Fall Out Boy - 'Infinity On High' (Mercury) Released 05/02/07

There are few genres that rely on an almost Darwinian principle of survival as much as the commercial end of hardcore-derived punk that people still insist on calling e**. The likes of Brand New, My Chemical Romance, Panic! At The Disco and, closer to home, Enter Shikari prosper because they’re brave enough to try something new, whether it be Queen-inspired narrative records about death, or pretending that everyone still listened to rave before the Klaxons.   However, the bands themselves may protest as much as they like, but this self-imposed pressure to grow beyond the recognisable ‘emo’ sound only serves to draw greater attention to the clichés they’re running from, the clichés that Fall Out Boy’s bassist/lyricist/stripper himself neatly surmised as “anytime you see some androgynous dude on stage singing angsty songs about girls in an overly narcissistic/egomaniacal/self-serving way.”   In this respect ‘Infinity On High’ is an important record: it’s seemingly been written with a mindset concerned less with shouting from the rooftops about how experimental or radical it is, but instead actually goes all out with the pop guns blazing, a philosophy cemented on the first single ‘This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race’.