So, as the rumours have told anyone who's listened, it does look like the break up of the band "Fall Out Boy" is on the horizon, if it has not already hit us. I will not ramble on how this is terrible, how it's going to change my life, or how upset it's made me, because in all honestly, it really hasn't.I'll admit, I am a fan; and have been for around 4 years now. I've seen them twice in concert, and have all five albums on my ipod (plus odd demo tracks and such), I'd even be willing to state I know every single lyric, give or take.
However, the last album (Folie a Deux), although catchy as some songs were, on a whole was very average. Infinity On High was a good rock/pop album, one which I could quite happily put on and not have to skip any songs, and I was impressed as a musician with the arranging in it. Under The Cork Tree and Take This To Your Grave I personally consider as great albums. Great hook lines, great one liners, nice rhymes, catchy, and of course I refuse to forget to mention Fall Out Boy's Night Out With Your Girlfriend - terribly mixed and recorded to a point where "rough around the edges" does not cut it, yet some of their best songs. The talent was there, before they "mainsteamed" and the commercial world got to them. You can tell it from that album, even if it sounds like it's been recorded in a basement; which it probably was.
So as I sit here now, listening to Fall Out Boy, I am slightly mournful of this break up, not 'cause I spent a year of my life listening to them constantly or, like many other teens, took comfort in their music; but now as a more "stable" person I actually really wanted to see what they would do next. Although I do expect some form of reform within the next two years (just saying).
So I can happily sit here shuffling through 275 MG of FOB, listening to songs I haven't heard in months and months pondering how this is absolute proof of the "here today, gone tomorrow" music industry we have today - where FOB (after only 5 albums) are seen as a "long standing band", even though they've only been together since 2001. Our music, just like our food, clothes, jobs, even friends, have become disposable. Single after unmemorable single thrown at us, and if you're really hooked you might even download the album. Fan loyalty is generally disregarded by the masses, and although I sound like my father in saying this, the industry is really nothing like it was twenty years ago.
But, back to my point, when the mood calls for it I'll still listen to these albums again. When I get sick of the latest artist, or can't find anything else to rediscover, I'll turn back to bands like Fall Out Boy, for a week or so at a time. Although, as I found every album progressively got less catchy and memorable, maybe this break up is for the best; and if they do reform (and I do hope they will) maybe the break would have done the music good, and maybe regain some of the "spark" it's lost. In their own words: "No one wants to hear you sing about tragedy."
