FALL OUT BOY- From Under the Cork Tree

I hate Fall Out Boy. Since I listened to 'From Under the Cork Tree', the Chicago quartet's third album I can't get their sun punk melodies out of my head.

Lead singer, Patrick Stump, possesses a Marmite of voices, sounding as breathless as a teenage kiss but singing images of smiles with every line while the rest of the band do their best to win The Band That Sounds Most Like Everybody Else competition.
'Summer Song' and 'Get Busy Living...' rock and roll along on the kind of Morrisey mope that Bayside and Copeland also employ.

'Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner' speeds in sounding like No Doubt before skipping a beat into Blink punk territory, it may be a landscape laced with sarcasm rather than toilet humour, but this is instantly hummable stuff.

As most tracks arrive on the same skittery guitar noise there is a temptation to reach for the skip button but every song, left to sprint finish or slowly unravel, reveals a hook looking to screw its way into your brain.

From the opening track, to 'Dance, Dance', to first single 'Sugar, We're Goin' Down', these songs are going to sound amazing sung by thousands of arena goers and Warped Tour ticket holders. All that and then some beckons for FOB if enough people hear this album, even by accident, because one listen and it's in there, drilling deeper, until you have to know the lyrics, until you're dancing in your room.
In the middle of America while a thousand other misty-eyed lovers that have lost are finding emo, Fall Out Boy have found the sense of humour to laugh of their broken hearts and have some goddamn fun.

Makes sense to me.