After almost exactly two years--and a pushed back release date--punk rock’s favorite dads are back at it with their seventh album:  “MANIA.”

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The newest in a line of blue and red album covers, the album’s purple cover is not the only thing that sets it apart from its predecessors.  With classic Fall Out Boy charm, the band has once again undergone some changes in sound and style, while still ultimately remaining recognizable to their loyal fanbase.

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With just ten tracks, “MANIA” moves fairly quickly.  Overall a cohesive production, the first six tracks seem crafted for any pregame playlist:  fast-paced and heavy with just the right combination of angst and energy to fuel the latest and craziest of nights. The last four feature the softer, yet just as familiar, tender side to Fall Out Boy, with melodies sweet enough to showcase singer Patrick Stump’s infamous soul voice and lyrics that make the stomach tighten with feelings of heartbreak and unrequited love.

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Of course, with any band that’s been around as long as Fall Out Boy, pitfalls are practically inevitable and absolutely present on “MANIA.”  The most obvious, however, comes at the album’s very start, with the beginning track and first single: “Young and Menace.” As the only track where dubstep is present on the album, the band seems to have had unwavering faith in the fans who go in blind, as “Young and Menace” differentiates itself from the entire Fall Out Boy’s discography with EDM influences, very little lyrical change, and an overall focus on electronics over guitar-and-set standard. Controversial and oft-critiqued as just a way to gain new followers, perhaps longtime fans should feel lucky to get this track over as quickly as possible, to move onto what many consider the “real” new releases from the musicians.  

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However, as the final beats of “Young and Menace” draw to a close and “Champion” begins, Fall Out Boy is once again completely recognizable.  Similar to “The Phoenix” and “Centuries” off previous albums, “Champion” is the (first) shouty anthem of “MANIA,” finally giving fans a new mantra to scream to themselves alone in the car or in the shower:  “If I can live through this/I can do anything.”

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This track is just the first of a handful of absolute bangers: the kind of songs packed with guitar riffs and drum fills fit for a skate park. Whether it’s the hard, fast and sweaty, masculine Classic Rock feel of “Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea” or the paradox between the self-deprecating lyrics and irresistably catchy whistle in “HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON’T,” Fall Out Boy demonstrates that they’re still the same emo boys we fell in love with back in 2006.

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One particular jam, whose lyrics include the catchy, if not slightly juvenile “I’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker color” comes off with the Hillary Clinton-like desperation characteristic of all growing rockstars attempting to relate to the youth.  Nonetheless, the final product presents itself as light and tongue-in-cheek.  This is the “I Don’t Care” of “MANIA,” complete with the traditional punk rock attitude of just not giving a damn.  

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In fact, it’s this same attitude that gives the album’s fast-paced hits their appeal.  Though the men of the band have grown old, had children and presumably matured, it is ultimately not their looks or age that give punk rockers something to look up to:  it’s in the way they acknowledge the familiar desire to give up instead of grow up but mask it in clever sayings and catchy lyrics.  It’s lyricist Pete Wentz’ tendency toward rebellion instead of conceding to his mental illness, but coping through relatable dissociation and pithy sarcasm.

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However, the quality that sets these tracks, as well as the four that follow, apart from the other hard bops of contemporary punk rock is Fall Out Boy’s--and more specifically, melody-writer Patrick Stump’s--uncanny ability to create the perfect marriage between lyric and rhythm.  In the soaring chorus of the album’s ninth track, “Sunshine Riptide,” the lyric “Dancing all alone in the morning light” glides perfectly over the falling melody, creating that perfect “driving with the windows down on a warm summer night/wind in your hair” feeling.

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The slow-moving but beautiful “Church” and “Heaven’s Gate” is the prime evidence of the mature group that Fall Out Boy has aged into.  “Gate” in particular once again reveals Stump and frontman, bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz’ soulmate-like ability to write perfect melody to emphasize heart-tugging lyrics.  A track that focuses on the wants and needs of a lover over personal happiness, this is the kind of song that makes you wish you were hopelessly in love with the boy your father doesn’t approve of, just to make the emotions it sparks inside make sense.  

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And of course, no Fall Out Boy album is complete without the thinkpiece finale that allows Wentz to flex his poetic muscle. The ultimate end to yet another album of low self-esteem and unconfessed love, “Bishops Knife Trick” presents both puzzling metaphor and painfully relatable simplicity.  With lyrics like “I'm struggling to exist with you and without you,” paired against “I know I should walk away/But I just want to let you break my brain,” Wentz once again planly reveals the mental instability that comes hand-in-hand with love, but presents it prettily enough that it almost seems worth it.

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Ultimately, though released to controversy and high expectations, the men of Fall Out Boy did not disappoint.  Once again recognizable underneath their newest style, the band remains as unfiltered and angsty as they always have been.