It’s been awhile since we’ve heard from Fall Out Boy. Their (then) most recent album, MANIA was released in 2018, and in 2019 they released their second Greatest Hits compilation album, Believers Never Die which gave us two new songs “Dear Future Self (Hands Up)” and “Bob Dylan”. In 2021 they were on the famed Hella Mega Tour with Green Day and Weezer. After that tour, Fall Out Boy went into hiding and were supposedly inactive for a bit. People hadn’t heard from Fall Out Boy in so long to the point where some people thought the group disbanded.
MANIA was an album that generated mixed reviews since Fall Out Boy decided to venture outside their comfort zone so the return of Fall Out Boy led to a variety of responses. However, when they first hinted at their return at the end of December 2022 through a mysterious claymation video, the last 20 or so seconds included an instrumental that sounded like something that was straight out of 2008. Later, they announced their new song “Love from the Other Side” with the release date of January 18th.Which happened to not only the release date for their new song, but also the announcement of their eighth album, So Much (For) Stardust.
In a word,”Love From The Other Side” is surprising. Fall Out Boy’s return was inevitable,but still very sudden so nobody had any idea of what their new music would sound like. And as “Love From The Other Side”’s release date got closer, the only things that gave us insight to what this new Fall Out Boy would sound like was that 20 second teaser at the end of that claymation video and the video later came out which contained part of the song that had its release date. Both parts of the song that were teased had this nostalgic feel to it and mirrors the band’s “old style” that people knew and loved.
The song starts out with a soft sounding piano heavy with the occasional string instrument making an appearance occasionally throughout. Then it switches and becomes very string instrument heavy with the piano occasionally making an appearance. This whole instrumental part of the song is just over thirty seconds, and there’s no guitar or drums to be heard but then that changes quickly. The tempo of the song is pretty fast to begin with, but it gets even faster when another instrumental bit of strings, guitar, and drums.The guitar is the main focus here, and immediately sucks you in. If the classical-ish beginning of the track isn’t enough to keep you listening, the second instrumental bit is an incredibly fast paced banger.
And of course a Fall Out Boy song wouldn’t be a Fall Out Boy song if lead vocalist Patrick Stump’s soul/RnB style vocals didn’t make an appearance. Unlike their previous releases, 2015’s American Beauty/American Psycho and 2018’s MANIA, Stump’s vocals were overpowered by synths and other instrumentals. Meanwhile, with this track, those instrumentals and synths are not the focus, and Stump’s vocals are the main thing. It’s refreshing because we haven’t had Patrick Stump vocals being the main focus of a Fall Out Boy song since the days of Infinity on High and From Under the Cork Tree.
The first single from So Much (For) Stardust is a mix of old and new. There’s a lot of parts that are reminiscent of the Fall Out Boy that we were first introduced to way back when, and then there’s other aspects that are different.
