#pop-rock

山内美奈 @mina_bass3737 2000年9月20日 T168cm

Diving back into the iconic Cruisin' series with this 1965 dispatch from BOSS ANGELES, powered by a true force in top 40 radio, DJ Robert W. Morgan of radio station KHJ. Cool thing about Cruisin' is that it tried to authentically re-create the experience of what listening to rock & roll radio was like back then, so unlike your other run-of-the-mill, dime-a-dozen oldies comps, you weren't just getting the hits, but you were also getting the ad reads, the station ID jingles, the reports, and the goofy DJ bits too. Pretty much a must-have for any oldies collector, as it uniquely enhanced the listening experience over all other series that might've tried to compete with it.

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Remember FOB For Centuries: A 10-Year Retrospective On American Beauty / American Psycho

One story I’ve told many times over the years is that I’ve been a huge fan of the band Fall Out Boy since 2007. They had just dropped their third album, Infinity On High, and it was their first album post-mainstream breakthrough. They hit it big with 2005’s From Under The Cork Tree, but Infinity On High was their first album where they were in the public eye. I was barely into music at the time; I only had gotten into My Chemical Romance, Panic At The Disco, and The All-American Rejects at that time, and those are all solid bands, but Fall Out Boy was the band that truly got me into music. That album, in particular, truly made me fall in love with music. I’ve talked about that story many times over, and I’ve also talked about my journey with this band many times over the past twelve years since their comeback from their four-year hiatus. They went on hiatus in 2009, right after releasing 2008’s Folie A Deux, but rumors of their return swirled in early 2013 (in the time between albums, they all participated in other side projects, some of which I really liked), only for them to officially announce their return with Save Rock & Roll. That’s a record I’ve had a rather complicated relationship with over the last twelve years or so, but I’ve come to enjoy it and appreciate it a lot more these days.

The same goes for the follow-up, 2015’s American Beauty / American Psycho, which just turned ten-years-old last month. Now that’s a record that I’ve had various feelings on over the last decade, but like with Save Rock & Roll, I’ve come to really appreciate it. I wanted to talk about my journey with this album, and to some extent, my journey with Fall Out Boy, because this album is an important one in their career. It furthered their sound, which had changed by Save Rock & Roll, but it also marked a newfound level of success that they hadn’t really achieved since their original heyday in the 00s. The single “Centuries” went onto being one of their most successful singles, although “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” still remains as their most successful single (but we can talk about From The Under Cork Tree at another time). That song, and that record, catapulted the band back into the mainstream (Save Rock & Roll did that, too, and the lead single from that album was very successful, but “Centuries” really took them to new heights). One of the other main singles, “Immortals,” is used in the Disney movie Big Hero 6, which is a huge deal to have a song of yours in a Disney movie of all things.

My feelings have always been relatively complicated on this album, however, especially even before it came out. In the lead up to this album’s release, I went through a pretty bad breakup, and it was with someone that I bonded over the band with. It was tough for me to listen to the band for a long time, because every time I did, it reminded me of that person, and how badly they treated me. In retrospect, it’s crazy to think that I let that affect me so much, because I was very young and it wasn’t anything important, but that’s the thing – I was young and let it really engulf me. It’s silly to think that I didn’t want to listen to the band, let alone listen to American Beauty / American Psycho, because it was still a fresh wound for me. That all happened around over a decade ago, and it’s crazy to think that it’s been that long. There are other factors in play, too, such as how the band changed their sound by this point, and I remember seeing a lot of people in the “YouTube Music Critic” sphere being so mad by these records, because they accused the band of “selling out” by making bombastic pop music that other artists were doing. You have to understand where music was at the time, because in the early 2010s, Imagine Dragons were really popular and made bombastic pop-rock that felt like a new version of arena-rock, but it was for suburban moms. Fall Out Boy rode on that train, and I was kind of mixed on their sound change at first, but in the last ten years, I’ve come to really respect that change in sound. Save Rock & Roll hinted at that change, but it was AB/AP that cemented it. Fall Out Boy ended up outdoing Imagine Dragons at their own game, and it makes sense why they were so successful. Sure, songs like “Immortals,” and “Centuries” aren’t super adept songs, lyrically speaking, but Fall Out Boy was always good with catchy and anthemic hooks. They got really good at that for a period of time, and while a lot of songs followed a similar formula, the hooks all stood out.

That’s partially because of vocalist Patrick Stump, who is my personal favorite vocalist in alternative music, whether it’s rock, pop-punk, or what have you. He has such a killer voice, and these albums wouldn’t have been as good without him, unfortunately. His voice has gotten a lot better, and it fits perfectly for the arena-rock / pop-rock sound that they were going for. The band also started utilizing something that a lot of artists do now, and they weren’t the first artist to do this, but the idea of interpolation was also a contested idea that fans had mixed feelings on. “Centuries” features an interpolation of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner,” whereas another “Uma Thurman” features The Munsters theme (to awesome results, by the way). Interpolation seems like a commonplace idea now, because a lot of artists willingly take melodies, lyrics, or ideas from songs that twist it into something new. It’s not a sample, as they aren’t taking the original work, but they’re recreating it into something else. Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like Fall Out Boy really made that idea popular, especially in rock and alternative music. I think that part of this album is a bit underrated, because most people think they “sold out” with this album (which isn’t true, by the way; I’ve never thought selling out was really a thing, because if you think about it, every artist sells out in some way to get popular, whether it’s by taking endorsement deals, performing at and/or making appearances at events, or things of that nature), but they did a lot to separate themselves from the pack at the time and make themselves even more popular and still relevant.

A nice accidental discovery…

Which sometimes happens when I stumble on to https://www.progarchives.com. (Thanks to a happy accidental surfing in 2003.)

Good pop-rock music, some songs have much synth pop.

The band Sparks has been around since 1971.

Interesting history: Todd Rundgren took interest in them, asked them to change their name to Sparks, and they released their self-titled debut album in 1971.

They are talented musicians (as I gather from their bio). (Yes, that makes it another one of my second-hand opinions. And as long as I see respect to non-famous musicians, I am fine with it.)

This album, Hippopotamus, is a mix of humor and different genres.

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This song, Scandinavian Design, has oddly funny lyrics:

"I've got nothing, just a table and two chairs But they're beautiful, and I just stand and stare Time and space are intertwined Elegance, simple lines Scandinavian Design"

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You may also be interested in seeing another video from this album: Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me). The video not as dark as your first impression of it, seeing those wood (puppets) in it. (Not as dark as a similar Steven Wilson video - The Raven that Refused to Sing - in any case.)

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Giddy Giddy Giddy is an upbeat song :-)

As I keep typing words for this post, the songs change, and I like the next one too.

So, I strongly recommend you listen to the full album yourself too.

Album Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogn4GWHPsWE&list=OLAK5uy_ntUoHXUt38rtp3L91dpdq-n7l776TF0nE&index=1

Album Review: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=56009

Excerpt: "It's a little ironic that I remembered while writing my last review, that I used to compare adventerous music to that home made meat and potatoes supper my mom used to make, while commercial music is more like eating at McDonalds."

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Line-up / Musicians

Russell Mael / vocals, arrangements & co-producer

Ron Mael / keyboards, arrangements & co-producer

With:

Dean Menta / guitar, bass, drums (9)

Steven Nistor / drums

Leos Carax / vocals & accordion (12)