Reviews: Fall Out Boy, Sondre Lerche

Reviews: Fall Out Boy, Sondre Lerche

Fall Out Boy 'Infinity On High': Aidin Vaziri | Before even playing a note, the members of Fall Out Boy give you a thousand reasons to hate this album. There is the floating sheep in the starry bedroom on the cover. There are the clumsy comedy song titles like "Carpal Tunnel of Love" and "I'm Like a Lawyer With the Way I'm Always Trying to Get You Off (Me and You)." And then there is the band itself, resembling a miniature roaming comic book convention, peering out of the pages of every single music magazine with bad glasses and smug grins. Things don't necessarily improve when the music starts. "Thriller," the first track on the MySpace rockers' fourth release, opens and closes with shout-outs from label boss Jay-Z, a luxury no doubt afforded by selling 2 million copies of the band's last release, "From Under the Cork Tree." But once all the gimmicks are exhausted and Fall Out Boy gets to doing what it does best -- crafting shatterproof pop melodies topped with ringing '80s guitars and clever lyrics -- things pick up fast. Propelled by hand claps and a delirious shout-along chorus, "The Take Over, the Break's Over" is a certifiable summer anthem that's merely out of season. "You're Crashing, But You're No Wave" sounds like vintage Morrissey after a case of Red Bull with verses on loan from Social Distortion. And then there's the synth-heavy "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race," a terrifically brave attempt at crafting an O-Town comeback single gone astray. These plus a handful of tracks produced by, yes, R&B seducer Babyface prove that first impressions don't always count. And, in this case, neither do impressions No. 2 through 1,000.

Sondre Lerche 'Phantom Punch': Aidin Vaziri | Sondre Lerche has done it all backward. Signed at 17, until now the floppy-fringed Norwegian singer-songwriter was known for turning out records full of delicate melodies, lush string arrangements and easygoing jazz inflections. At the ripe age of 25, he's decided to ditch the coffee shops and go for the dive bars. Hooking up with Los Angeles producer Tony Hoffer (Beck, Belle & Sebastian), Lerche strips down the sound and turns up the guitars on his fourth full-length album, "Phantom Punch." The soft voice tempers the punky noise, for the most part, but short, sharp songs such as "The Tape" and "Face the Blood" fly on well-mannered adrenaline. And on "Well, Well, Well" he gives Blue Oyster Cult's "(Don't Fear) the Reaper" an unintentional power-pop makeover.