A little while ago, it was announced that Fall Out Boy had spent a couple of days holed up with Ryan Adams in his studio, and the result of which was something Fall Out Boy described as a punk and hardcore session. Considering the name of their ‘Save Rock & Roll’ album, you’d be forgiven to not quite know what to expect. It turns out Fall Out Boy kept true to their word, Pax.Am.Days is 8 songs and 13 minutes of 80s inspired punk songs.
Fall Out Boy are a band who have always really done what they want, but since the Ryan Adams session was announced, they were under all kinds of pressure to put it out there. This is despite them stressing that this is not a piece of work they take seriously and that if it gets released then it’s intention is not to be canon in the Fall Out Boy timeline, so now it’s here, what does it sound like?
Well, it sounds like Fall Out Boy, if they were an 80’s punk band. It’s as simple as that. Patrick Stump’s vocals turn this from a standard piece of work into something worth a listen and there are some stand out songs: ‘Caffeine Cold’ is about as close to a Take This To Your Grave era song as we’re ever going to get, the song reminds me of an old demo by the name of ‘Austin, We Have A Problem’ and that’s a good thing.
Overall, this is an EP that isn’t designed to be taken seriously. It’ll piss off the tr00 punx and probably leave some of the more casual FOB listeners feeling a bit alienated but in the same vein it also might inspire some to check out some of that 80’s era punk and that’s a great thing. If you don’t take this EP seriously, then you’ll enjoy it. It’s as simple as that.
CHRIS MARSHMAN