Click to listen to 'Soul Punk'
For ex-Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump, "solo album" is more than a record you make when you leave your band. It's a record that you make by yourself, playing every note on every instrument – drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, trumpet, trombone, sax, mandolin. Besides handling instrumental duties, Stump supplied some terrific songs, too, with big hooks ("People Never Done a Good Thing"), electro pep ("Spotlight [New Regrets]") and lots of unabashed Michael Jackson. Stump is an excellent, nimble singer, but it's his songwriting that makes this one of the most irrefutably catchy albums of 2011. Soul? Punk? Try pop.
Related• Rolling Stone Live: Patrick Stump, 'Spotlight' • Rolling Stone Live: Patrick Stump, 'Love Selfish Love'• Video: Patrick Stump on How Going Solo Compares to Being in Fall Out Boy
