CD review: Save Rock And Roll

This may also explain why the opening track is called The Phoenix, with Patrick Stump asking, ‘Hey young blood, doesn't it feel like our time is running out? I'm gonna change you like a remix, then I'll raise you like a phoenix'.

Things pick up rather quickly from that point on, from tracks like Where Did The Party Go to Just One Yesterday (which features the English singer Foxes) to Rat A Tat, which boasts a spoken-word cameo from her slurry majesty Courtney Love. Ironically, the damp squib is the title track -- a ballad! -- which, for reasons unknown, features Elton John. It's not particularly awful, but it doesn't exactly fit in either.

What fans of the band will love almost at once is the track My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark (Light ‘Em Up) which will, in all probability, inspire sing-a-longs if the band decides to take this album on tour. Having said that, if Fall Out Boy's last album (Folie à Deux) a half decade ago failed to impress you, it's probably safe to say that this one won't save Rock and Roll either. Not yet.

-- Save Rock And Roll, Fall Out Boy, Universal, R395. Available at leading music stores.u00a0