Fall Out Boy's American Beauty/American Psycho
I am a big fan of Fall Out Boy. A big fan. Though I have not always been on their team (it’s a whole thing*), they are a group I have learned to love and love fiercely. I have even considered a Fall Out Boy tattoo, on more than one occasion. I'm in deep.
But that being said, I don't really love American Beauty/American Psycho. I am in a flirtationship with about half of it and the rest I could take or leave.
The Fall Out Boys seem really, really enthused about this record they’ve created and I love that! I love that they were so inspired that they took risks and wrote the whole thing in a couple of weeks. But to me, that also shows. With Save Rock and Roll, their 2013 comeback and the first album I was on the bandwagon to see released, I felt like they lovingly curated a set of great songs that played to their strengths as a band, with no filler to be had. And I don’t get that vibe this time (it should be noted, however, that we had no knowledge SRR was coming. So anything was amazing. With AB/AP, there was a level of anticipation that unfairly put it at a disadvantage from the start).
It isn't all bad though. This is still Fall Out Boy, after all. The title track is silly and dance-y. “Uma Thurman” is even sillier and dance-ier and samples The Munsters theme, which the child in my heart is thrilled about. “Novocaine” is arguably the best song on the album, possessing all of the drive and sass that made me fall in love with FOB in the first place (I don’t think it would be out-of-place on Folie á Deux). And “The Kids Aren’t Alright” has the best lyrics on the entire album–“and it’s our time now, if you want it to be” stopped me in my tracks, both from a lovelorn standpoint and because I will be growing up until I die.
Overall, the album isn’t necessarily horrible, but it could definitely be better. And it is still Fall Out Boy, so I will still listen to it. My love is not lost.
*That thing is called “Britny has always been and probably always will be a pretentious brat.” Example: 9-year-old me not wanting to read Harry Potter (MY FAVORITE THING IN THE WORLD) because everyone else liked it so much.
Marilyn Manson's The Pale Emperor
Marilyn Manson has always made a lot of people uncomfortable. He’s strange, he’s perverse, he’s controversial (he is, truthfully, just a character–but that is a post for a different day). But I have always found him fascinating. He is an artist, insanely intelligent and bitingly sarcastic. Not everything about him is earth-shatteringly original (because, you know, Alice Cooper), but everything he's done has been memorable.
Aside from the antics and mystique, though, I have always really enjoyed Manson’s music as well. Which includes his newest effort, The Pale Emperor, an album I recommend to even those who would not ordinarily consider themselves his fans. Typically, Manson’s music is dark, thrash-y, and industrial–raspy screams over factory machine sounds. But this album is very different. It’s bluesy. It slow-burns and simmers, evoking more the feel of crossroads deals and frothing cauldrons than leather-clad vampires and the scariest monsters of all, Misunderstood Teenagers. It is, in total, a Southern Gothic poem, littered with wordplay (smirk along with Manson as he calls himself the “Mephistopheles of Los Angeles”) and bass-lines you can feel in your heart.
It is true that Manson is intimidating. But he’s older now. This album is grown-up Manson, who none of us music enthusiasts know yet. It is something entirely different from the Antichrist Superstar. Don’t be afraid to test it out.
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