Fall Out Boy’s 7th studio album came out on Jan. 19. MANIA was originally set to release on Sept. 15, 2017, but had been put off for four and a half months due to the band feeling the album was too rushed. The 10-track album features Burna Boy on the track “Sunshine Riptide.”

MANIA has strong influences of EDM while sticking with bassist Pete Wentz’s metaphorical writing style. An example of this is the album’s first track “Young and Menace.” While I can appreciate Fall Out Boy’s experimentation with newer music genres, there are some moments where the album feels too sporadic and overbearing with its instrumentals.

Another thing about MANIA is that it’s one of those albums where the tracks are so different that it doesn’t sound good to listen to the whole album in one sitting. However, this depends on whether you’re listening to a digital copy or a physical copy of the album, as they both have different track arrangements.

MANIA wasn’t all that bad though. One of the main things the album brought was vocal experimentation on Patrick Stump’s part. Listening to the vocals alone, I could hear a lot of the lead singer’s solo album, Soul Punk, due to the strong influences of soul in his singing style. With Soul Punk being one of my favorite albums of all time, I was more than excited when I heard him bringing that style back into Fall Out Boy’s newer music.

MANIA was recognizably Fall Out Boy, but different enough to where listeners weren’t hearing the same content from 10 years ago. MANIA is fresh enough to where longtime fans from Take This To Your Grave can enjoy it, along with newer fans from American Beauty/American Psycho. However, some of the lyrics are too awkward to sing along to, and some of the instrumentals are too overbearing. Even after the album’s postponing, there’s still a lot more room on the album for improvement.

Try again, Fall Out Boy.