By now most everyone’s heard the Fall Out Boy (FOB) story: four kids who grew up in the Chicago suburbs put out a record, toured endlessly, and eventually became the poster-boys for the punk/pop/emo genre. Yes, that’s a very reductionist way to look at this band’s history, but I thought I’d save you from having to read about where FOB came from again.

I’ve been hooked on FOB since Take This to Your Grave (TTtYG), which I believe is still their best CD to date. I’ll give them credit though, they’ve managed to avoid remaking TTtYG; they come to the table with a different album each time they release a new record. Although, Infinity On High (IOH) and From Under the Cork Tree (FUCT) are a bit similar.

There are a few twists/surprises with IOH. Most notably would be Thriller’s pseudo breakdown (I’ll attribute this to Wentz’s hardcore roots) and the piano track Golden. This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race is the worst track on this CD. Unfortunately it’s also the one that’ll pack the arenas they’re playing; it’s easy to see why it was the first single from this album.

IOH has left me saying “yeah, that’s what I expected”; it doesn’t evoke all that much feeling. The album’s not horrible though, if it shows up on iTunes whilst I have it on random I probably won’t skip to the next track (unless it’s that god damn This Ain’t A Scene song…)[p/id]

Rating: 3.5/5