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Jan. 4th, 2012
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Oh, Nostalgia, I Don't Need You Anymore 3 Out Of 5 Stars
Patrick Stump takes a walk from Fall Out Boy for his debut solo CD, and strolls into the time machine that lives on in Stump's collection of Prince and Michael Jackson albums. Or maybe Duran Duran's turn with Justin Timberlake. Either way, he's created a wickedly catchy collection of synthy-soul pop that is as self-assured as it is NOT Fall Out Boy.
It's obvious from the first track, "Explode," that Stump wants to distance himself from the pop-punk that made him rich in FOB. From there, it's one man show-time, with Stump doing the writing, playing and production for the entire album, minus a bonus track of "This City" featuring Lupe Fiasco. (Which happens to be the CD's best song.) Stump is also really open on the disc, with a blatant admission of a drinking problem on "Run Dry" and a great adultery song, "The I in Lie." After all, how many singers would gleefully shout their guilt in a chorus that boasts "I'm a Cheat, cheat, cheat!"
The mess of the modern world isn't left aside either, as "Soul Punk" has its surprisingly political moments. The funky "Dance Miserable" exhorts that you push yourself through the litany of ailments like climate change, unemployment, foreclosures, etc. Or the Timberlake ape of "Greed," with the catchy refrain of "turn your white collars up." Stump reveals himself to be a really smart pop-crafter on "Soul Punk," proving he can make his own kind of music apart from Pete Wentz. However, it is Wentz's presence that pulls the disc down a star; Stump's self-production makes the album sound at times claustrophobic and falls victim to the loudness wars. I bit of band chemistry might have helped to loosen things up a bit. Even so, better than half the songs are good for repeat listens, making "Soul Punk" a better than average solo project.
More Songs about Cars and Girls. And Meteorology4 Out Of 5 Stars
Fountains of Wayne's Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger are big fans of flipping the big box of Pop Conventions and seeing what tumbles out, and with "Traffic And Weather," they go for those two big standards of pop-tunery, Cars and Girls. You'll find a prominent vehicle or woman in every one of these songs but one (and it happens to be the album's worst), often to great, humorous affect. Be it Seth and Beth is the punchy opener "Someone To Love" or the set of displaced goofballs playing a game of town-to-town hopscotch on "New Routine," it's all about the people and the motion.
If you're willing to extend the metaphor a bit and allow yourself to change "cars" for any form of transport, then the theme still applies. The wistful final song "Seatbacks and Traytables" is about the traveling musician losing track of where he is as the road wears on. While we're at it, there's the weather of the album's title. Just about every song here has some kind of storming moment, like the bucketing rain in "Hotel Majestic" or the country-pop of "Fire in The Canyon's" the rain on the plains. It's the title song itself that works absolutely the best, as the News Anchor finally caves in to his desire for his Co-Anchor and makes his move to a slinky funk track.
However, this is the first FoW album I've bothered skipping tacks on. "Michael and Heather At The Baggage Claim" is too forced of a song to hold up to repeated listening. It sounds like a throwaway from a band that has never done one before. Then there's the "Planet Of Weed." If you're writing a song that sounds like a couple of freshman stoners wrote if after partying too hard, there's a good chance you should leave it off your album. But there it sits, stinking up the CD like week old bong water. It sounds even worse when you compare it to the brilliant "New Routine" that comes right after, which opens with a rhyme of diner to Carl Reiner. Or the line in "I-95" about the fading radio station that now sounds like "a kick-drum filled with static."
That's why I'm willing to forgive "Traffic and Weather" its lone super-dud. Even more so because lazy-radio corporation bean counters couldn't risk giving "Stacy's Mom" the worthy chart follow-up of the title song or "Someone To Love." Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger waited another four years to let out the excellent "Sky Full Of Holes," which pulled back a bit but is just as delightful, and has their most emotional song ever on it, "Cemetery Guns." As an FoW fan, I recommend both.
