Folie à Deux
Encyclopedia
Folie à Deux is the fifth studio album by American rock
band Fall Out Boy
. Produced by Neal Avron
, the album was recorded from July to September 2008 at The Pass Studios and The Casita in Hollywood, California
. After its original November 4 date was postponed due to conflicts with the United States presidential election
, it was released by Island Records
beginning on December 10, 2008 as the follow-up to the band's commercially successful 2007 effort Infinity on High
. Like the band's two previous releases, the music was composed by lead vocalist and guitarist Patrick Stump
, with lyrics penned by bassist Pete Wentz. With regard to the writing process, the band members considered Folie to be their most collaborative record yet.
The album was recorded in relative secrecy compared to the press of that of its predecessor. Recording sessions brought forth lyricism relating to decaying relationships, moral dilemmas, and societal shortcomings with a political edge. It is the first Fall Out Boy album with lyrics that are rarely autobiographical, and this shift lead to a musical style change that resulted in a further musical departure from the band's previous albums. For Folie à Deux, Fall Out Boy recruited several guest artists, and employed instruments and recording techniques that were considered new territory for the group. To promote the album, the band launched a viral campaign
based around a Big Brother-type organization named "Citizens For Our Betterment" (CFOB) and embarked on an extensive tour schedule.
Folie à Deux was released in the United States on December 16, 2008 and received positive reviews from most music critics. Positive reviews focused on the creativity and various styles touched upon, while the more negative ones expressed concern about the record being overly indulgent. The album debuted at number eight on the US Billboard 200
chart but was less commercially successful than Infinity on High. It was certified gold
by the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) for shipments of 500,000 copies. The album spawned three singles, with "I Don't Care
" as the first single reaching number twenty-one on the Billboard Hot 100
and being certified platinum. Folie à Deux stands as the final Fall Out Boy studio album recorded before the band's late 2009 hiatus.
. In March 2008, the band attempted to enter the The Guinness Book of World Records for being the only band to perform in all seven continents in nine months, planning to perform in Antarctica for an audience of scientists. However, the band was unable to make the flight from Punta Arenas, Chile
to Antarctica due to poor weather. Despite this unsuccessful attempt, the group felt energized from the experience and became inspired to write more music. This led to having more material to shift through when the band decided to enter the studio. Fall Out Boy spent time during June 2008 formulating ideas at Avron's home, where "three to four" song ideas were developed. Lead vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump
and bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz began turning these ideas into songs over the following month. Wentz explained that the process was the same as usual: "I'll go over to Patrick's house and he'll kind of just sit there and play songs, and I'll be like, 'Ah, that one's awesome!'"
The band intended to work on new music sooner, but the release of its cover of Michael Jackson
's "Beat It" as a single stood in the way. The single "stalled out" the label, who wanted the band to film a music video for further promotion. Stump entered the studio with the intention of being less "self-indulgent", believing he "dominated" the band's previous record. He wished to focus more on creating a cohesive album in which different sounds come together as opposed to having his vocals at the forefront. Working again with Neal Avron
— the primary producer of Fall Out Boy's last two records — the quartet made a decision to dial back the heavily multitracked sound of their last album. The band was interviewed about the album constantly before even a single note was recorded, leading to misconceptions about how the record would sound. Various rumors that circulated on the Internet varied from the album being composed entirely of acoustic folk
to rap-rock.
felt that he and drummer Andy Hurley
did not have enough musical freedom and that Stump and Wentz exerted too much control over the group: "I felt, 'Man, this isn't my band anymore.' It's no one's fault, and I don't want to make it seem that way. It was more of a complex I developed based off of stuff I was reading. It's hard to hear, 'Joe and Andy are just along for the ride.'" To amend the situation, Trohman sat down with Stump to communicate his concerns, which led to more collaboration on Folie. "It made me feel like I owned the songs a lot more. It made me really excited about contributing to Fall Out Boy and made me find my role in the band," Trohman recalled.
The group purposely cut short the amount of time set aside for recording the album, and did not notify its label before beginning work on the record. The members hoped that these steps would bring them back to the days when they were a young, broke band who had to finish an album before the money ran out. "There was something really interesting about that creative process when we were starting out," said Stump. "The more time you have, the more potential you have for excess." He felt that the process was reminiscent of the making of Take This to Your Grave
because both albums were created using a "first-thought, best-thought" mentality: "I think we were trying to find what making a record that way would sound like now, but with four adult Fall Out Boys." Trohman called the recording process "fun because [it] was so collaborative," but difficult because it was rushed.
In September, the band was still finalizing cameos, recording with Brendon Urie
of Panic! at the Disco
and Pharrell Williams
. The band desired to work with Kanye West
, but ran out of time. Pharrell laid down beats and Stump would add vocals and melodies for "w.a.m.s." The collaboration with Brendon Urie
in "What a Catch, Donnie
" was spontaneous. The band sent Urie the song, and although he had been suffering from bronchitis
, he decided to participate. Stump was particularly excited about the collaboration, as drummer Andy Hurley
noted that "Brendon is Patrick's favorite person on earth as a musician, singer and songwriter." Wentz felt that cameos were necessary to portray the album's messages, stating "More than anything, they serve the purpose of a character in a musical, where this character's voice makes the most sense...Certain lines need to be conveyed in certain ways."
arena rock
. Joey Rosen of Rolling Stone
commented that "They further explore their funky side here: Stump is emerging as one of the world's most unlikely blue-eyed-soul
stars, breathing life into classic R&B chord progressions and flaunting his agile voice." Trohman drew influence from Queen
while creating guitar harmonies to match Stump's vocals on the record, while his other styles were inspired by Metallica
, Prince
, and the Rolling Stones. He also employs a jazz
guitar interlude on "w.a.m.s." which has been likened to Steely Dan
.
