Review: So Much (For) Stardust

About time, right folks?

It’s been a month on the dot since Fall Out Boy’s most recent album dropped, and I had been excited for this album for months! Fans like me had been patiently awaiting another album from FOB since MANIA came out in 2018, and – spoiler alert – I was not disappointed by this album the way I was with MANIA.

No hate to MANIA, it just wasn’t what I was expecting from them, which left me a little sad, especially after how much love I had for Save Rock and Roll.

Without further adieu, let’s get into the nitty gritty of the album!

Tracks

I’ll highlight a few of my favorite tracks from the album and what about them stuck out to me. I only picked a few for brevity’s sake, so please don’t think I don’t like a song just because I didn’t include it!

Hold Me Like A Grudge

The bass intro is so damn good. Sorry, just had to get that out of the way.

This entire song is so staccato all throughout, and it works so well. It creates a tension that conveys a hidden piece of the message behind the song flawlessly.

The guitar part in the chorus is also fantastic. It’s an example of how guitar riffs don’t have to be complex or unique to be a good addition to the song overall.

I’d love to see more staccato delivery like this song in modern music, especially after the age of super-legato that was the “cursive singing”. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m jealous of you.

Little note: if you were wondering what the little distorted voice says before the chorus, it says, “you put the ‘fun’ into dysfunction.” I had to Google that one, but I’m so glad I did!

Fake Out

I didn’t expect to enjoy this little poppy number as much as I did, but it sticks out to me as a fantastic mix of fun sounds and depressing lyrics – one of my favorite musical archetypes!

“Make no plans, and none can be broken”

I cannot get this line out of my head, and the way Patrick delivers it so nonchalantly makes it seem so innocent and innocuous, but it really hits home once it’s pointed out.

The fun synth and upbeat drums are so deceiving, because this song is so sad.

I mean… “buried alive inside my dreams”? Come on. Perfect “sad boy” material.

Flu Game

Full disclosure, this is my favorite song on the album, so please excuse me if I ramble.

I loved the final line of the chorus – “I’ve got all this love to keep to myself / All this effort to make it look effortless” – that I made it my personal Instagram bio!

First off, the chromatic “na na na’s” in the chorus are such a great touch.

I know the “take out the instrumental and let the vocals shine for one chorus” approach has been done time and time again, but it gets me every time! I love the way they did it in this song, then transitioned to the breakdown so smoothly.

The ending beats are a little strange and out-of-place, I’ll admit, but I can’t say I’m mad at them. It almost feels like a cool-down period after the gut punch that this song gave me, and it creates a great transition into the next track, which is Pete Wentz’s monologue titled Baby Annihilation.

What a Time To Be Alive

This one is just plain fun, so I couldn’t not include it.

While it isn’t the same kind of depressing and poppy vibe as “Fake Out,” this song could definitely fit into the “fun music, depressing lyrics” category too. But instead of being about personal stories, this one is more a nihilistic take on the current state of the world, especially in America.

“We’re out here and we’re ready / To livestream the apocolypse”

I couldn’t agree more with this sentiment, from two very different perspectives:

First, being so frustrated with the world that you just want to watch it burn.

Second, being so desensitized to the disturbing, broken world around you that all you can do is prepare for the end.

I think the song is more trying to tap into the second meaning, but I think both work within the overall context of the song.

The line “When I said leave me alone / This isn’t quite what I meant / I’ve got the quarantine blues / Bad news, what’s left?” sums it up pretty well.

This song is so perfect for the mindset of our current world, and it reminds me of how much I hope I live to be able to tell the stories of this decade to the generations that didn’t experience.

So Much (For) Stardust

When I was listening to this song again to freshen up for writing this article, this song, out of all of them made me cry, and it’s not even a ballad.

One of the running themes on this album was the fantastic orchestration with the inclusion of strings and horns throughout. The title track was no exception to this.

The strings in the introduction to the song are stunning, and the horns strewn throughout

The repetition of the “you were the sunshine of my lifetime / What would you trade the pain for? I’m not sure” line from Love From the Other Side was like a gut-punch. I’m not even kidding; it makes me double over and cry almost every time I hear it.

The final two repetitions of the chorus performed by a choir with Patrick’s riffing put over was just the icing on the cake. Patrick’s voice is so gorgeous and well utilized on this album, but I think this song is a really good example of just what Patrick can do.

I’d also like to make a little note for those of you who aren’t aware:

In reference to the track, The Kintsugi Kid (Ten Years), kintsugi is the Japanese art of taking broken pottery pieces and putting them back together with gold. The art is meant to be a metaphor for embracing one’s flaws and “imperfections.”

It makes me thing of how people sometimes refer to themselves as “a little rough around the edges,” similar to the jagged edges of pottery shards. This put the entire song into a new context for me, so I wanted to share it with you guys too.

Overview

This is a no-skip album for me, point-blank!

I fully understand that this isn’t what everyone wanted in terms of a new Fall Out Boy album, but I think this album was well worth the wait.

Fall Out Boy has been officially making music for 20 years, and the fact that they’ve been able to keep up with the changing trends while still staying true to themselves and their fans is an incredible feat that not many bands can do.

Not only that, this album is full of musical motifs that tie it together so well. Motifs are one of my favorite things in music, and when motifs are repeated throughout an album, I feel like I found a little easter egg or something!

Motifs also make an album feel more like a complete work rather than a bunch of songs put together just because they were written around the same time, so FOB’s use of motifs speaks greatly to my love for albums as an artform rather than a random compilation.

Some of the repeated motifs include:

The use of strings and horns across multiple tracks

The lyric “You were the sunshine of my lifetime / What would you trade the pain for? I’m not sure” that I mentioned before.

References to 50s and 60s rock (especially in So Good Right Now and Fake Out)

And probably more that I missed!

FOB knows how to do an stylized album, after all, and I think this album is no different in that regard than any of their others.

I will be honest, nostalgia is probably influencing my opinions a fair amount.

Wikipedia says that music critics actually rated this album lower that Panic!’s most recent album, which I couldn’t disagree with more, but what do I know?

Actually, more than you might think. I also have the privilege of being able to say whatever I want about an album, and I’ll trash on Viva Las Vengeance until the day I die.

All that aside, it’s clear that a lot of hard work went into this album. The orchestration is beautiful and clearly intentional, and I am so grateful for the band members’ dedication to their music. It really shines in this album, as it does in all their work.

From a critic’s standpoint, I can totally see why this album took years to make. From a fan’s standpoint, this album was well worth the wait.