It’s been over two years since the release of Fall Out Boy’s album “American Beauty/American Psycho” and die hard fans (such as myself) were starting to get a little uneasy waiting to see what the band was going to do next. So when Fall Out Boy’s social media accounts announced that they had big news coming April 27th, I, and many others, got really excited.

Fall Out Boy wasted no time on the 27th, sending out a massive tweet storm announcing a whole mess of exciting new updates. The band released a new song called “Young and Menace” with a video to accompany it, as well as the announcement of a new album called “M A N I A” and dates for a fall tour. Needless to say, it was a really exciting day for me.

Fall Out Boy takes this new song into a totally different direction sound wise, as they seem to be taking a huge step away from their pop-punk roots, and are taking a stab at the world of EDM and electronic sound. FOB’s latest albums have been slowly evolving into a more pop/mainstream sound, but from this song in particular just thrusts them into the EDM scene. I’m not necessarily surprised by this huge change, FOB is the type on band to create their music around what is particularly popular when the album is written. Still, the highly synthesized electronic chorus took me slightly by surprise, and it was a sound I wasn’t expecting to hear from my favorite band.

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Now, Fall Out Boy is my favorite band of all time. I have been to every single one of their tours since they came off hiatus in 2012, and so of course I was ecstatic when they announced the new song. I do have to say though, that I was not entirely thrilled with “Young and Menace.” I am all for a band taking their music in a new direction, I’ve loved every FOB album regardless of the change in their sound. I’m not even opposed to FOB switching into a more EDM sound. I just think that the band focused too much on this new electronic sound that they didn’t fully encapsulate the actual raw talent that is within the band. Patrick Stump has an incredibly voice, its so unique and full of pure talent. Yet it’s not truly shown and projected in this song, which I think is a shame. With a frontman who has the talent that Stump has, it should be prominent, and should give you chills.

Of course we get glimpses of the Stump vocals we love in short bursts here and there, for instance at the end of each chorus when he raises his voice powerfully in the way that I love so much. Its within in the chorus however where we totally lose it, and his vocals are only a background element to electronically synthesized music. The beat is still great, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t nod my head to it, but I think it overpowers Stump too much, and that’s a shame because he is such a powerful frontman.

This is only the first single to be released off the album, so there’s still a great deal more to be expected from the rest of the album. “Young and Menace” has made it very clear that the band has chosen to go in a totally new direction with this particular album, evolving their song even more from that of “American Beauty/American Psycho.” Even though I am a bit conflicted on my actual opinion of their new song, I cannot wait for their new album to drop, and am especially excited to see the band this upcoming fall.

Fall Out Boy’s new album “M A N I A” is expected to be released September 15th.

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