Infinity (& Insincerity) On High

6.5/10

“I’m all right in bed, but I’m better with a pen”, Pete Wentz has never been one to shy away from self-aggrandizement, which is a bit welcome in his field. Being an emo poster boy is tough; all of the spiky insecurities and floppy hair, for these guys love really is a battlefield. The problem with Infinity on High and Fall Out Boy in general is that there’s always been just a bit too much caustic wit and confidence mixed with a sort of trademark sarcasm that has been all too lacking from popular music, basically they don’t fit the emo/punk mold. Patrick Stump sings a bit too well and doesn’t whine into the microphone, the music doesn’t seem as amateurish and uncouth and though the lyrics might bemoan teenage broken hearts and angst, the next line almost always leads to a snotty kick in the ass come-back that feels like it should have been used in your last nasty break-up.



About 10 seconds into the song “Thriller” you’re bound to think to yourself, “is that who I think it is?” and the answer is yes, Jay-Z is giving the boys in the band a big up intro in the form of a thank you to their loyal fans that have stuck around since the beginning as well as giving the critics a once over for what they said would “never happen”, frankly this all sounds a little silly until the guitars open up with a fairly metal influenced salvo that gets the album moving quickly, and the song progresses as a success story of the bands rise to super-star status. “Thriller” sounds like a conventional Fall Out Boy song but moves into “The Take Over, The Break’s Over” which sounds like it could and would have been written by Franz Ferdinand before moving exuberantly into a giant chorus and then back into the wiry new-wave. The desire to be “taken seriously” runs rampant through out this album but it becomes difficult to definitively say that it hurts or helps it. The presence of a piano ballad seems forced but it doesn’t play badly with the production and Stump’s voice makes it work because he isn’t plaintively crying at the microphone. Moreover the first single “This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race” is just plain weird, it’s quite literally an R&B punk song and it seems like it’s going to fall flat up until it gets to the refrain that assuages a bit of the worry of how the band is straying a bit too far from the formula, but of course a formula was never the band’s friend to begin with.

The album has a sort of oscillating feel to it, alternating between the songs that you know will become fan favorites and the ones that will probably appeal to the people who don’t usually listen to four guys who wear girl jeans. The odd thing about it is that it’s close to losing its spark at quite a few moments and consequently a lot of these songs may be skipped over in subsequent listens, but taken together it’s ambitious and still sounds like the Fall Out Boy you fell in love with on your last car ride with your friends.



I tried to promise myself I wouldn’t include a list of my favorite tracks from this album after the main review but I’ll make a confession that I really like Fall Out Boy and I kind of wish I could have rated this album higher, but it just didn’t meet up with what I had in mind, so I thought I’d give what I thought was the ideal track listing.


1. Thriller
2. The Take Over, The Break’s Over
3. I’m Like A Lawyer With The Way I’m Always Trying To Get You Off (You & Me)
4. Hum Hallelujah
5. Don’t You Know Who I Think I Am
6. The Carpal Tunnel Of Love
7. Bang The Doldrums
8. Fame < Infamy
9. I’ve Got All This Ringing In My Ears And None On My Fingers