The pregap
hidden track "Lullabye" is an acoustic ballad influenced by Bob Dylan
, written with the intention of helping Wentz' son, Bronx Mowgli, fall asleep. Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly
categorized the album's opener, "The Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes", as a "towering guitar anthem built on wedding-march organs, thundering drums, and singer Patrick Stump's limber vocals." "Coffee's for Closers" is similarly percussive and features drummer Andy Hurley drawing influence from marching band
drumwork. "I Don't Care" has been described as "disco
rockabilly
", and contains a repeating blues riff throughout the song; Stump's vocal performance on the track has been compared to John Lee Hooker
.
"Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet
" is an example of the album's theme of contrasting moods, and "struts in on a massive drum line and crunching, processed guitars, gets amplified by a four-piece horn section, then falls away to a simple, somber piano line." The Elton John
-influenced "What a Catch, Donnie
" is a piano-driven ballad which features a string section in the background. As the song closes, it features Brendon Urie, Alexander DeLeon, Travie McCoy, Gabe Saporta, Elvis Costello and William Beckett singing parts of past Fall Out Boy songs. According to Stump, the song contains lyrics that were important to the band and "gives us the chance for this record to come full circle". The backing vocals in "America's Suitehearts
" have been compared to groups such as the Beatles.
, birth of his son, Bronx), desired to shift the focus away from himself and turn it outward onto the world. For the first time on a Fall Out Boy album, Folie is rarely autobiographical, as the band believed the format was "losing its luster" because "everyone was doing it." The songs on the album explore decaying relationships, moral dilemmas, and societal shortcomings, as well as concepts such as trust, infidelity, responsibility, and commitment. Stump tagged Folie à Deux a "message record" that takes aim at "the materialistic dance between any two parties obsessed with each other, whether it's teenage girls and handbag makers, politicians and lobbyists or tabloids and stars." Folie à Deux also dissects how self-motivated American culture is, and many of the lyrics are intended to be satirical. While the album does contain political overtones, the band wanted to avoid being overt about these themes, leaving many lyrics open to interpretation for listeners.
Wentz referred to "I Don't Care
" as a "narcissist's anthem", further commenting that "To me, it's like a YouTube
anthem for the YouTube generation, just about how our attention span is about seven seconds...[it asks,] 'Why can't we get people to pay attention for two minutes and 35 seconds?'" Wentz further explored the subject of narcissism in "Coffee's For Closers", with Stump explaining, "The past decade has been totally about 'me.' It's totally about 'Oh, I'm sad. I want this. I know somebody who knows this person. Me me me me me,' so that's what that song is about." He also stated that the song is about how "people stopped believing in the goodwill of man and that you can change the world or do any good." Additionally, "America's Suitehearts" discusses society's fixation with celebrities; Wentz explained "It's about the idea that in America we like to have people on the covers of magazines and we build them up, but we really only want to see their skeletons." "27" explores the hedonistic
lifestyles common in rock and roll music. The title is a reference to the 27 Club
, a group of influential musicians, including Janis Joplin
, Kurt Cobain
, and Jim Morrison
, who all died at the age of 27. Wentz felt that he was living a similarly dangerous lifestyle, and was "stoked" to make it to his 28th birthday. Stump added "There was a countdown clock and everything. I remember, our manager called me up on Pete's 28th birthday and screamed, 'We made it!'"
(fɒˈliː ə ˈduː, from the French for "a madness shared by two") is a rare psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief are transmitted from one individual to another. The same syndrome shared by more than two people may be called folie à trois, folie à quatre, folie en famille or even folie à plusieurs ("madness of many"). Recent psychiatric classifications refer to the syndrome as dependency psychotic disorder or induced delusional disorder, although the research literature largely uses the original name. The disorder was first conceptualized in 19th century French psychiatry. In keeping with the record's socially aware nature, the band felt that the term was relevant to the candidates in the 2008 U.S. presidential election
. Stump added "The irony is that people will probably mistake the title as something about romantic relationships in some way. And it's our only record where that theme is not touched upon."
On September 13, 2008, the album artwork was revealed on the band's website. The cover of the album was painted by artist Luke Chueh
. Wentz contacted Chueh personally and asked him to create the piece, to which the artist agreed. Chueh recalled of the situation, "They were great to work with, having given me full creative control over both the artwork and the final design of the cover." Chueh used the title and underlying themes of the album as inspiration for the artwork. "The title of the album is Folie à Deux, and when considering this with the bands popularity, I chose to focus on the idea of fandom, and how some people are willing to take their love/infatuation to levels that are obviously unhealthy." Wentz currently owns the original painting. The disc's liner notes
contain pictures of the band members with blank pages next to them; the group allowed fans to submit pictures they had drawn in the spaces and posted them to the band's official website.
s sales of three million. Trohman attributed this to "the same reason that nobody’s records are selling that well: there’s so much turmoil in the music industry, so much downsizing, and people are finding different ways to get their music more and more all the time. There’s very little we can do about that as a band. All we can do is try to make great music and hope it connects with people."
was launched by Pete Wentz on August 18, 2008, to promote the album. It was was inspired by George Orwell
's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four
(1949), and the autocratic, overbearing Big Brother organization.
