Quick, relatively speaking, to follow my previous planned post comes this review. I had this one planned for a couple months but never got around to it. Just a few weeks ago Fall Out Boy posted that they were taking a year off to just chill and I thought, “perfect timing!” but I still couldn’t be bothered. I have finally decided to sit down at get this done!

First off, I know Fall Out Boy has the reputation of, well, little girls music (representative of the screaming fans) but I must say I’m a big fan. I found that with each new record, From Under the Cork Tree to Infinity on High and finally Folie à Deux their musical style has both changed and improved. When I bought their first album all the songs had the same general sound and without knowing the lyrics it was hard to distinguish from song to song. Folie à Deux incorporates a wider variety of melodies as well as a few guest singers.

In all albums I find that their single, while I like it when its a single, is my least favourite song on the album. Could it be because it is overplayed or simply that it isn’t as good as the rest? While I’ve only listened to the album the whole way through 20-25 times, judging by my iTunes playcounts and my own memory there are certain songs that I am more inclined to. The only notable single I heard on the radio for this album was ‘I Don’t Care’ so that is my least favourite of the album.

The album starts of strong with ‘Disloyal Order of The Water Buffaloes’ with a bold sound and lots of group shouts. I feel that on many tracks in this album Patrick really gets a chance to showcase his incredible singing ability. Following this was the first single I believe off the album ‘I Don’t Care’. This song is all about the whole punk-rock air that F.O.B gets I think. In some places I have seen them labeled as the new punk-rock band which I think is okay. The music video kind of reinforces that as well as the whole power-chord mashing of this song. In my opinion this song was overplayed so I’m not a fan of hearing it that often. The following tracks ‘She’s My Winona’, ‘America’s Suitehearts’ and ‘Headfirst Slide Into Coopestown On A Bad Bet’ are punch after punch of solid melodys and catchy rhythms. At the start of ‘America’s Suitehearts’ Patricks does this think when he says “Why, why, why…” where it almost sounded like a digital beat to me. True story. And ‘Headfirst…’ has hardcore background trance-inspired beats in the background. Sounds wicked.

This brings us to one of my favourite tracks on the album (although I honestly love them all minus one), ‘The (Shipped) Gold Standard’. This song is a little bit slower but nonetheless epic. Great chorus, great everything. Big fan. The next one, ‘(Coffee’s for Closers) is very upbeat and as with most tracks it really catchy.  The next song is my all time favourite, ‘What a Catch, Donnie’. I kind of have a soft spot for slower more mellow songs so this one is amazing. This song features excerpts from their past hits as well as a few guest singers such as, from Wikipedia.

• Elvis Costello – “Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet”
• Gabe Saporta (Cobra Starship) – “Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy”
• Travis McCoy (Gym Class Heroes) – “Sugar, We’re Goin Down”
• Brendon Urie (Panic! at the Disco) – “Dance, Dance”
• Doug Neuman – “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race”
• Alex DeLeon (The Cab) – “Thnks Fr Th Mmrs”
• William Beckett (The Academy Is…) – “Growing Up”

Big line up with big hitters so that makes this song even more appealing. The next track ’27′ is nothing special, just another kick-ass track. Some deep lyrics there but the background music is almost kind of run-of-the-mill. Since I’m kind of getting too lazy to write more, this is the most time I’ve spent on a post in forever, I must say that the next 4 songs are kind of epic. “Tiffany Blews” is amazing with a cool bridge section at about 2:25 and wicked everything else. I love the chorus so much, my third fave. ‘W.A.M.S’, is so good. The ending has a pretty gnarly A Capella part by Patrick but its kind of too mellow for me. Its really good as are most songs on this album ha!

The last two songs are comprised of ’20 Dollar Nose Bleed’ and ‘West Coast Smoker’. 20DNB was my first favourite on this album and is still up there. There are very ‘poppy’ loops in the background in the chorus as well as piano in the background which makes the song for me. The only downside of this song is the spoken verse at the end. The final song, WCS is catchy with heavy beats in the chorus as well as some screamo-inspired singing. Overall those are a couple of things that I like and make me like this song too.

In conclusion. I have bad writing, I tend to ramble but I love this album with everything I have. I can listen to it forever. And ever. Anyway, check it out.

-steven

This will be first of a few somewhat structured posts. I plan to discuss an actual topic as opposed to a simple documentation of my life.

Lately and for the past many months the trend of wearing dress shoes (as a male or female) has been steadily increasing. Ranging from formal attire to hipster outfits and even just everyday wear, the dress shoe is quickly become a staple item in many people’s wardrobe. Taking for example a couple pictures from lookbook.nu, it is clear that it isn’t hard to put together a classy yet casual outfit.

As seen here the shoes are typically worn with tight jeans otherwise they look quite out of place. Wearing shorts is probably a faux-pas unless they are dress shorts. It really depends on how you plan to present yourself and if they shorts complete the outfit or not.

When I was in Edmonton, I was perusing the Urban Outfitters in the prestigious West Edmonton Mall when I came across a pair of marked down dress shoes. While retailing at 80$ this pair was an unheard of $20. I was all over them (although I had to 0.5 size up). The box I picked had two left shoes so while they fixed this screw up I talked to an employee and he explained the problem of ‘clown feet’ with skinny legs and dress shoes (with big feet). I hoped i didn’t have this problem!

Here’s a photobooth picture of my shoes. A new camera is next on my list of upcoming purchases…or at least in the top 3! Good quality pictures soon! Hurray.

It looks like I have no body because my shirt camouflages. Fun fact.

And since I have to throw it in somewhere, check out this cool (temporary) tattoo I got at camp a few weeks ago!! (Its gone now obviously)

Ew nails.

I am all settled in here in London at my apartment I guess. More work to do tomorrow.

-steven

Photos courtesy of: lookbook.nu

Tomorrow I leave to London and to live in my apartment for school! OMG! I can’t believe it, the real world is finally here. Anyway. time for a graphic-intensive post.

victory!

our treacherous walk

dancing for passing cars.

beauty shot thanks to my brother. future photographer and he doesn’t even know it.

Lake Louise. Super cold, we were the only ones brave enough to venture in.

we look super tanned. but its just our pimp robes.

so tomorrow life begins. bills to pay. groceries and cooking. save me.

-steven

Its been over a week since I’ve updated my blog. Last Thursday was my 19th birthday so I went out for some good times, sporting one of my DIY creations (picture later) Since then I have been a combination of unmotivated, tired from taking advantage of me legality as well as busy. I move into my new apartment for good this coming Thursday and this past weekend I moved a second load of my stuff up there.

There are so many Edmonton pictures I want to share and its taking too long to post them all so the next post will be the last for that series, just with the highlights of the remaining time I had there.

-steven