By Derek Roper
Staff Writer
This month saw a lot of things, but on Dec. 16, two big names in the new rock industry released their new albums. Fall Out Boy released Folie A Deux and The All-American Rejects released When the World Comes Down. But the two didn’t take long in the ring as one was obviously left standing.
Folie A Deux is not (and can never be) the new Infinity on High. FOB has tweaked their tune but still manages to produce evasive lyrics and a mean beat. In “I don’t care,” the album’s second track, Stump delivers a melee of as a matter of fact-ism that is up in the listener’s face. All the criticism that they have received for ‘selling out’ or ‘changing’ is well received. Leave it up to the emo kings to turn it around and throw it back in the face with a chorus of “I don’t care what you think as long as it’s about me/ The best of us can find happiness in misery.”
The best of all is usually saved for last. On track 10, “Tiffany Blews” should be the next single released. The beat is catchy with an opening of Stump’s “Oh oh oh,” and a clapping rhythm in tandem. Andy Hurley’s drums hitting a crescendo after every sweet lyric via Stump makes one think of the 1980s. Like all rock stars, this song focuses on the fleeting relationship, “Oh, baby you’re a classic/ like a little black dress/ you’re a faded moon.”
So our brief encounter in emoville, has lead us on the outskirts of Rejectsurbia. There, The All-American Rejects reside. But for some reason they got to comfortable after their last conquest Move Along. AAR has also decided to change their tune but sadly for them their album (even with the help of their deluxe CD, an extra $6) may not have a spring.
There are only a handful of songs (by handful; I mean two) that are worth listening to. This tour guide is getting tired so let’s make this painless. The first song “I wanna,” is a musical version of lets be friends with benefits. Lead singer, Tyson Ritter lets the listener in on a relationship that has been brewing beneath their noses. “I wanna I wanna I wanna touch you/ You wanna touch me too/ Everyday but all I have is time/ Our loves the perfect crime.” The guitar riffs are the best part of the song, even though the scene plays out like a soap opera.
After a bunch of songs that sound like some yodeling music and sub-par stories comes the fourth track “Gives You Hell.” Despite the feuding neighbor music video, this song is actually about a break up and Ritter lets the girl knows that he was the best thing that she lost and hopes his face gives her hell. He lets her know in the beginning that that “I wake up every morning with a big smile on my face” and he thinks she is still working at a “nine to five pace/ I wonder how bad that tastes.” Right off the bat this is pure AAR but like the love life of FOB it is fleeting. Hey, at least we get a glimmer.
The two bands may share the rock star faction but make us wish for yesterday, when Ritter was in the garage singing “Swing, Swing” and Stump was belting out songs about a guy with antlers.