The campaign started when the website for Wentz's Decaydance Records
label was supposedly "hacked" by an organization called "Citizens For Our Betterment" (CFOB). Clues were left in links and images on the website, and Wentz left clues on his personal blog. On August 19, Wentz' wife Ashlee Simpson
was seen carrying a pamphlet for the organization, raising suspicion and sparking many rumors online. In the days that followed, new posts appeared on the Citizens For Our Betterment website and Wentz continued to blog, at times referring to November 4, the same day as the 2008 U.S. presidential election
. Meanwhile, another band, Copeland
, launched its own viral campaign. As part of it, Copeland launched a similarly named site, CitizensFourOurBetterment.com, and spread links through various Fall Out Boy fan blogs to attract more people to the new website.
While this mixing of campaigns was done without the knowledge of the members of Fall Out Boy, Wentz did post an acknowledgement on August 22, when CFOB again "hijacked" Decaydance Records website. Decaydance act The Cab
began performing with "Citizens for Our Betterment" written on the group's instruments. Finally, on August 26, a blog post of a press release was made on the band's FriendsOrEnemies.com page officially announcing Folie à Deux as the title of the upcoming album, due for release on November 4. Wentz said of the endeavor "To me, this is not a marketing campaign. It is a way to cause excitement about your art and have people earn it and understand it...I don't believe the full campaign has begun, and I also believe people are taking over the ship in a truly viral way. It doesn't hurt anyone, and hopefully it tells the story of the project better and makes it more appreciated."
It also revealed that a mixtape
, titled Welcome to the New Administration, was available for download for free on the FriendsOrEnemies website. The mixtape contained several snippets of new Fall Out Boy tracks, as well as new music from other bands such as Gym Class Heroes
, Cobra Starship
, and Panic! at the Disco
. However none of the titles were confirmed for Folie à Deux. It also featured a song titled "America's Sweethearts" which was eventually confirmed for the album but with an alternate spelling, "America's Suitehearts
". The band confirmed that it intended to release the mixtape in conjunction with the "Citizens" campaign, and felt that it was relevant to not only the themes of the album, but the 2008 election as well. Wentz explained "The whole campaign is part of the record and people can call it whatever they want, but the mixtape was part of that campaign, and we'll see what happens from here...In creating this autocratic organization, we created a democratic campaign, because people have made it go the direction they wanted it to go."
, the band realized that things were "spinning out of control," and, in a rushed-out statement, explained:
Deciding to postpone the album release in a season in which A-list artists Kanye West (808s & Heartbreak
), Britney Spears
(Circus
) and Guns N' Roses
(Chinese Democracy
) had already set release dates, the only one available was six weeks later than expected. It was soon announced that a new release date for Folie was December 16, 2008. Although December 16 was not an ideal date according to demographic marketing analysis, Stump said "we put our eight feet down [and] told our label it must come out this year."
chart with first week sales of 150,000 copies during a highly competitive week with other big debuts, becoming Fall Out Boy's third consecutive top ten album. This is in contrast to the band's more successful previous effort which shifted 260,000 copies in its opening week to debut atop the chart. Folie spent two brief weeks within the top twenty out of its twenty-two chart weeks.. It also entered Billboard
's Rock Albums and Alternative Albums charts at number three. With 39,000 digital downloads as part of its sales totals in its debut week, the record opened at number one on Billboard Digital Albums chart, the band's second number one album on that chart. Fall Out Boy were bested in their chart debut by R&B singers Keyshia Cole
— whose A Different Me
landed at number two on sales of more than 321,000 — and Jamie Foxx
, whose Intuition
logged 265,000 for a number three debut. Taylor Swift
's Fearless
reigned at number one during that week. Within two months of its release, Folie à Deux was certified Gold
in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA), denoting shipments of 500,000 copies.
Internationally, the album was also less widely successful than Infinity on High but managed to reach the top ten in Australia
where it received a Platinum certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association
(ARIA) for shipments of 70,000 units. On the Australian chart, the record debuted and peaked at number nine and spent its first seven weeks within the top twenty out of its fifteen weeks in the top forty. In the United Kingdom
, the album spent a brief six weeks on the UK Albums Chart and was later certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry
(BPI) for the shipments of 60,000 units. Folie logged twelve weeks on the New Zealand
Albums Chart with a peak of twenty-six. The album also peaked at number twenty-one on the Top Canadian Albums chart.
before the release of Folie à Deux, which, when purchased, would go towards purchasing the entire album as part of the "Complete My Album" feature. The lead single, "I Don't Care
" was first released on September 3, 2008 to Wentz's social networking site, "FriendsOrEnemies.com", reaching a peak at number twenty-one on the Bilboard Hot 100
. It was certified Platinum by the RIAA for shipments of one million copies. In Australia, the song peaked at number twenty on the ARIA singles chart, being certified Gold by the ARIA, denoting shipments of 35,000 units. The music video for the single hit the web on September 25, but was pulled from iTunes and YouTube shortly thereafter. Wentz wrote furiously on his blog, finding the video was full of product placement shots for Nokia phones: "This will probably end up deleted either by me or someone else but the version of the video that we worked on night after night is not the version that aired. Yet somehow a cut full of glorious camera phone shots did. Just to let you know. It doesn't make any sense to us. That bag of money is being donated straight to a cause far more worthy." The initial post was deleted and replaced with a still of Popeye
with "censored" taped over his mouth.
