By Andrew LaGambina
Contributing Writer
[email protected]

Fall Out Boy’s new single “Immortals” serves as the band’s contribution to Disney’s upcoming animated superhero epic, Big Hero 6, and boy, does it have “Movie Single” written all over it. It’s clear that the days of creating heavy-hitting punk-influenced material is in the past as far as this band is concerned.

“Immortals” suffers from a lack of any real lyrics in its chorus, going instead for the often tried, and still boring, method of repeating a word over and over. And although the song features actual guitar tracks, it’s hard to keep track of them due to an onslaught of sampled percussion and some weird oriental-meets-crappy-techno sample that serves as the song’s main instrumental theme.

All that being said, this isn’t a bad song. Sure, it doesn’t hold up against anything the band released pre-2009, but that’s just one so-called hipster’s opinion. I’m only stating a fact when I say I liked them before they were cool, and I realize that the Fall Out Boy I knew is pretty much dead.

However, from their ashes has risen a new iteration of the band that knows how to survive in the pop world, and to their credit, I think they’re doing more than just surviving: they’re thriving. By focusing Patrick Stump’s ability to both write and sing insane hooks, and Pete Wentz’s quick-witted lyricism, and applying these things to pop music, Fall Out Boy has figured out a way to stay relevant without relying on the supersaturated pop-punk scene that they came up through.

It’s no secret that Stump’s voice is the main attraction, so it only makes sense that he seems to be the driving force in the band now. I’m perfectly okay trading in the guitar driven, drum smashing instrumentals of FOB’s previous material if I get to continue hearing Stump’s voice sing Wentz’s lyrics.

With the music business being a risky place to make a living, I don’t blame Fall Out Boy for going the Pop route. Considering they were a pop band playing punk music for three-fourths of their career, it’s not like this was ever a surprise, either. I’m not naïve enough to call them sell-outs, because they aren’t. They’re excelling at writing pop songs that, even while bordering on boring sometimes, are still better than 99 percent of what “pop” artists these days are pumping out. If they’re making much-needed money doing that, who am I to complain?

The point is, while “Immortals” is probably anything but immortal, this band, if they stay true to who they are, just might be.