Fall Out Boy released its new album, ‘SO MUCH (FOR) STARDUST’
Fall Out Boy, an American rock band, released their eighth studio album, So Much (for) Stardust. On March 24, 2023, the album was available via DCD2 and Fueled by Ramen.
The album represents the group’s reunion with producer Neal Avron, who previously worked with them on Folie à Deux in 2008. It also signifies their return to their first record company, Fueled By Ramen, which last released Take This to Your Grave in 2003.
The band stopped making new music in 2018 after Mania received mixed reviews. However, they did release a second greatest hits collection in 2019.
SO MUCH (FOR) STARDUST IS OUT IN SOME PLACES NOW BUT EVERYWHERE TOMORROW pic.twitter.com/MAIURSGl1X
— Fall Out Boy (@falloutboy) March 23, 2023
On January 18, 2023, the album’s first single, “Love from the Other Side,” was publicly disclosed along with the official announcement regarding the title & release date of the album. On Jimmy Kimmel Live! the day after it was released, Fall Out Boy gave “Love from the Other Side” a performance.
On January 25, 2023, Fall Out Boy released “Heartbreak Feels So Good” via Fueled by Ramen and DCD2 as the second single of the 8th album ‘So Much (For) Stardust.’
The album’s track listing got confirmed on March 3, 2023. The band revealed that “Hold Me Like a Grudge” would be the album’s next single on March 13. A song clip got shared on March 15.
The four-piece American rock group, which consists of Pete Wentz on bass and vocals, Andy Hurley on drums, Patrick Stump on vocals and guitar, and Joe Trohman on guitar, unveiled a new motion poster for its brand-new 13-tracked album So Much (For) Stardust on Monday, March 20. Fans of a particular well-known anime movie from the 1980s may recognize some elements in the poster.
The motion poster, which appears to be for the song “So Good Right Now” from the album, pays homage to the renowned film AKIRA by Katsuhiro Otomo and substitutes a dog for Kaneda with the new Fall Out Boy emblem in place of the band’s signature red motorcycle.
The Tracklist of ‘SO MUCH (FOR) STARDUST,’ by Fall Out Boy
- “Love from the Other Side”
- “Heartbreak Feels So Good”
- “Hold Me Like a Grudge”
- “So Good Right Now”
- “Fake Out”
- “The Pink Seashell” (Ft. Ethan Hawke)
- “Heaven, Iowa”
- “Flu Game”
- “What a Time to Be Alive”
- “Baby Annihilation”
- “The Kintsugi Kid (Ten Years)”
- “So Much (for) Stardust”
The Rivew for ‘SO MUCH (FOR) STARDUST’
The band’s return with So Much (For) Stardust is not limited to returning to its giddy beginnings. Stump, Joe Trohman on guitar, Pete Wentz on bass, and Andy Hurley on drums lured away Fueled By Ramen.
The opening track of Fall Out Boy’s album, “So Much (For) Stardust,” has a vocal performance by Patrick Stump with an angry undertone.
‘Love From The Other Side’ is a solid opening track for the group’s debut album in more than five years, slowly (then quickly) yanking them off onto the pop music rollercoaster that FOB hitched themselves to more than two decades ago.
They “traveled miles away from the clever pop punk” of their earlier releases on 2018’s “Mania,” even incorporating EDM with their hit “Young And Menace.”
In their most recent collection, evolution is more about building on and expanding their past rather than diverging from it.
Even the album’s darkest moments surprise the audience. Consider the second song, “Hold Me Like A Grudge,” which begins with a vintage disco funk and builds to a distorted guitar bridge that elevates a bass riff from “Another One Bites the Dust.” Similar to “In The Air Tonight” by Phil Collins, “Heaven, Iowa” features rattling percussion that builds gradually.
Although it competes with the same soaring strings and gritty guitar lines of “Kashmir” by Led Zeppelin, “I Am My Own Muse” enlists an entire orchestra. The majority of the bold leaps on this record are successful.
While articulating about daring, the album has a song that is a speech by Ethan Hawke from the movie Reality Bites that was played again as a song. Hawke’s character muses on the banality and pointlessness of life in “The Pink Seashell.”
Without any frills, “So Much (For) Stardust” evokes the nostalgia of the early 2000s. It also doesn’t take itself too seriously, as evidenced by the spoken word opening to “Baby Annihilation.”
Fall Out Boy succeeds in developing their sound while still satisfying the tastes of ardent fans, which is no small feat for a rock juggernaut. The band recently outlined how their most recent release is a counterargument to that mindset and a means of discovering purpose through creating something new.
