Save Rock and Roll is the fifth studio album by the American rock band Fall Out Boy, released on April 12, 2013, by Island Records. It was the band's first album in five years after Folie à Deux (2008).
Fall Out Boy took a hiatus at the end of 2009 after extensive touring stints; each member pursued individual musical interests. Conceived as an attempt to reinvent the band's sound, Save Rock and Roll was recorded in secrecy in California, beginning in the fall of 2012. Produced by the band and Butch Walker, the album marked Fall Out Boy's departure from the longtime producer Neal Avron. Combining rock, pop, and R&B styles, Save Rock and Roll features guest vocals from Foxes, Big Sean, Courtney Love, and Elton John. The lyrics address internal struggles of growing up, experiencing love and heartbreak, and dwelling on nostalgia.
The band filmed music videos for every song on the album, which were compiled and released as The Young Blood Chronicles in 2014. They embarked on an arena tour across Europe, North America, and Australia throughout 2013, and co-headlined the North American concert tour Monumentour with Paramore from June to September 2014. Four songs were released as singles, with the lead single "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)" reaching the top 20 on international charts including the US Billboard Hot 100.
Save Rock and Roll peaked atop the US Billboard 200 and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album also peaked at number one in Canada and number two in the United Kingdom and Australia, being certified in the first two countries. It revitalized Fall Out Boy's commercial success and received generally positive reviews, although most music critics were hesitant to categorize it as a pure rock record.
Fall Out Boy makes very catchy rock songs with lot of bombastic arrangements. The songs individually are ok (but not great) and listening to an album as a whole the repeated trick that is used makes it boring and inoffensive. This album will not Save Rock And Roll.
Respectfully, are you fucking kidding me? This is the chosen Fall Out Boy album? I was such a fan of FOB when I was younger, they were the perfect emo band to make me feel something. Their first few albums remain great: Take This To Your Grave and From Under the Cork Tree are so important to me, I'd defend them forever. Infinity on High was solid, but they started getting a little big for their britches around there. After that, they pivoted into more pop/stadium rock anthem stuff. I don't know why bands take that trajectory, but they do. Same thing happened to Panic at the Disco, and Maroon 5 was similar (they went from like adult contemporary rock stuff to pop slop). This album is post-greatest hits album. That's the sure sign you're past the expiration date. I do kinda like "Alone Together" on here, but even that is a far cry from their peak. This album is part of a really embarrassing fall from grace for a band that once meant the world to me.
2/5
The Phoenix was a nearly over the top opening to an album I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy. But I really loved it! Courtney Love was an interesting addition. And the Elton John ending was a great finish.
Fall Out Boy are one of the few ‘emo’ pop-punk bands from my mid ‘00s childhood I still enjoy listening to, and their first four albums are all stellar examples of the genre, with fantastic hooks all over the show and a real openness to experiment with a wide range of different sounds, with more hardcore punk leanings on their debut and musical theatre sprinkles on their final pre-hiatus record Folie a Deux.
The five years between Folie a Deux and this album felt like an eternity, and I cannot overstate the sheer fucking hype when it became clear they were actually coming back. And then Save Rock and Roll came out and it felt… off. The energy and creativity of the first four albums was not there at all, and this is a far less interesting project (though nowhere near as bad as some of the absolute dross they put out after).
I wanted to give this the benefit of the doubt after so many years - the sudden shift to a more pop-oriented sound screamed of cashing out at the time, but I thought it may bear more fruit with some distance, similarly to how Linkin Park’s more electronic and pop-oriented A Thousand Suns really grew on me after some time and revision of expectations. But no, I still found this very disappointing. There’s some good stuff on here - the opener The Phoenix is a banger, and the twee acoustic Young Volcanoes is very catchy, but the album crashed and burned in so many places, and the audacity of its title just seems incredibly unearned. If this is what saving rock and roll sounds like, then the rumours are true - rock and roll is dead
Oh god what a way to title your pop album the douchiest thing you could possibly think. This also reminds me of the worst ex I ever had so this thing is really batting at a disadvantage. I think if i can survive the two annoying lead singles. I don't hate Alone Together as a pop song, though the melody line is a little dull. Young Volcanoes might as well have been written by Imagine Dragons. Save Rock and Roll with Elton John? fuuuuuuuccccckkkkkk offfffff.
Definitely feels like a bit of a guilty pleasure. It's anthemic, polished and bombastic. Though it feels a bit full of itself at times, i loved every track on this album except Rat-A-Tat-Tat... that just hit wrong, and I'm a big Courtney Love/Hole fan.
Another band with an immediately familiar name that I had no sense at all of what their sound was. I browsed a handful of what a quick search suggested as their hits and nothing was particularly familiar. No idea why I know about this band. The album was immediately appealing, but then a whole lot of it fell into a pretty uniform groove. Pop, and nothing against it, well performed and decent lyrics, but a little shallow.
I think maybe Fall Out Boy could get a spot but not with this. It just sounded so... generic? Insipid?
I think the other comments really cover it well. This sounds like it is meant for generic sound commercials and ad promos.
I thought Fall Out Boy had a more emo sound no? Apparently they did early in their career which is what I remember from high school.
My personal rating: 2/5
My rating relative to the list: 3/5
Should this have been included on the original list? No.
Hum...they didn't save the rock and roll, but it's a nice album. I believe late emo-ish albums are indeed a lack on the original 1001 list, but I prefer others from Fall Out Boy.
Sorry personal view but Iv never liked fall out boy and never will. Something about them and their music just grates on me.
If this what saves rock n roll deary me.
This sounds like the bastard child of mid-2000s Black Eyed Peas and the incidental music from an episode of Lucifer.
While a couple of the tracks are alright - I'd not consider this to be a "must listen" by any stretch.
Having fall out boy on this list kind of makes sense. They were a huge band two decades ago and some absolute bangers that were pretty much unavoidable and are still great listens. Unfortunately this is not the album I was speaking about. This is the pop rock album that came out 8 years later and was filled with a bunch of ESPN promo songs that were significantly less enjoyable than what made them famous. Good band. Wrong album. 5.4/10
I can't say that this sounds bad, but it really really didn't speak to me. Too be fair, I'm not a fan of Fall Out Boy, so I didn't think it was going to, but I've been pleasantly surprised before. This just felt really generic to me
2/5 Also, doing a sequel to We Didn't Start the Fire is an unforgivable lapse in judgement. I'm not saying that this played into my rating here, but I just want to state for the record that I hate it and the entire thought process that led to it
More cliched and soulless than a mall painting of a soft-focused wolf howling in front of a flag.
This might be the most AI-sounding auto-tuned generic music on the list. Quasi-emo-punk slop that sounds fake and completely inhuman and yet not in any fun electronic way.
If you told ChatGPT to make an album of this genre it would do better which should terrify anyone.
TL;DR: I do not care for it.
1/10 1 star
I cannot take this band seriously it sounds like what a fourth grader would pick if they have to run a kilometre for school. Like the voice alone reminds me of middle school and like I just can’t do more than a song.