Fall Out Boy | So Much (For) Stardust (2023)

Fall Out Boy’s eighth album, ‘So Much (For) Stardust’, begins with delicate piano keys, cinematic string arrangements and vocalist Patrick Stump singing with an angry edge. The Chicago band’s quick-witted lyrics follow as the tempo picks up and Stump asserts, “I’d never go / I just want to be invited” right before he is “sending my love from the other side of the apocalypse”. ‘Love From The Other Side’ is a strong start for the band’s first collection of music in more than five years, gently (then abruptly) pulling themselves back onto the pop-punk rollercoaster that FOB strapped themselves onto more than two decades ago. NME
Now, they’re older. They’ve lived, they’ve thrived, and it may be no coincidence that this release aligns with their return to punk/emo staple label Fueled By Ramen. They’re no longer a band who need to be ambitious – they’ve achieved dizzying heights, regularly play stadiums, they’ve even got a big fuck-off flamethrower bass. This is why it’s not so surprising that So Much (For) Stardust instead feels like a return to home.
Instantly, everything is BIG. Grandiosity remains Fall Out Boy’s preferred delivery, and with a renewed six-string focus wrapping nicely around maturer themes and genres, it holds up well. “Love From The Other Side” blows away any cobwebs with its powerful, teeth-bearing promise of a return to their heavier side. The Line of Best Fit

Fall Out Boy: So Much (For) Stardust

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To think of Fall Out Boy as the elder statesmen of an entire genre might seem particularly strange to those who’ve followed their twenty year career so far, but their far-reaching influence on the rock scene they’ve helmed since the early ‘00s is unquestionable. Across seven albums, the quartet continued to rally against stereotypes, in search of a continually fresh and creative approach to their brand of pop-imbued punk. Whether enlisting Elton John to appear on 2013’s ‘Save Rock and Roll’, or Wyclef Jean and Lil Peep on tracks from ‘Believers Never Die (Part Two)’, they’ve always been a band with a plot twist up their sleeve. So, in 2023, with their latest full-length – and first in five years – there’s something intensely satisfying about the self-belief they seem to have struck on here. DIY

“It’s not a throwback record,” frontman Patrick Stump warns ahead of Fall Out Boy’s eighth studio album, ‘So Much (For) Stardust’, a record that continues the quartets fresh and creative approach to their brand of pop-imbued punk, stressing how they will never do things by halves. They’re older now. They have lived; although they may be looking back in more ways than one – we’re talking about teaming up with Fueled By Ramen, something no one’s seen since 2003’s debut ‘Take This To Your Grave’ rather than returning to their beloved emo roots – their latest body of work appears to be learning from their past, expanding on it, and it’s all we could want and more. CLASH

Just nigh of the 20th anniversary of the release and underground success of Take This to Your Grave, Fall Out Boy are back again with their eighth studio album, So Much (for) Stardust. They’ve been consistent producers of compelling records for a long while now – save, of course, their four-year hiatus before reforming in 2013 – and have maintained their iconic semi-metal, teenage-infused yet thrilling sound throughout, thanks in particular to the distinctive voice of lead vocalist Patrick Stump.
So Much (for) Stardust does not stray far from this established basis – the guitars continue to dominate, underpinned by thrashing but modestly balanced drums – but that isn’t to say it doesn’t take a little wander. There’s an orchestral richness to a number of the tracks that fans won’t have encountered before, plus a newly developed penchant for shadowing Stump’s vocal melodies with some form of electronic pulse. The depth has essentially been dialled up overall, in comparison with the rock outfit’s previous offerings. The Upcoming

Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.39 x 4.92 x 5.59 inches; 3.17 Ounces
Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ WEA/Fueled by Ramen
Original Release Date ‏ : ‎ 2023
Label ‏ : ‎ WEA/Fueled by Ramen
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BSG1HQ7D
Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1