I love taking risks when it comes to playing new music. Of course it's easier to wait and see how the songs play-out on the charts, but where's the fun in that?!

Continuing with my more alternative streak this week, I chose to highlight one of my all-time favorite bands, Fall Out Boy. Admittedly, I was drawn in to the band back in the day by Pete Wentz and his bad boy smolder... Who knew I could be so attracted to a guy who wore eye liner better than I did?!

If you take Fall Out Boy's infamous punk-rock attitude and combine it with a more modern fast-paced electronic rhythm, you'll end up with their new song 'Young And Menace.' Half the track sounds like your typical Fall Out Boy, the other half is almost unrecognizable. And yet it works!

Lyrically, Young And Menace targets that time period in your life when you felt/feel like an outsider. It's the awkward transitional period where you decide who you are and compare it to who you want to be. And then one day you find that certain clique that simply 'gets you' and all your thoughts and dreams feel truly recognized. I think we can all relate to that idea...

What originally drew me in to this song was the story behind it. In the music industry, it's very risky to change the overall sound of any artist big or small. There are so many unknowns and the consequences of a badly received album could banish the artist to the 'Land of Has-Beens.' So the risk is real but the overall goal is not impossible.

In a recent interview, Pete revealed that Fall Out Boy's label said that releasing Young And Menace and their upcoming album, Mania, would be the end of their careers. But instead of buckling under the pressure, they saw this lack of faith as a challenge. Now they are more determined than ever to make this upcoming album work.

To give you a little taste of what's to come from Mania, nobody describes it better than Pete Wentz himself:

The gentle pull of a tide that rolls over and over again and by the sheer nature of its essence it becomes an indestructible will- ripping out sand- eroding what was before it- without a care... a transformational monster-becoming the madness and frenzy of a truly bulletproof wave. I'm not just here for your love, I'm here for all of the love. An overdose of dopamine- we are living inside of M A N I A right now. the never sleeping, never blinking- caught forever in the sunshine riptide. -pw

Like I said, the story behind the creation of Young And Menace is what initially locked me in, so I attached the interviews with Pete Wentz below!

Fall Out Boy's new album Mania drops September 15th of this year and they kickoff their Mania U.S. tour on October 20th!

For more info check out falloutboy.com or click HERE!

Happy listening!

 

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