Cd Review: Fall Out Boy "Infinity on High"

Let's be clear: A lot of little kids like Fall Out Boy. You don't get nominated for a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award or dominate MTV's "Total Request Live" without the pre-teen set firmly in your corner. But that doesn't mean the music sucks. Of course, Fall Out Boy could literally sing "Eat s--- and die," and your little sister would ask if she could buy the CD at Hot Topic.

Certainly, FOB is aware of its position. They've taken shots at their fans before - the first track off their last album stated "We're only liars/ but we're the best" - and they continue the tradition in the first song off their new album Infinity on High, "Thriller."

The song itself is one of the best on the record. It opens with Jay-Z spitting about the "critics," continues with a short metal riff and falls into singer Patrick Stump's formidable falsetto. But what leaves a lasting impression are the lyrics: "I can take your problems away/ with a nod and a wave of my hand," says a verse, and "Cry on the couch/ till the poets come to life" goes the chorus - both of which may or may not be thinly veiled insults at those who think the difference between their life and death is when the new FOB CD comes out.

The band's breakthrough, 2003's Take This To Your Grave, featured "Tell That Mick He Just Made My List of Things To Do Today," a no-holds-barred white-knuckled song that informed an ex that "your makeup looks great next to his teeth" after she dies in a brutal car accident with her new boyfriend.

Perhaps it's appropriate that "Thriller" marks Infinity on High as a different beast altogether. "Long live the car-crash hearts," Stump sings sweetly on the track as his band delivers peerless pop.

Although Stump is the true talent (check out his cover of Ne-Yo's "So Sick") it doesn't mean Pete Wentz hasn't taken some time off from filming crap episodes of "One Tree Hill" to craft some decent lyrics. In fact, he's got several gems on the record.

"Hum Hallelujah," the album's centerpiece and most powerful piece of music, is not only an astute observer of high school relationships - "A high school vow in a parking lot/ till tonight do us part" - but also of college relations: "I thought I loved you/ but it was just how you looked in the light."

The other burner is the infidelity ode "Thnks For the Mmrs," (yes, that's the correct spelling) which quotes a line from the emo-Bible - the movie "Closer" - and continues with Wentz ironically observing, "And I want these words to make things right/ But it's the wrongs that make these words come to life." The chorus is more disturbing: "One night and one more time/ Thanks for the memories/ even though they weren't so great." Remind me not to sleep with this guy.

"Mmrs" is dark, demented, sticky and hot like its contents. Beats bounce back and forth like they're trying to break out of a psych ward. Stump's vocal inflection suggests he just finished a Tim Burton movie marathon.

To be sure, there are missteps: "You're Crashing But You're No Wave" is a song about a court case - but where we should be getting O.J., the tone and lyrics leave us with an image of the people's court.

"The (After) Life of the Party" is nothing more than an arena-ready ballad. Hearing the crescendo, the crashing symbols and the I'm-at-the-top-of-my-range vocals will certainly get the cell phones out at the next concert - but it doesn't do much for the record.

The slick Babyface-produced "I'm Like A Lawyer With The Way I'm Always Trying To Get You Off" has the best title, but its too-sweet chorus leaves nothing more than the dread of hearing it during a bad romantic comedy.

There are few bands that elicit the love 'em or hate 'em passion that FOB does. But considering the results of Infinity on High, musical elitists might heed the advice of "Bang the Doldrums" - "We're better off as lovers/ and not the other way around."