"I Don't Care" was followed a month later by the digital release of "Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet
" on October 7, 2008. Contrary to popular misconception the song was not an actual single, rather it was just a song posted online. The second digital song, "What a Catch, Donnie
", was released a short time later on October 15, 2008, followed by the Suave Suarez remix of "I Don't Care" on November 4. The second radio single, "America's Suitehearts
" was also released digitally to iTunes on December 2, 2008, reaching number seventy-eight on the Hot 100, as well as number thirty on the Pop Songs chart. "Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet", "What a Catch, Donnie" and "America's Suitehearts" were digitally released before the album as part of iTunes' "Complete My Album" feature. "America's Suitehearts", was then released as the album's second single on January 12, 2009, with "What a Catch, Donnie" commissioned from Folie à Deux as the third and last single in 2009. Music videos were created for each. Again, the singles received much less success compared to those from Infinity on High.
, which assigns a normalized
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
score of 73, based on 12 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Dan Martin of NME
gave the record a very positive review, calling a "defining statement" with the band's "most stylistically hatstand-but-indisputably-best songs yet." He wrote, "We’re not saying it’s as good as genre watermarks American Idiot
or The Black Parade
. We’re just saying it comes close," closing with calling it a "staggering achievement." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic rated the album four out of five stars and compared it to labelmates Panic! at the Disco
's effort earlier in the year, Pretty. Odd.
He wrote that "Fall Out Boy capture the Zeitgeist of the latter half of the 2000s better than any band: there's so much going on in Folie à Deux, you either choose to take it all seriously or take none of it. Fall Out Boy make as much sense when heard either way." Scott Heisel wrote for Alternative Press, commending the band for their "creativity, ingenuity and willingness to try just about anything." He compared the meaning of the term folie à deux ("a madness shared by two") to the two very distinct feelings expressed in the different sides of the record, calling the album a good representation of the band's career.
Many critics commented on the album's musical experimentation. Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone
, in his review, stated that "the musical mix on Folie à Deux suggests a band with an advanced case of ADD
, ricocheting between genres and eras, tempos and time signatures, often several times in a given song." Spin
s David Marchese complemented the album's forays into strange territories, calling tracks such as "I Don't Care" and "What a Catch, Donnie" impressive. Rock Sound
s Faye Lewis also enjoyed the variety, calling the album "a non-stop exotic cabaret for the ears, delivering a far-reaching selection of songs that leap between a blend of catchy pop punk
." However, some critics felt that the band was excessive in its attempts to create a diverse work. Margaret Wappler of the Los Angeles Times
believed that "Folie à Deux imagines itself in the stadium. […] It's not that FOB can't have grandiosity, but every stadium needs open air." She called the album's sounds a "pleasure bot of right-now pop, adroitly programmed with crunchy '80s melodies, emo's dark prowess and symphonies à la Sgt. Pepper's
.," while stating "For all the steps forward, Folie a Deux also seems to contain a microchip for its own destruction."
Q
called the album "a barrelling, hugely confident record that should see Fall Out Boy swiftly elevated into mainstream rock's premier league," and Blender
called it "the brightest, breeziest, giddiest record Fall Out Boy have ever made." Jaimie Hodgson of The Observer
complemented producer Neal Avron's "squeaky clean" production. Jesse Cataldo of Slant wrote that "the band's songs are catchy at heart, enjoyable in a trifling but substantial way, until they're smeared with layer after layer of smarm, nullifying any chance of their music being consumed as a simple, empty pleasure." Cataldo also expressed displeasure with Lil Wayne
's performance as well as production from Pharrell Williams, which he deemed a "promising concept […] quickly discarded," summarizing that, "Folie à Deux seems to prove, if nothing else, that Fall Out Boy is good at masking their best qualities and pushing forward their most annoying ones."
's Washington Square Park
. However, the band did not obtain a permit to do so. Taking inspiration from Bob Dylan
and similar folk singers from the 1960s, the group wanted to do something free and spontaneous as a gift to fans. The band and its management argued with the NYPD about allowing the show to go on. In the end, they were told that picking up any instruments would earn them a trip to jail, so the band instead led the audience in a sing-along. Stump sang while Wentz and Trohman played air guitar and Hurley drummed on his knees. Stump later commented in an interview that "Those cops back there — and I have no problem with the cops, trust me — but those cops were like the Grinch
. They just took all the presents."
On January 20, 2009, Fall Out Boy performed at the 'Be The Change' Youth Ball, which celebrated the inauguration
of President Barack Obama
. The group was invited to perform by Washington, D.C.
mayor Adrian Fenty
, who was also a fan of the band. At the ball, the band jokingly dedicated a performance of "Thnks fr th Mmrs
" to former president George W. Bush
. Upon meeting Obama, Wentz remarked "It's mind-blowing. It's one of those things where it's such an amazing experience — just being in his presence is amazing."
