Monday, January 5, 2009

EC Guests: Fall Out Boy, "What A Catch, Donnie"

I won't lie; there's something fun and poppy about Fall Out Boy that appeals to me. I won't apologize for it, and I shouldn't have to. Yes, their music is 'teh emo', substitutes
cleverness for true intelligence and is generally an overwrought confessional about just how difficult it is to be Fall Out Boy, but I think that they're just good enough that there's value there.

And so, apparently, does Elvis Costello, because he loans his voice to "What A Catch, Donnie," one of the singles off of the band's new album Folie A Deux. The track features several other guest vocalists, whose names I don't pretend to know, from peer acts like Gym Class Heroes and Panic at the Disco. The gimmick of the song is that the verse are all lyrics from other FOB songs as sung by the guests. Elvis has a line from "Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bed Bet," another track on Folie that previously made the Internet rounds as "Does Your Husband Know?" The guest spot is about three lines long:

I will never end up like him
Behind my back, I already am
Keep a calendar, this way you will always know
My initial reaction was that "Donnie" was a bit of an uneven mess, and it's still one of the weaker tracks on the album, but there is a method to its madness that I'm just starting to grok.

Elvis's attempts to cover contemporary pop/indie pop are hit or miss, but I'd like to hear him try all of "Cooperstown." It's not a bad song, and has a hint of Costello's biting snark underlying it.

Check out the song below: