Boy has lost their ear for impeccable ,melodies and for  hooks so catchy that are impossible to resist, no those things are all still there and thank God for that, because Wentz’s lyrics will always need Stump’s ability to transform thoughts into the most perfect 4 minutes song.

A genius on his own right Patrick Stump offers once more an amazing voice to the warped, twisted and sometime down right televised kind of drama that Mr. Wentz seems unable to escape.

It was ice cream headaches and sweet avalanche
When the pearls in our shells came out to dance
You call me a bad tipper of the cradle
But I’m just tired yawns for fawns on hunter’s lawns
We’re the has-beens of husbands
Sharpening the knives of young wives
Take two years and call me when you're better
Take teardrops of mine, find yourself wetter [The Carpal Tunnel of Love]

Never being shy to be over the top, Pete Wentz has given birth to another perfect soundtrack for the new generation of kids with geometrical haircuts and panda eyes.

And this is not a bad thing, because even if you lack the perfect sculpted fringe and you are above the age of 14, you can still enjoy a record that will not leave your head for days, will make you dance, sing a long and, ultimately, make you wish you were that 14 years old kid.

I'm a stitch away
From making it
And a scar away
From falling apart
Apart

Blood cells pixelate
And eyes dilate
Kiss away all pills and kills on the mouths of all my friends

Could it last
Watch you with the moon
Last
Watch you with the moon
Could it last
(Watch you with the moon) [The (after) life of the party]

Pete Wentz calls himself Peter Pan and it actually may be true as he finds himself unable to really grow up, let go and fall in love without tripping on the broken pieces of his heart. But if it still allows him to write songs like the The (after) life of the party, I think I am going to wish for him to live in Neverland forever.

As long as Patrick Stump can lend him his voice.

Fall in love.

Break your heart.

Cry a little.

Dance a little.

Infinity on High, indeed.

words by Laila

photographs by Anja King, see more of her work at www.anjaking.com