To promote the album, Fall Out Boy embarked on the Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux
, which included dates in the United States
and Canada
. The name of the tour was based on the band's 2004 Believers Never Die Tour. In keeping with the political themes of Folie à Deux, the tour was intended to be a commentary on the current state of corporate America. The band began the sets with a "corporate retreat" in which the group performed in dress suits with policemen in riot gear playing drums by the side of the stage. Afterwards, the band would change to casual attire for the rest of the set. Wentz noted that the purpose of the formal dress was to demonstrate "how the rich rob the poor", and encouraged fans to direct attention to poverty-stricken nations such as Sri Lanka
and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
.
The supporting acts on the tour were Cobra Starship
, All Time Low
, Metro Station
, and Hey Monday
. For five dates on the tour, Fall Out Boy brought along rapper 50 Cent
. Wentz explained, "We've been fans of [him] since we heard 'Wanksta
' in 8 Mile
. We've wanted to do something with him for awhile, and having him out on the tour is gonna take the show to a whole new level. It's exciting to bring two different genres together and give the fans a new experience". The rapper had similar feelings about the situation: "This will be a major moment in music history. Joining forces with Fall Out Boy, one of the most dynamic rock bands in the industry, will be an exciting and historic event for rock and hip-hop."
hidden track
not available on digital versions of the album. Also not available on Irish version.
Production
Guest artists
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Fall Out Boy
Fall Out Boy
Fall Out Boy is an American rock band from Wilmette, Illinois, formed in 2001. The band consists of vocalist, guitarist and composer Patrick Stump, bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz, guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer Andy Hurley. The band released five studio albums from 2003–2008...
. Produced by Neal Avron
Neal Avron
Neal Avron is an American musician, record producer, mixer, and audio engineer. Working predominately in rock music, Avron began working on records in 1993 and achieved his production breakthrough when he co-produced Everclear's 1997 album So Much For The Afterglow...
, the album was recorded from July to September 2008 at The Pass Studios and The Casita in Hollywood, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. After its original November 4 date was postponed due to conflicts with the United States presidential election
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
, it was released by Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
beginning on December 10, 2008 as the follow-up to the band's commercially successful 2007 effort Infinity on High
Infinity on High
Infinity on High is the fourth studio album by American rock band Fall Out Boy, released on February 5, 2007 by Island Records as the follow-up to the band's commercially successful 2005 album From Under the Cork Tree. Pre-production began in the group's hometown of Chicago, where writing and...
. Like the band's two previous releases, the music was composed by lead vocalist and guitarist Patrick Stump
Patrick Stump
Patrick Vaughn Stump is an American singer-songwriter, composer, record producer, and music critic. He is the composer, lead singer, and multi-instrumentalist of Fall Out Boy, an American rock band from Wilmette, Illinois, and is also a solo artist...
, with lyrics penned by bassist Pete Wentz. With regard to the writing process, the band members considered Folie to be their most collaborative record yet.
The album was recorded in relative secrecy compared to the press of that of its predecessor. Recording sessions brought forth lyricism relating to decaying relationships, moral dilemmas, and societal shortcomings with a political edge. It is the first Fall Out Boy album with lyrics that are rarely autobiographical, and this shift lead to a musical style change that resulted in a further musical departure from the band's previous albums. For Folie à Deux, Fall Out Boy recruited several guest artists, and employed instruments and recording techniques that were considered new territory for the group. To promote the album, the band launched a viral campaign
Viral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
based around a Big Brother-type organization named "Citizens For Our Betterment" (CFOB) and embarked on an extensive tour schedule.
Folie à Deux was released in the United States on December 16, 2008 and received positive reviews from most music critics. Positive reviews focused on the creativity and various styles touched upon, while the more negative ones expressed concern about the record being overly indulgent. The album debuted at number eight on the US Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart but was less commercially successful than Infinity on High. It was certified gold
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
(RIAA) for shipments of 500,000 copies. The album spawned three singles, with "I Don't Care
I Don't Care (Fall Out Boy song)
"I Don't Care" is a song by American rock band Fall Out Boy and the lead single from their fifth studio album Folie à Deux in 2008. It was first available for listening on and on September 3, 2008. The song was released to iTunes on September 8, 2008...
" as the first single reaching number twenty-one on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
and being certified platinum. Folie à Deux stands as the final Fall Out Boy studio album recorded before the band's late 2009 hiatus.
Background
Fall Out Boy began writing material for a possible successor album shortly after the release of the 2007 album Infinity on HighInfinity on High
Infinity on High is the fourth studio album by American rock band Fall Out Boy, released on February 5, 2007 by Island Records as the follow-up to the band's commercially successful 2005 album From Under the Cork Tree. Pre-production began in the group's hometown of Chicago, where writing and...
. In March 2008, the band attempted to enter the The Guinness Book of World Records for being the only band to perform in all seven continents in nine months, planning to perform in Antarctica for an audience of scientists. However, the band was unable to make the flight from Punta Arenas, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
to Antarctica due to poor weather. Despite this unsuccessful attempt, the group felt energized from the experience and became inspired to write more music. This led to having more material to shift through when the band decided to enter the studio. Fall Out Boy spent time during June 2008 formulating ideas at Avron's home, where "three to four" song ideas were developed. Lead vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump
Patrick Stump
Patrick Vaughn Stump is an American singer-songwriter, composer, record producer, and music critic. He is the composer, lead singer, and multi-instrumentalist of Fall Out Boy, an American rock band from Wilmette, Illinois, and is also a solo artist...
and bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz began turning these ideas into songs over the following month. Wentz explained that the process was the same as usual: "I'll go over to Patrick's house and he'll kind of just sit there and play songs, and I'll be like, 'Ah, that one's awesome!'"
