PUC Chronicle

Issue date: 3/5/07 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: amazon.com Fall Out Boy's fifth album "Infinity on High" lacks creativity and beats sound often repetitive.

Fall Out Boy's latest release "Infinity on High," released Feb. 6, is their fifth album. It's the secondalbum most would know about, following 2005's "From Under the Cork Tree," which reached number nine on the Billboard charts.
"Infinity" opens with "Thriller" and an intro from Jay-Z (unfortunately the only track he shows up on), who sends a thank you to the fans "who held us down/ til everybody came around." It would have been interesting to see Jay-Z do something with the band along the lines of his mash-up with Linkin Park on 2004's "Collision Course."
In the closing seconds of the CD, listeners are encouraged to "now press repeat" by a computer generated voice. If listeners follow through with this message literally, "Infinity on High" becomes the "Song That Doesn't End" (from TV show "Lamb Chop's Play Along") of the album world.
The only stand out track on the album is "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race," which is also the first single from the album. "Arms Race" (with its fist pumping-crowd chanting chorus) is a shout-out to all of the Fall Out Boy fans who were fans before all of the fame and fortune their last release brought them. Lead singer Patrick Stump informs those who only like the band because it's cool to do so that "this bandwagon's full/please catch another." Seems like a pretty gutsy move but at the end of the day it's their paychecks.
The accompanying music video shows the band being tossed out of a hip-hop recording studio, a photo shoot lampoon of bass player Pete Wentz's personal picture leak and going to hotel and hot tub parties but ends with the band playing at a concert in 2003 with those fans who liked them for them.
Even after two listens of the album, besides "Arms Race" and "I'm Like a Lawyer with the Way I'm Always Trying to Get You Off (Me and You)" the album is repetitive and drawn out.
Even with witty titles like "The (After) Life of the Party" and "I've Got All This Ringing in my Ears and None on My Fingers," the distinct vocals of Stump and the driving instrumentals from guitarist Joe Trohman, drummer Andy Hurley and Wentz, it fails to deliver. Perhaps the band is suffering from a sophomore slump (if you only count "Cork Tree" as a release).

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