Fall Out Boy: Infinity on High

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Sasha Frere-Jones wrote in the New Yorker: "The fact that Fall Out Boy is popular while playing what is, give or take a dozen influences, traditional guitar rock has to do in part with the band’s universally catchy songs and in part with the star power of its eyeliner-wearing bassist and spokesman, Pete Wentz. … The album is deeply pleasurable, consisting of compressed, torqued-up rock songs that rarely detour into instrumental passages and return single-mindedly to choruses that range from the reasonably hummable to the eminently hummable. Like the band’s other albums, 'Infinity' is the product of an atypical division of labor, between the husky blond guitarist and singer Patrick Stump, who composes the rapidly shifting, unabashedly melodic music … and Wentz, whose clever lyrics rely on pop-culture references. … Fall Out Boy retains some formal connections to punk … but, with a few tweaks, Stump’s songs could work perfectly well as country or R. & B. numbers. His vocals are open-throated and powerful, a bit reminiscent of eighties New Wave singers like Howard Jones" (3/12/07).