The band intended to work on new music sooner, but the release of its cover of Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
's "Beat It" as a single stood in the way. The single "stalled out" the label, who wanted the band to film a music video for further promotion. Stump entered the studio with the intention of being less "self-indulgent", believing he "dominated" the band's previous record. He wished to focus more on creating a cohesive album in which different sounds come together as opposed to having his vocals at the forefront. Working again with Neal Avron
Neal Avron
Neal Avron is an American musician, record producer, mixer, and audio engineer. Working predominately in rock music, Avron began working on records in 1993 and achieved his production breakthrough when he co-produced Everclear's 1997 album So Much For The Afterglow...
— the primary producer of Fall Out Boy's last two records — the quartet made a decision to dial back the heavily multitracked sound of their last album. The band was interviewed about the album constantly before even a single note was recorded, leading to misconceptions about how the record would sound. Various rumors that circulated on the Internet varied from the album being composed entirely of acoustic folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
to rap-rock.
Recording and production
The band members decided to keep publicity down during the album's recording, as they were taken aback by such press surrounding Infinity on High. Stump entered the studio with music for nearly 50 songs. Folie à Deux was intended to be very different than the previous three Fall Out Boy albums, which were all interconnected musically and thematically; Stump described the new songs as "having a lot of freedom […] it's our first just plain old record in a while." However, the sessions were not without difficulty. Stump called the making of the album "painful," noting that he and Wentz quarreled over many issues, revealing "I threw something across the room over a major-to-minor progression." On previous albums, guitarist Joe TrohmanJoe Trohman
Joseph Mark Trohman is an American musician. He is best known as the guitarist of the Chicago-based pop punk band Fall Out Boy, as well as the lead and rhythm guitarist for heavy metal supergroup The Damned Things.-Early life:...
felt that he and drummer Andy Hurley
Andy Hurley
Andrew John Hurley is an American musician and drummer. He is best known as a member of the Chicago-based rock band Fall Out Boy. Prior to Fall Out Boy, Hurley played in several different bands. He is currently the drummer in the heavy metal supergroup The Damned Things with Fall Out Boy guitarist...
did not have enough musical freedom and that Stump and Wentz exerted too much control over the group: "I felt, 'Man, this isn't my band anymore.' It's no one's fault, and I don't want to make it seem that way. It was more of a complex I developed based off of stuff I was reading. It's hard to hear, 'Joe and Andy are just along for the ride.'" To amend the situation, Trohman sat down with Stump to communicate his concerns, which led to more collaboration on Folie. "It made me feel like I owned the songs a lot more. It made me really excited about contributing to Fall Out Boy and made me find my role in the band," Trohman recalled.
The group purposely cut short the amount of time set aside for recording the album, and did not notify its label before beginning work on the record. The members hoped that these steps would bring them back to the days when they were a young, broke band who had to finish an album before the money ran out. "There was something really interesting about that creative process when we were starting out," said Stump. "The more time you have, the more potential you have for excess." He felt that the process was reminiscent of the making of Take This to Your Grave
Take This to Your Grave
Take This to Your Grave is the second studio album by American rock band Fall Out Boy. It is the group's first release under the Fueled by Ramen label and was released on May 6, 2003. The album title is taken from a line from the lyrics of the track "The Patron Saint of Liars and Fakes", which...
because both albums were created using a "first-thought, best-thought" mentality: "I think we were trying to find what making a record that way would sound like now, but with four adult Fall Out Boys." Trohman called the recording process "fun because [it] was so collaborative," but difficult because it was rushed.
In September, the band was still finalizing cameos, recording with Brendon Urie
Brendon Urie
Brendon Boyd Urie is an American musician and the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, pianist and singer-songwriter of Panic! at the Disco. He also plays drums, bass guitar, accordion, organ, cello, violin, and trumpet.-Early life:...
of Panic! at the Disco
Panic! at the Disco
Panic! at the Disco is an American alternative rock duo, formed in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2005. Since its split, the band's line-up includes Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith . Former members Ryan Ross and Jon Walker left the group in 2009...
and Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Williams , commonly known simply as Pharrell, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, composer, and fashion designer. Williams and Chad Hugo make up the record production duo The Neptunes, producing hip hop and R&B music...
. The band desired to work with Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
, but ran out of time. Pharrell laid down beats and Stump would add vocals and melodies for "w.a.m.s." The collaboration with Brendon Urie
Brendon Urie
Brendon Boyd Urie is an American musician and the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, pianist and singer-songwriter of Panic! at the Disco. He also plays drums, bass guitar, accordion, organ, cello, violin, and trumpet.-Early life:...
in "What a Catch, Donnie
What a Catch, Donnie
"What a Catch, Donnie" is Fall Out Boy's second digital download single and third radio single from their fifth studio album Folie à Deux . It was released as part of the build up to the new album on iTunes on October 14, 2008 and charted on the US and Canadian singles chart...
