Double Nuts

So. I'm supposed to review FAD this time. Okay.

I came back here to write this after I finished typing the whole thing. It turned out to be a bloody long post which I honestly put quite alot of effort into, so try to read it all. Or listen to the album, at least. Link's at the the end of the post. In fact, bringing about a new FOB fan's the best possible outcome of this post.

Basically I love all the Folie songs to different varying degrees except What A Catch, Donnie coz I think it's kinda boring. Although I love the way it ends, with all the guest stars singing lines from past FOB songs.

Let's take it from the top.

Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes is a pretty damn solid song with a really good chorus. Its starts the album off good. "Detox just to retox" is one of those lines that haunts your head when you're trying to sleep -- in a good way. "Nobody wants to hear to sing about tragedy" is such a direct stab at themselves. They're the emo ones. There's a hidden song you can get to listen to if you rewind from the start of the song. You can only do this if you've bought the CD. :P

Disloyal Order leads right into I Don't Care, their obvious money song. This is the song that gets to have an MV and download as a ringtone. As commercialism goes, this one's pretty blatant. The chorus is a uninspired chant of "I. Don't. Care." and has a boring, straightforward title. I have a love/hate relationship with commercial songs. Part of me hates it that FOB has to slip a couple of these into each of their albums but the other half of me wants FOB to get famous via these songs so that they're more fans around. Whatever. I Don't Care's mediocre at best.

She's My Winona starts with a bunch of "oh"s, which reminds me of Of All The Gin Joints In All The World. Betcha didn't notice that. Another song with a damn great chorus, the second verse is kinda weak, but that doesn't matter so much coz overall it's great. But it sorta gets old at the end when it's all just "the thunder"s. My comments may sound rather negative, but I still think this song rocks.

America's Suitehearts. Single #2, at least in S'pore. At this point, I gotta make a distinction between "money singles", and "damn good" singles. Money singles are singles released with the intention of making money. Duh. Damn good singles are songs that are made singles coz everyone loves it. I can't really tell which category does US's Suitehearts fall into, as is the case with Thnks Fr Th Mmrs. Nothing special or devastatingly bad about his song. I just think "I'm in love with my own sins" is a great line.

Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet. Aha. This one's really good. I like the way Patrick's voice is really deep at the start of the song. "Surfed out brainwaves flick back and forth like old headlights sniffing model glue again" doesn't make a shit of a sense to me, but it sounds great when it's sung in beat with the guitar. I also like the "I didn't"s. Lol. Dunno why. The chorus really shows how amazing Patrick is and I like the sudden break in tempo after in. Then the guitars comes crashing down. The second verse is short but pretty cool, with tempests in teacups and peroxide princes. Then the rest of the song blows me away. The first half was good enough, but the other is nuts. It's so bloody good I gotta swear to get the point across: it's fucking magical.

The (Shipped) Gold Standard caught my attention coz there's a hint of an insider joke in the title. The start has a nice beat to it and many people love "I wanna scream 'I love you' from the top of my lungs, but I'm afraid that someone else will hear me" and I think it's pretty cool too. The chorus is a nice one, with Patrick going high for "soon as we hit the hospital". The change in beat when the second verse didn't go down well but it's pretty negligible.

(Coffee's For Closers) is my current fav, despite my over-the-top gushing about Cooperstown. Think I might have gotten carried away. Nevermind, I still wouldn't go back to edit. (Nevermind's a Nirvana album.) I like the strong drums that kick this song off and the first verse is so damn smooth. Everything falls into place, the words and the melody. "When they made me they broke the mold" is gonna be one of those lines I keep in my head. The rock anthem chorus is good enough to almost beat Holiday by Green Day. Never believe, never believe. Freaking great. My only peeve is the weird-assed ending, with the violin. So sad. If it ended with a guitar solo, it'll be Best. Song. Ever. Or at least have a shot at it.

What A Catch, Donnie's kinda too mellow for my liking and slightly uncharacteristic of an FOB song. Whatever.

27 is those kinda songs that requires an acquired liking. I thought it sounded pretty weird at first, but I gave it a bit of patience and now I love it. There're a couple of drug references like "shoot the sunshine into my veins" and "milligrams my head' with make it cool. Reminds me of Green Day. Green Day people are druggies, man. I like the way the vocals soar for "last night's stage". Oh, and this is the first FOB song I heard with "fuck" in it, if you don't count their collab with Timberland for One and Only. And of course you don't count that. No Timberland song is a song. "Song" implies artistic talent and effort, not moaning a bit as your guest artist does all the work.

Tiffany Blews is pretty....funky. Yea, funky. I like "I'm cocktail party doing alright. Hate me baby, maybe I'm a piece of art". And the way everything else shuts up during "3, 2, 1, we go live" is really REALLY cool. "My friends all lie and say they only want the best wishes for me" is a nice familiar shot of Pete's sardonic sarcasm. And the chorus is fantastic. Patrick can sing "oh baby, you're a classic" really high without sounding gay, which is an achievement itself. Unlike other dudes. Mika, Maroon 5 and Daniel Powter, I'm looking at ya.

As w.a.m.s. starts, you can't really tell what kinda song it will be. It turns out to sound pretty unique. The chorus is addictive and high and I like the crooning background vocals. The verses are okay, pretty cool lyrics. The song then has a fadeout ending then we hear this dude tapping his foot and singing something weird. Can't really tell if it's Patrick. I don't really consider this bit a part of the song.

20 Dollar Nose Bleed is not your average FOB song, coz it doesn't sound like one. The amount it differs from the standard is about as much as The (After)Life Of The Party from IOH. It has a more...grandiose sound to it. Something like Nine In The Afternoon by Panic! at the Disco. Still, it's nice. It the kinda song Jeremy and Qing He would like. I have no idea what/who Benzedrine is, but it sounds nice. The song ends with a distorted monolouge by Pete, which reminds me of Get Busy Living Or Get Busy Dying from FUCT. Then he starts screaming and it leads seamlessly into...

West Coast Smokers. The most "rock" song in the album, I guess. "Rock" as in the genre. It's also the only one with screaming vocals. I like it pretty much, but it doesn't end the album off nicely. There's no sense of closure. Unlike I've Got All This Ringing In My Ears And None On My Fingers, there isn't any "now press repeat" or something else like that. Oh well.

It's been almost an hour and 10 tired fingers and many times in fending off parents, but I've finally completed a really in depth review of FAD. Yay. In case you don't even know what this is, you can listen to it at http://www.last.fm/music/Fall+Out+Boy/Folie+%C3%A0+Deux. Assuming you're listening to some hip-hop/pop crap right now, this will really raise your taste in music.