Brb, Drooling.

So, to create my first review ever, I decided to talk about music, something easier said than done when your iTunes consists mainly of Finnish metal, Jpop, obscure anime OPs, and video game and off-Broadway musical soundtracks. I was left with very little. Evanescence is out, since they have obviously been too busy firing guitarists and swimming in their tower filled with money to produce anything new since 2006. I figured talking about Panic! would be a bit tacky in light of their recent breakup, and MCR has far to many psycho fans. I like my pets, thank you.

So, that left Nightwish, and an inevitable debate about whether Tarja or Annette is a better vocalist, or Fall Out Boy. I stand by my decision.

So, as it turns out, I'll be discussing Fall Out Boy's latest tour de force, Folie a Deux. (see what I did thar?)

Now, Folie a Deux is a french term meaning "madness shared by two." Now, of course, the title could obviously be referring to the madness that is love. You know, that crazy mixture of pheremones that makes you stutter like an idiot while someone moves in, cleans the coffee pot you finally had just the way you wanted it, gets pissed, yells about you not listening or something, then leaves with half your stuff and all of your heart...where was I?

Anyways, some of the album's songs do point to this as the true meaning of the title, but then we have option number two-Folie a Duex as a title is political commentary, something I buy a little bit more into, as Pete Wentz has an admirable dedication to spreading information about noble causes, and also to telling the mindless sheep of the world to think for themselves.
Fortunately, as the commentary songs make up the majority of the tracklist on this album, they are overall mostly catchy and poppy, and don't get bogged down under the weight of their own importance. Phew.

Then, of course, there's option three. This is an emo album. "THE TITLE DOESN'T HAVE TO MAKE SENSE," you say, screaming as I lower your significant other into a vat of acid "You can't POSSIBLY expect me to try to explain it, can you?"
To which I respond "No, Mr. Reader. I expect you to die."

But I digress.

Musically speaking, Folie a Deux is strong. Patrick's score complements Pete's lyrics quite nicely, possibly because he continues to perform as the lead singer. His range has improved IMMENSELY since Infinity, and by now, I'm surprised that his voice can't impregnate women at fifty paces.
That's how sexy it is.

There's not a lot to complain about instrumentation-wise. Joe pulls his weight on guitar, and Andy is wonderful as usual on drums. Again, the music is catchy, but about as different from Infinity as Infinity was from Cork Tree.

Track-by-track, Folie a Deux suffers and triumphs simultaneously, so here goes...

-Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes:
I enjoyed this song. It's very reminiscent of "Baba O'Reily" by The Who, which I'll guess is intentional, as some sampling of said song is used. The lyrics are pretty random, but they end up adding to the song's charm rather than detracting from it.

-I Don't Care
I was depressed by this song. The first time I heard it was with the music video, and I loved it. Then I bought the album, listened to track 2, and realized two things. First: Crossdressing nuns make ANYTHING awesome, and apart from a hilarious video involving mime-baiting, flashing, and cross-dressed shoplifting, I Really Don't Care. The song is really confusing, though, because musically, it's all there. But it definitely falls apart in the execution, and ends up repetitive and flat.

-She's My Winona
Pete Wentz's song for his wife, Ashlee, and his son, Bronx, turns out to be heartwarming. The lyrics are meaningful, the instrumentation is tight, and the whole song pulls together in exactly the way I Don't Care doesn't.

-America's Suitehearts
This song actually makes it into my top five favorite FOB songs. I have absolutely no gripes about America's Suitehearts.
None.
The social message about fame feels nicely snarky, coming from a famous band. Musically, the song is interesting enough for me to seek out a karaoke version, something I haven't done with FOB since The Takes Over, the Break's Over.
Then, there's the video, which features the best costume design of anything.
Ever.
In all of history. ----------------------------------------->

Great song.

-Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown...blah, blah, I don't care...
This is the other song on the album where the score unfortunately undermines the powerful lyrics. With a strange electronica/machine-synth sort of sound, and kind of annoying computerization of Patrick's voice, the song comes across as extremely weak, except for the chorus. During said chorus, (I will never end up like him/behind my back I already am/keep a calendar, this way you will always know) Tricky Stump shows that he doesn't need the over-computerization of the rest of the song. Fortunately, that section of the song is performed again during What a Catch, Donnie, which ISN'T twenty-five seconds of ball-ripping-off awesome in three minutes, thirty seconds of agonizing suckage.

-The (Shipped) Gold Standard
Unlike Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes, Shipped's disjointed lyrics make it confusing. It's not a bad song, not by any means. I enjoyed it. The music really comes together and the lyrics, while more random than Smashmouth on crack, are really poingent, especiallyfor the place where I am right now, and are sung with incredible emotion.

-Coffee's for Closers
Sex jokes aside, ("Oh, oh, oh!") I like this song a lot. The lyrics are sufficiently deep, and all of the parts come together into a coherant whole. Not much more to say...
Ummm....
LOOK! *points*

-What a Catch, Donnie
I'm sorry, I'm gonna end this review here and go listen to this song again. And again. Come find me in about twenty years.
What a Catch, Donnie, is the aural equivalent of an orgasm. Don't question it, it IS. It took me about four listenings just to get past Patrick Stump's vocals (Which may be more my thing than Tricky's), which sound like he's doing intensely private things with the microphone.
With his voice.
Then, of course, you get into the emo-music-tard boner inducing cameos by Elvis Costello, Gabe Saporta, Travis McCoy, Brendon Urie, Doug Neumann, Alex DeLeon, and William Beckett. (who has no relation to Lord Cutler Beckett. Unfortunately.) As I am, in fact, an Emo-music-tard, We'll just say that this song left me walking funny for a bit. I would go on, but it appears that the lower half of my body has melted from the sheer sexiness of this song.
Fuq.
Yes.

-27
Putting sex jokes aside again, (Patrick's body is apparantly an orphanage, and he takes everyone in. Sweet.) 27 does everything that Headfirst did wrong right.
And puts them in pretty dresses.
Rather than overbearing electronica, 27 uses a nice undertone of underdriven guitar, but lets the music and vocals really shine, and features a quite nice guitar solo.

-Tiffany Blews
Not even touchin' this one.
Seriously.
There's nothing here...

GO AWAY!

-W.A.M.S.
Another song that I find electronic, spoken-wordy, and blaaah. It does feature an invitation to...NO...BAD UNBI!
Ahem.
It's not a bad song, and it has some nice lyrics, but W.A.M.S. is nothing to write home about.

-20 Dollar Nose Bleed
Overall, this song sounds like something written in the seventies, which is a neat little retro trip. It sounds sort of like a Go-Gos song if they all had pen...Oh, wait...
Ahem.
Anyways, the retro illusion is broken for me by Pete's little spoken-word bit at the very end. Seriously, man. It was obnoxious in Get Busy Living, and it's annoying here.

-West Coast Smoker
The first time I listened to this song, I actually had to force myself through the first verse. It's bad. There's an obnoxious backbeat, spoken lyrics, and wierd-ass lyrics ("Don't feel bad for the suicidal cats")
Then it hit the chorus, and I saw that it was good.
Very good.
Like, I would walk over broken glass if that was the only way to listen to this song.
I found it incredibly difficult to avoid singing along (badly, since I can't sing) which isn't something I usually feel when listening to anything other than musica...I MEAN MANLY SONGS ABOUT MAN STUFF!

Folie a Deux is a good album, not as good as their earlier ones, but still entertaining and catchy. I'll give it a "great" overall.