FALL OUT BOY - ‘SO MUCH (FOR) STARDUST’

Writer’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

It’s been a quiet few years for Fall Out Boy since the release of their last album ‘M A N I A’. All that changed at the start of 2023, announcing their new album ‘So Much (For) Stardust’, however the celebration was short-lived as the same day as the announcement, guitarist Joe Trohman announced he would be taking a break from the band (however his work is still present on the album).

Lead single ‘Love From The Otherside’ opens the album, it sees Fall Out Boy do what they do best: craft catchy and heavy hitting pop-punk. Patrick Stumps vocals are as good as they’ve ever been. Opening with a piano intro and closing with a string arrangement, it’s one of the bands most interesting tracks for a while. ‘Heartbreak Feels So Good’ follows and is another catchy banger from the band.

The band have promoted ‘Hold Me Like A Grudge’ as the successor to fan favorite ‘This Ain’t A Scene,It’s An Arms Race’. It certainly lives up to that title, with heavy hitting riffs and an explosive chorus it should be a live set mainstay. The jumo between the chorus’s and verses is a little jolty at first but the pieces individually are incredible that it works.

‘Fake Out’ and ‘Heaven, Iowa’ are solid enough tracks but bring thing’s down slightly after the explosive three tracks before them. There’s still some charm and the hooks are catchy but lack the standout quality the album has presented so far. ‘The Pink Seashell’ features a spoken word excerpt from Ethan Hawke, taken from the 1994 film ‘Reality Bites’.

The back end of the album goes back to the standout quality from the opening. ‘I Am My Own Muse’ slows things down but doesn’t lack the power as Patrick belts the chorus. ‘Flu Game’ feels like the most traditional Fall Out Boy track here, with Andy Hurley’s drumming pacing through the track at a faster tempo than the other tracks here.

‘Baby Annihalition’ features another spoken word section before ‘The Kinsugi Kid (Ten Years)’. This absolutely should be a sleeper hit for the album, it’s nostalgic and has my favoirte hook outside of ‘Love From The Other Side’. ‘What A Time To Be Alive’ is incredibly funky, with horn arrangements but I can’t help but get recent Panic At The Disco vibes (albeit good).

The album closes with the title track, it’s a dense track with heavier orchestral arrangements on the opening and thick guitars and drums for the main portion. It builds to a final portion featuring call backs to ‘Love From The Otherside’ before a final chorus featuring choral vocals fading out.

‘So Much (For) Stardust’ feels less of a return to form, and more a statement by the band that they never went away; the recent pop-punk revival has yielded some decent artists but the true stars are the bands that started it 20 years ago.