Album Review: ‘So Much (For) Stardust’ is a Dark, Theatrical Return to Fall Out Boy’s Rock Roots

Reckoning with regret, isolation, and the apocalypse, Fall Out Boy sounds more united than ever on their first album in five years.

Written by Audrey Vieira

Photo courtesy of Pamela Littky

Fall Out Boy went five years without releasing another full-length album following 2018’s pop-rock experiment MANIA, marking their longest gap between releases since their three-and-a-half year hiatus from 2009 to 2013. But unlike that dark age in Fall Out Boy history, the band remained active over the past few years by playing virtual shows in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and touring with Green Day and Weezer when live music returned in 2021. It was a question of when — not if — Fall Out Boy would release new material.

Fans finally received answers when lead single “Love From The Other Side” premiered in January alongside a release date for Fall Out Boy’s eighth album, So Much (For) Stardust. The epic album opener begins with sparkly piano and dramatic violin before lead guitarist Joe Trohman launches into a commanding riff. It’s more reminiscent of Fall Out Boy’s rock roots than their poppier post-hiatus material, acting as both a comeback and a homecoming.

In addition to being the first new Fall Out Boy album in five years, So Much (For) Stardust is also their first album produced by Neal Avron since 2008’s Folie à Deux. Fans of the band’s earlier work should be delighted by this reunion, as Avron’s production amplifies the band’s instruments where previous releases drowned them out of the mix. However, fans of those post-hiatus releases need not worry about a lack of pop influences on this album. Single “Heartbreak Feels So Good” — named for a line from Nicole Kidman’s iconic AMC commercial — sounds like a more refined extension of MANIA’s experimentation with its resonant synths, yet its guitar and drums are more present with Avron at the helm.

Bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz’s songwriting is rife with references to the COVID-19 pandemic, though some lines feel dated considering this album comes nearly two years after vaccines became widely available. Angsty and orchestral “I Am My Own Muse” is the most glaring offender. Its chorus sees vocalist Patrick Stump sing “We’ve got to throw this year away / Got to throw this year away / Like a bad luck charm” despite the fact that 2020 was indeed thrown away when 2021 began. The album’s penultimate track, “What A Time To Be Alive,” also comments on the early days of the pandemic with mentions of “quarantine blues” and “...looking back / At a picture of 2019,” but feels more like a retrospective than a product of a bygone moment in history.

Wentz’s lyricism on So Much (For) Stardust especially shines in the album’s darkest moments, which are often hidden in its brightest sounds. The aforementioned “What A Time To Be Alive” sonically resembles the ‘80s influences behind Stump’s solo album Soul Punk yet drops bleak lyrics such as “So it seems the vulture’s getting too full to fly / Oh, what a time to be alive.” Other examples of this juxtaposition include the ironically titled “So Good Right Now,” a jazzy track where Stump sings about “doom and gloom,” and summery “Fake Out,” the energized acoustic guitar of which disguises the isolation at its core.

But even as Wentz’s songwriting primarily reckons with longing and loneliness, Fall Out Boy sounds more united than ever. “The Kintsugi Kid (Ten Years)” is one of the most powerful instances of this contrast: Stump singing, “I spent 10 years in a bit of chemical haze and I miss the way I felt / Nothing / Nothing.” An electric noise amplifies each “Nothing,” as if Stump shouts into a void and the void echoes back. He isn’t alone on vocals here, either — Wentz’s 4-year-old daughter, Marvel Jane Love Wentz, closes out the track with a mighty howl and is even credited in the album’s liner notes for her work.

So Much (For) Stardust is an incredibly cinematic listen, which makes sense considering Stump’s work scoring films and television in the years leading up to the album’s release. Ballad “Heaven, Iowa” is one of the grandest examples, and not just because of its “Field of Dreams” related title or opening verse’s mentions of “Mulholland Drive” and “A Star Is Born.” Its passionate chorus about “scar-crossed lovers” feels destined for the silver screen, though it will surely be a hit in arenas and amphitheaters should Fall Out Boy add it to their setlists. The album’s frequent use of powerful instrumental performances and orchestral swells make for some of the most delightfully dramatic moments of the band’s two decades together.

But the grandest moment of all is when the album closes with its title track, which sounds like the love child of Folie’s theatrics and Save Rock and Roll’s triumphant conclusion. From the opening violins to Stump’s choir-backed final chorus, “So Much (For) Stardust” lives up to its duties as a closer and title track. There’s even a callback to “Love From The Other Side” during the bridge, reprising the lyrics “You were the sunshine of my lifetime / What would you trade the pain for?” It’s up there with Folie tearjerker “What A Catch, Donnie” as a legacy-defining ballad for Fall Out Boy; a glorious combination of hopeless, emotional lyrics and powerhouse performances from the band.

So Much (For) Stardust stands out from Fall Out Boy’s previous works with dark songwriting and cinematic performances. It’s not a throwback album, but resembles the band’s earlier rock sound more closely than any other post-hiatus release. Every instrument gets its moment to shine thanks to Avron’s production, and every song sounds fit for a film soundtrack. Five years after MANIA, it’s refreshing to hear Fall Out Boy continue to evolve, and So Much (For) Stardust is perhaps their grandest evolution yet.

Image courtesy of Fueled By Ramen