Fall Out Boy: Save Rock and Roll

"Are they Fall Out Boy or are they the Avengers? Reuniting after a three-year hiatus for their first album since 2008, the punk-pop heroes set out on a mission to Save Rock and Roll. You halfway expect the Hulk to come storming through the bombastic opener, 'The Phoenix,' which commands you to 'put on your war paint' for symphonic-rock battle. It's enough to make Muse feel wimpy. They continue the pumped-up theatrics on 'My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up),' a supersize title for a supersize tune. Elsewhere FOB aims to put the 'power' back into power pop (take that, Fun!) on slower songs like 'Alone Together' and 'Just One Yesterday.' The latter is one of the nostalgic moments that, along with all their chest-thumping enthusiasm, suggest that Fall Out Boy missed being Fall Out Boy. Although the relentlessness of it all wears thin toward the end, it's still pretty rad when Rocket Man himself, Elton John, swoops in for the title-track closer. Rock on, dudes" (Chuck Arnold, "Music," People, 4/29/13, p. 45).

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