Yet again Fall Out Boy think they signify more than they ever actually do. As a band, Fall Out Boy’s problem was a failure to connect song to content with the strength they seemed impelled to do so. The result was the definition of a college kids band: busy bee conceptually but unable to nail anything down tight enough to actually matter.
Anyway, nothing exemplifies their woolliness than the cover of their upcoming album: a monk and a punk walking hand in hand. The band said on Tumblr: “ We came across the punk and monk image on the internet and it really solidified what we were trying to get across on the record – the idea of old and new clashing.".
Well, first they aren’t clashing and second the Monk isn’t all. And third… er, what are they talking about? FOB, a band who broke up in 2009 to tears from a segment of the world, their fan base, but shrugs from the rest of the world and then, not unlike the Strokes and the Stones before them, discovered they couldn’t do a damn thing alone.
While both Mary and Helen swear by them, I have always found FOB the essence of all that didn’t quite work right with emo rock. A too clever and not clever enough hard rock meander that fell apart at the seams at some part and never quite got past cutie band names and song titles ergo Cute Is What We Aim For and, my personal opinion the best purveyors Panic At The Disco.
Panic might have followed up the charts widely if they hadn’t panicked and FOB might have remained their, certainly they’ve sold a lot of tix very quickly for their reunion tour, but pop star marriages and their own personal Pete Townsend, who didn’t like writing the songs and disappearing into the background till he figured all he had was backgrounds, nearly ended their career.
And now? FOB are the punks and we are the monks, at peace with the band who would be kings… again.