" was spontaneous. The band sent Urie the song, and although he had been suffering from bronchitis
Bronchitis
Acute bronchitis is an inflammation of the large bronchi in the lungs that is usually caused by viruses or bacteria and may last several days or weeks. Characteristic symptoms include cough, sputum production, and shortness of breath and wheezing related to the obstruction of the inflamed airways...
, he decided to participate. Stump was particularly excited about the collaboration, as drummer Andy Hurley
Andy Hurley
Andrew John Hurley is an American musician and drummer. He is best known as a member of the Chicago-based rock band Fall Out Boy. Prior to Fall Out Boy, Hurley played in several different bands. He is currently the drummer in the heavy metal supergroup The Damned Things with Fall Out Boy guitarist...
noted that "Brendon is Patrick's favorite person on earth as a musician, singer and songwriter." Wentz felt that cameos were necessary to portray the album's messages, stating "More than anything, they serve the purpose of a character in a musical, where this character's voice makes the most sense...Certain lines need to be conveyed in certain ways."
Music
On Folie à Deux, Fall Out Boy continued its pattern of musical experimentation that began on the band's previous album, Infinity on High. The record contains more instruments not present in the band's previous work, particularly synthesizers, sequenced drums, and strings. Critics noted similarities between the album and 1980s1980s in music
For music from a year in the 1980s, go to 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89For a history of music in all times, see Timeline of musical events....
arena rock
Arena rock
Arena rock is a term used to describe rock music that utilised large arena venues, particularly sports venues, for concerts or series of concerts linked in tours...
. Joey Rosen of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
commented that "They further explore their funky side here: Stump is emerging as one of the world's most unlikely blue-eyed-soul
Blue-eyed soul
Blue-eyed soul is a media term that was used to describe rhythm and blues and soul music performed by white artists, with a strong pop music influence. The term was first used in the mid-1960s to describe white artists who performed soul and R&B that was similar to the music of the Motown and...
stars, breathing life into classic R&B chord progressions and flaunting his agile voice." Trohman drew influence from Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
while creating guitar harmonies to match Stump's vocals on the record, while his other styles were inspired by Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
, Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
, and the Rolling Stones. He also employs a jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
guitar interlude on "w.a.m.s." which has been likened to Steely Dan
Steely Dan
Steely Dan is an American rock band; its core members are Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. The band's popularity peaked in the late 1970s, with the release of seven albums blending elements of jazz, rock, funk, R&B, and pop...
.
The pregap
Pregap
The pregap on a Red Book audio CD is the portion of the audio track that precedes "index 01" for a given track in the table of contents . The pregap is typically two seconds long and usually, but not always, contains silence...
hidden track "Lullabye" is an acoustic ballad influenced by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, written with the intention of helping Wentz' son, Bronx Mowgli, fall asleep. Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
categorized the album's opener, "The Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes", as a "towering guitar anthem built on wedding-march organs, thundering drums, and singer Patrick Stump's limber vocals." "Coffee's for Closers" is similarly percussive and features drummer Andy Hurley drawing influence from marching band
Marching band
Marching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...
drumwork. "I Don't Care" has been described as "disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
", and contains a repeating blues riff throughout the song; Stump's vocal performance on the track has been compared to John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
.
"Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet
Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet
"Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet" is Fall Out Boy's first digital single from their fifth studio album Folie à Deux. It was released as part of the build up to the new album on iTunes on October 7, 2008....
" is an example of the album's theme of contrasting moods, and "struts in on a massive drum line and crunching, processed guitars, gets amplified by a four-piece horn section, then falls away to a simple, somber piano line." The Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
-influenced "What a Catch, Donnie
What a Catch, Donnie
"What a Catch, Donnie" is Fall Out Boy's second digital download single and third radio single from their fifth studio album Folie à Deux . It was released as part of the build up to the new album on iTunes on October 14, 2008 and charted on the US and Canadian singles chart...
" is a piano-driven ballad which features a string section in the background. As the song closes, it features Brendon Urie, Alexander DeLeon, Travie McCoy, Gabe Saporta, Elvis Costello and William Beckett singing parts of past Fall Out Boy songs. According to Stump, the song contains lyrics that were important to the band and "gives us the chance for this record to come full circle". The backing vocals in "America's Suitehearts
America's Suitehearts
"America's Suitehearts" is a song by American rock band Fall Out Boy and the second single taken from their fifth studio album, Folie à Deux . A demo/snippet titled "America's Sweethearts" was included on the band's mixtape, Welcome to the New Administration, as part of their viral campaign in...
" have been compared to groups such as the Beatles.
Lyrics
Pete Wentz was once again the primary lyricist of the band during the production of the album. Stump said that Wentz "…totally outdid himself on this record. He doesn't even know how good his lyrics are here." Wentz, despite many recent personal developments (marriage to Ashlee SimpsonAshlee Simpson
Ashlee Nicole Simpson is an American singer and actress. In 2004, she rose to prominence with the success of her number-one debut album Autobiography and the reality series, The Ashlee Simpson Show. In October 2005, following a North American concert tour and a film appearance, Simpson released...
