Fall Out Boy’s “Save Rock and Roll” [Review]

It was 10 years ago when Fall Out Boy came back onto the scene after a several-year hiatus with their 5th studio album, “Save Rock and Roll”. While the band has just recently released their 8th studio album, “So Much (for) Stardust”, I wanted to take a look back at one of the first CDs I ever got and how one of my favorite bands got back together.

Releasing on April 12th, 2013, “Save Rock and Roll” debuted with positive reviews.

Back in 2008, Fall Out Boy released their most divisive album, “Folie à Deux”. While critics were generally positive to the record, fans hated it, going so far as booing songs played from the record during a concert. Members of the band were miserable while performing while others were intoxicated. The band ultimately made the decision to go on break for a few years following their last concert in 2009.

After a much-needed break, the band began to start writing and producing “Save Rock and Roll” in 2012. The band went to great lengths to hide the fact that they were recording a new album, and managed to hide that very well up until weeks before the release of the lead single, “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)”.

Originally planned for release on May 7th, 2013, the album was moved forward as the band’s singles leading up to the release were met with high praise. The album was even released a week early on the Fall Out Boy’s website in order to avoid the album leaking.

Fall Out Boy did something pretty unique with the music videos with this album as they ended up filming one for every song on the album, citing inspiration from “Daft Punk’s Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem”. Together, the videos make up the film “The Young Blood Chronicles”. I won’t go too into detail about the music videos here as there is quite a lot of gore, violence, and nudity. The Wikipedia article on this has a great summary of all of the videos, but you can check out the full 50-minute film here.

Originally releasing on March 24th, 2013, the second single off the album happens to be the first one on the album. “The Phoenix” samples Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Symphony №7 in C major”, specifically, in the fourth movement, there is a short few seconds of heavy strings that play. After hearing it, lead singer and frontman Patrick Stump wrote this entire song based on this single part. The song represents a lot of things for the band, most notably a rebirth in a way as the band is re-imagining their sound. The song has one of the higher BPMs on the album and the energy it brings onto the record is such a great way to start off the project as a whole. The strings and percussion are the real star of the show here.

The lead single off of “Save Rock and Roll” happens to be one of the most popular songs that Fall Out Boy has ever released. The band announced their return to music with the track “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)”. This track set the tone for the record itself and in an interview with GRAMMYs, bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz revealed that the song is about taking an account of your life, burning it to the ground, and starting anew, a similar story to what we saw in the previous track. I do think despite the mainstream success of the song, this track may be one of the weakest on the record.

While this album sounds incredibly different from any of the band’s previous works, I feel as if “Alone Together” is a return to form, sounding as if it belongs on “From Under The Cork Tree” or “Infinity On High”. Stump’s vocals really shine through on this song along with the background vocals and bass guitar. The lyrics are focused on a couple who don’t know if they should or shouldn’t be together, whether their differences are driving them apart or bringing them together.

While “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)” set the tone for the record, “Where Did The Party Go” was the song that really got the band thinking they should end their hiatus. The bass line and percussion are great on this track, but that’s really all there is to say about it. Lyrically, the song is about love at first sight.

Foxes lends her voice on the track “Just One Yesterday”, and it’s a real treat to hear. Stump really flexes his vocals on this song and leans into his soul voice as much as he can. Foxes’ ethereal voice adds an almost dream-like quality to the song and it’s such a good fit for the song. The song leans into the thought that life is going downhill for the singer and they would love to relive yesterday as it was one of the highest points in their life.

“The Mighty Fall” features Big Sean, and hearing a rap on a Fall Out Boy song is something that we haven’t ever heard before or since. The song revolves around the theme that love can and will take you down a peg if you’re not careful with it. Once again, the bass line here is outstanding but again, not much else can be said about the rest of the song.

While Stump was trying to record “Miss Missing You” for his solo record “Soul Punk”, he felt as if the song was more of a Fall Out Boy song despite it not sounding like anything the band had done previously. I feel as if this might be one of the strongest songs on the record as it really feels like the band comes into their own here. Everything on this track is absolutely stellar. The lyrics on this song focus on how the singer is trying to say that they want to love their partner because they’re amazing, but for whatever reason, they don’t, and because of that, they’re becoming more and more distant.

“Death Valley” is an incredibly punchy tune with the percussion absolutely carrying this song. The lyrics focus on how despite being at the lowest point in a relationship, the singer is still in love with their partner. While the dubstep-like effect on Stump’s voice in the bridge is a nice treat, the drums are the best part of the song.

Another contender for the strongest song on the record is “Young Volcanoes”. Stump’s vocals really shine through on the record and the acoustic guitar is such a lovely touch. The song is about feeling free to do whatever you wish. It’s a really simple song but that’s all you need sometimes.

“Rat A Tat” might be one of the most aggressive Fall Out Boy songs, partially due to Courtney Love’s vocals and contribution to the song. The band needed someone who was without a doubt, rock and roll for this record and thought that Love was a perfect fit for the job. The song can really be boiled down to the single line “Remember me as I was, not as I am”. The band is beginning to struggle with their age and are doing their best to make amends and better themselves, but wish to be remembered as they were in their youth.

Closing out the album is the title track “Save Rock and Roll” which features the legendary Elton John. The song is a ballad about the fact that Fall Out Boy and Elton Jon are trying to save rock music and keep it from becoming something meaningless. Elton is the real star of this song as he very well should be. Another nice treat for long-time Fall Out Boy fans is that this song heavily samples a lyric from their first album.

Final Thoughts

While they made their return to the scene with “Save Rock and Roll”, Fall Out Boy was able to deliver quite a few hits. Despite the mainstream success of the singles from the album, the record as a whole is rather weak compared to their back catalog. By no means is it the band’s best record, but it’s got some really great hits.

References:
EW: Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump on being back at №1
GRAMMYs: Fall Out Boy — Story Behind “My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)” | GRAMMYs

Album Score: 7/10

Favorite Tracks: “The Pheonix”, “Alone Together”, “Miss Missing You”, “Save Rock and Roll”