There’s a major difference between a ‘greatest hits’ collection and a bunch of singles packaged up on a CD and released in the pre-Xmas rush. ‘Believers Never Die’ certainly is not the former.
Let me rewind. As regular PT-ers know, I’m a huge Fall Out Boy fan. I’ve loved the band since ‘Take This To Your Grave’ (which will feature heavily in the upcoming PT feature on our favourite top 50 records of the decade), I was the first British ‘journalist’ to interview them on their first headline tour and I’ve seen them live in venues small and large. True, I haven’t enjoyed the latter records as much as the earlier ones, but they’re a band I’ve always found to be fun in all respects. They’ve bridged genres and fanbases, seamlessly moved into the mainstream and, through Pete Wentz’s multimedia empire, dragged other bands into that mainstream with them. Whether you like it (or him) or not, you cannot deny the band’s influence on an entire genre of music. And that makes this release all the more disappointing.
It’s all too easy for major labels to bust out the pre-Xmas greatest hits package to rip off the fans and I kind of hoped Fall Out Boy wouldn’t do that. They’d at least try something a little different. And sure, there’s a DVD of videos (which you can find on Youtube) and two new songs (which you can download from iTunes) but other than that this is just a run through of all the songs you’ve heard before. If it had been titled ‘The Singles Collection’ then fair enough. But this isn’t a greatest hits. Yes, ‘Dance, Dance’, ‘Sugar…’ and ‘Saturday’ are deservedly on the album. But ‘Beat It’? ‘Americas Suitehearts’?
Sadly this is just a lazy festive cash-in set up to get Fall Out Boy out of a contract (probably) and to ring the cash register. I’ve never liked greatest hits albums and I especially hate fake ones. Fall Out Boy are a great, great band. But this, if it proves to be the band’s last hurrah, is not something we should remember them for. Buy ‘TTTYG’ or ‘FUTCT’ instead.