Fall Out Boy

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Essential Albums

  • From Under the Cork Tree
    From Under the Cork Tree
    From Under the Cork Tree

    Fall Out Boy’s second album isn’t so much a reinvention of their sound—that would come later in their career—but it is a significant refinement. The core elements the band explored on 2003’s Take This to Your Grave remain intact—a Zeitgeist-seizing melange of emo, pop and punk rock; lyrics that are ruthlessly self-deprecating, achingly self-aware and dripping in melodrama; interminably long song titles such as “I’ve Got a Dark Alley and a Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth (Summer Song)”. But under the watch of producer Neal Avron (New Found Glory), the band’s major-label debut speaks of a group growing more musically daring and melodically intricate. It’s telling that when first approached about producing the record Avron declined, stating he didn’t think the Chicago quartet had the songs. When an Island Def Jam A&R representative later sent him recordings of two new demos, “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” and “Dance, Dance”, he changed his mind. The former builds from a surging, slow-building chug into an arena-filling chorus, while the latter takes a more funk and R&B-influenced approach. Both would go on to become hits, ensuring the group’s days as a cult act were numbered. To listen to the album’s lyrics is to get a peek into the mind of bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz, his insecurities laid bare. By the end of “Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn’t Get Sued” he’s cast the band as “liars” and “bad news” while admitting “We will leave you high and dry/It’s not worth the hearing you’ll lose.” Self-doubt makes an appearance on “Of All the Gin Joints In All the World” (“You only hold me up like this/’Cause you don’t know who I really am”), while self-deprecation and self-awareness collide in “Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying (Do Your Part to Save the Scene and Stop Going to Shows)” (“All us boys are just screaming into microphones for attention”). A voyeuristic twist on sexual obsession propels “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” (“Oh, don’t mind me, I’m watching you two from the closet/Wishing to be the friction in your jeans”), but it’s the oddly upbeat “7 Minutes In Heaven (Atavan Halen)” in which Wentz truly lays his soul bare, the song inspired by a suicide attempt and his battles with depression (“I’m having another episode/I just need a stronger dose”). From Under the Cork Tree’s mix of melodrama and melody made them poster boys for a scene that, along with contemporaries My Chemical Romance and Paramore, was on the verge of exploding. Their lives would never be the same again.

  • Take This to Your Grave
    Take This to Your Grave
    Take This to Your Grave

    When Fall Out Boy recorded the songs that would become their 2003 debut, Take This to Your Grave, they were living on the edge, sleeping on borrowed floors and bargaining with the studio for PB&J money. In the two decades since, the Chicagoland foursome of vocalist Patrick Stump, bassist Pete Wentz, guitarist Joe Trohman and drummer Andy Hurley has become one of rock’s biggest acts. And the way Take This to Your Grave has an immediate appeal while reaching beyond punk’s three-chord ethos and toward ideas that are both knottier and bigger shows how they got there. The album opens with “Tell That Mick He Just Made My List of Things to Do Today”, which lays out the blueprint: Trohman’s power chords give way to Hurley’s breakneck drumming, which sets the stage for Wentz’s surreal yet sardonic lyrics, delivered in Stump’s wail. Fall Out Boy’s strength has long laid in the way its four members click as a band; their back-to-basics punk instincts collide with their world-conquering ambitions in thrilling ways, resulting in songs that are as suitable for catalysing mosh pits at the beloved Chicago DIY space Fireside Bowl as they are for inspiring mass sing-alongs at Wrigley Field. Take This to Your Grave is a period-appropriate amalgamation of edge-dwelling rock—a flag-plant amid the still-clearing dust of the century-ending alternative boom. Its songs combine the twist-tie riffs of Midwest emo, the potent harmonies of power pop, the gang vocals of heavily tattooed hardcore and the intricate yet mighty drumming of metal, with pithy, away-message-ready lyrics cementing their indelibility. The album’s full-bodied sound, too, gives extra brawn to cuts like the punchy “Grenade Jumper” and the sneering “Calm Before the Storm”. While Stump’s voice has yet to reach the full flower that added a dollop of soul to Fall Out Boy’s punk on later albums, there are moments, like the outro of the sweetly crunchy “Saturday”, when he flexes his falsetto. “I know I’m not your favourite record/But the songs you grow to like never stick at first,” Stump yelps on the speedy “Dead on Arrival”. But the urgency of Take This to Your Grave makes each of its songs an instant-release megadose of pop-punk euphoria—and the way that the brightly hued yet regret-wracked “Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy” and “Saturday” remain in the band’s live repertoire some 20 years after their release shows how early in their career they were crafting music with staying power.

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About Fall Out Boy

Fall Out Boy changed the face of pop-punk forever—and it all started as a side project. In 2001, suburban Chicago hardcore scenesters Pete Wentz (bassist) and Joe Trohman (guitarist) came together to start a new band, soon joining forces with vocalist Patrick Stump and drummer Andy Hurley. They got to work fast, putting together a self-titled demo and jumping on every show they could book. This DIY ambition eventually paid off, and would continue to dictate much of their career—including the creation of Stump and Wentz’s indie label Decaydance Records (now called DCD2)—even after they inked a major-label deal and blew up the charts with 2005’s From Under the Cork Tree. Hit singles like “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” and “Thnks Fr Th Mmrs” from 2007’s Infinity on High wriggle with hyper punk riffs and lyricist Wentz’s verbose witticisms, delivered by Stump in sharp but soulful wails. While those qualities have continued to permeate Fall Out Boy’s work, it’s their keen pop instincts and omnivorous tastes that have led them to collaborate with a melange of rap superstars (Pharrell Williams, Lil Wayne, Migos, Lil Peep); throw around references to Pete Rose, Uma Thurman and Britney Spears; sneak in sounds from Russian composers, Suzanne Vega and Motley Crue; and break down every musical barrier possible by incorporating elements of glam-metal, hip-hop, dubstep, funk, soul, reggae and EDM. In doing so, they’ve not only paved the way for other genre-subverting heroes like twenty one pilots, they’ve also given a platform to DCD2 signees such as Panic! At the Disco, pop-punk revolutionaries in their own right.

FROM
Wilmette, IL, United States
FORMED
2001
GENRE
Alternative

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