Fall Out Boy – From Under The Cork Tree

Fall Out Boy’s last full length release was ‘Take This To Your Grave,’ and although a lot of people liked this album – I was definitely not one to be considered a fan. This album sees the band develop and mature into something far greater than they were back then, and in developing and maturing their sound, Fall Out Boy have produced a truly incredible album. The other day I reviewed a 5 track sampler of the album, in which I said that if that was anything to judge by then their album was to be truly something special. It really is something special and I am glad to have gotten hold of a copy before its release this coming Monday.

There are 13 tracks on display on this new album and not a single one of them disappoints. I had a feeling that the label may have put all the good material on the sampler and then the album was going to have 5 good tracks, with a load of average ones. This is definitely not the case and in ‘From Under The Cork Tree’ the band have produced a truly fine album worthy of being in anyone’s CD collection. Seriously, whatever type of music you’re predominantly into – I swear that you will find enjoyment in this Fall Out Boy album, it really it a fine piece of work.

My favourites on this CD are probably ‘Dance, Dance,’ ‘7 Minutes In heaven,’ ‘Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner,’ and the almighty ‘Get Busy Living Or Get Busy Dying.’ These are all great tracks and show off perfectly the fine skills that Fall Out Boy have to offer. There is never a dull moment on this album, but I just feel that these 4 tracks in particular really do convey the fun and enthusiasm that Fall Out Boy ooze seemingly with ease. The tracks have awesome vocals with great lyrics, strong guitar riffs, quality bass lines, and some superb drum work. Fall Out Boy, on this album have written some of the catchiest songs that I have ever heard in my life and I for one love it.

If you are into your Pop Punk or your Post-Hardcore, and haven’t yet checked this band out (god forbid) then make sure you check these guys out as they fuse the two perfectly and in doing so have created a truly immense album. I can see Fall Out Boy being around for some time to come yet with their fun, upbeat and frantic Pop Punk anthems.

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The Departure – All Mapped Out

I was expecting to dislike this track, having seen the band play with Feeder the other month and finding them distinctively average. This single however is fairly solid and to an extent does enough to please me. It doesn’t entirely change my opinion of the band as I still feel that they are fairly average, however alongside most of the stuff out there at the minute, this song is fairly good. It has some funky bass lines, and I think that this is what I liked most about this single.

The track is only 3 minutes long, however seems to drag on after about 2 minutes because of it’s slow pace and little in the way of keeping you amused. Don’t get me wrong – the first few minutes of listening to this song are great; it just gets a bit tiresome after that. With every listen I seem to think less and less of this track, so have done the track a favour and listened to it a fairly minimal amount of times (4 or 5.)

This is a track only really suitable for die hard Departure fans. I feel that anyone not too keen on the band will probably not have their opinion changed by this one. I feel that they sound a lot better on CD than they did at Brixton Academy, but then again when they played at Brixton the almighty Thee Unstrung had just played a blinder, so it was going to take a lot to live up to what they had come up with I guess.

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