Game Changers - Music

This album feels very much like it could have passed me by, and I really wonder about the life a Fall Out Boy-less me would have led. I had, a few years after a best friend from primary school had moved, reached out to them using the then popular MSN and caught up with how they were doing, what they were into, etc. etc.. They mentioned that they were into Fall Out Boy, who I had never heard of. They sent me a copy of Dance, Dance (one of their singles), which I went out and listened to whilst walking my dog. My first thought was... You like this?

I don't know what to say. Dance, Dance to me isn't the song you introduce Fall Out Boy on. It's not a first time easy-listener, not to me at least (I have similar feelings about XO on the album and There's a Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey... by Panic! At the Disco). I wasn't keen on the verses, though I think I was more understanding of where the chorus was coming from. Well, either way, I was not enticed to listen to any further music from Fall Out Boy... Yet. You see, I was a little too lazy to go through the process of removing the song from my iPod and every time it came back on shuffle, I thought 'I'll just listen again, maybe this time I'll see why they liked this song'. And eventually, it grew on me.

Fall Out Boy was very much in the public consciousness at that point, so when I spotted both From Under the Cork Tree (having Dance, Dance on it) and Infinity on High, their most recent albums in a supermarket, I begged my mum to buy them for me, curious about what other music they might have in store that I would grow to like. The rest, as they say, was history. I fell in love with both almost instantly.

This album reminds me a little of my feelings towards earlier Beatles albums in a way. The level of experimentation of their later albums isn't there, but that doesn't mean that this is by any means a weak album. The music is solid and honestly different to any other band out there at the time or since (honestly, if anyone can prove me wrong on this, be my guest — I heavily lament that there isn't a band like Fall Out Boy out there that isn't Fall Out Boy), and the lyrics are a treat to listen to (half the fun is trying to decipher them). This album is filled with nostalgia for me and honestly, every song on it still holds up (though, in view of Dance, Dance and some others, I will not claim that they are all songs you love on first listen — some of them are slow-burns, but isn't that lovely, falling in love with a song over time?). Plus, this was deep in Fall Out Boy's infamous titling era, so you get to enjoy such classics as "Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued", "Champange For My Real Friends, Real Pain For My Sham Friends" and "A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me".

Please enjoy the selection of tracks below which, as per the above backstory, does not include Dance, Dance for first time listeners ;) It does, however, include Our Lawyer... which as an opener to the album comes in hard: "Put this record back down. We'll only disappoint you". Gotta love it.

As mentioned above, I picked this album up at the same time as From Under the Cork Tree and I would say that, contrary to my feelings on some of the songs on that album which I have nevertheless come to love, I fell in love with this album immediately. It is probably most consistently my favourite album (occasionally From Under the Cork Tree or Folie á Deux takes its place, but not ever for long).

This album taught me that you cannot ever expect Fall Out Boy to stay in place. They are constantly evolving and trying to broaden out from what they've done before. You're a fool if you expect their albums to sound the same. So, whilst From Under the Cork Tree may arguably fit with the "emo" sound in some ways (at a stretch), Infinity on High is a much more "mainstream"-sounding album in many ways. This is not to say that the earlier influences aren't there — heavy guitar features on the album opener "Thriller" — but there is a lot more overt experimentation with the genre in the guitar riffs and spoken pieces.

In contrast to From Under the Cork Tree, my honest opinion is that Infinity on High is probably beginning to end filled with songs that most anyone could listen to and find something to enjoy on a first listen. So, please enjoy the selection of tracks below. Honestly, I couldn't limit myself to three this time, but for one of my all-time favourite albums, maybe we can make an exception.

This album is the one I always consider as Fall Out Boy's magnum opus. There is not one miss, not one song that needs a second listen to enjoy, and in terms of their experimentation, is probably the tightest album to come from it. As per Fall Out Boy creed, the sound of this album shifts somewhat from Infinity on High, but I would say that this is probably one of the smallest shifts, other than Evening Out With Your Girlfriend to From Under the Cork Tree. It's not actually my favourite album, but I think that it neatly shows how Fall Out Boy doesn't ever stand still or stick to one particular sound, and does have some of my favourite Fall Out Boy songs and/or lyrics on it.