, birth of his son, Bronx), desired to shift the focus away from himself and turn it outward onto the world. For the first time on a Fall Out Boy album, Folie is rarely autobiographical, as the band believed the format was "losing its luster" because "everyone was doing it." The songs on the album explore decaying relationships, moral dilemmas, and societal shortcomings, as well as concepts such as trust, infidelity, responsibility, and commitment. Stump tagged Folie à Deux a "message record" that takes aim at "the materialistic dance between any two parties obsessed with each other, whether it's teenage girls and handbag makers, politicians and lobbyists or tabloids and stars." Folie à Deux also dissects how self-motivated American culture is, and many of the lyrics are intended to be satirical. While the album does contain political overtones, the band wanted to avoid being overt about these themes, leaving many lyrics open to interpretation for listeners.
Wentz referred to "I Don't Care
I Don't Care (Fall Out Boy song)
"I Don't Care" is a song by American rock band Fall Out Boy and the lead single from their fifth studio album Folie à Deux in 2008. It was first available for listening on and on September 3, 2008. The song was released to iTunes on September 8, 2008...
" as a "narcissist's anthem", further commenting that "To me, it's like a YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
anthem for the YouTube generation, just about how our attention span is about seven seconds...[it asks,] 'Why can't we get people to pay attention for two minutes and 35 seconds?'" Wentz further explored the subject of narcissism in "Coffee's For Closers", with Stump explaining, "The past decade has been totally about 'me.' It's totally about 'Oh, I'm sad. I want this. I know somebody who knows this person. Me me me me me,' so that's what that song is about." He also stated that the song is about how "people stopped believing in the goodwill of man and that you can change the world or do any good." Additionally, "America's Suitehearts" discusses society's fixation with celebrities; Wentz explained "It's about the idea that in America we like to have people on the covers of magazines and we build them up, but we really only want to see their skeletons." "27" explores the hedonistic
Hedonism
Hedonism is a school of thought which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure .-Etymology:The name derives from the Greek word for "delight" ....
lifestyles common in rock and roll music. The title is a reference to the 27 Club
27 Club
The 27 Club—also occasionally known as the Forever 27 Club, Club 27 or the Curse of 27—is the title for a group of popular musicians who all died at the age of 27...
, a group of influential musicians, including Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
, Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
, and Jim Morrison
Jim Morrison
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American musician, singer, and poet, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band The Doors...
, who all died at the age of 27. Wentz felt that he was living a similarly dangerous lifestyle, and was "stoked" to make it to his 28th birthday. Stump added "There was a countdown clock and everything. I remember, our manager called me up on Pete's 28th birthday and screamed, 'We made it!'"
Title and artwork
Folie à deuxFolie à deux
-Further reading:*Halgin, R. & Whitbourne, S. Abnormal Psychology: Clinical Perspectives on Psychological Disorders. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0072817216...
(fɒˈliː ə ˈduː, from the French for "a madness shared by two") is a rare psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief are transmitted from one individual to another. The same syndrome shared by more than two people may be called folie à trois, folie à quatre, folie en famille or even folie à plusieurs ("madness of many"). Recent psychiatric classifications refer to the syndrome as dependency psychotic disorder or induced delusional disorder, although the research literature largely uses the original name. The disorder was first conceptualized in 19th century French psychiatry. In keeping with the record's socially aware nature, the band felt that the term was relevant to the candidates in the 2008 U.S. presidential election
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
. Stump added "The irony is that people will probably mistake the title as something about romantic relationships in some way. And it's our only record where that theme is not touched upon."
On September 13, 2008, the album artwork was revealed on the band's website. The cover of the album was painted by artist Luke Chueh
Luke Chueh
Luke Chueh is an artist, and is generally considered to be a member of the lowbrow, or pop surrealism, art movement, though he has disdain for the term. He is a painter and graphic designer active in the artist community in Los Angeles. Originally from Philadelphia, he grew up in the Central...
. Wentz contacted Chueh personally and asked him to create the piece, to which the artist agreed. Chueh recalled of the situation, "They were great to work with, having given me full creative control over both the artwork and the final design of the cover." Chueh used the title and underlying themes of the album as inspiration for the artwork. "The title of the album is Folie à Deux, and when considering this with the bands popularity, I chose to focus on the idea of fandom, and how some people are willing to take their love/infatuation to levels that are obviously unhealthy." Wentz currently owns the original painting. The disc's liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
contain pictures of the band members with blank pages next to them; the group allowed fans to submit pictures they had drawn in the spaces and posted them to the band's official website.
Promotion and release
As the release of the new album approached, the band found that they would have to navigate changes in the music industry, which Hurley described as "a completely different place." Facing declining record sales, the lack of a proper outlet for exhibition of music videos, and the economic crisis, Hurley commented that "people are buying things they need to survive rather than records and concert tickets." The group's 2007 album Infinity on High sold one million copies, which was considered a disappointment compared to From Under the Cork TreeFrom Under the Cork Tree
From Under the Cork Tree is the third studio album by American rock band Fall Out Boy. It was released on May 3, 2005, through Island Records as the band's major label debut...
s sales of three million. Trohman attributed this to "the same reason that nobody’s records are selling that well: there’s so much turmoil in the music industry, so much downsizing, and people are finding different ways to get their music more and more all the time. There’s very little we can do about that as a band. All we can do is try to make great music and hope it connects with people."
Citizens for Our Betterment and Welcome to the New Administration
A viral campaignViral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
was launched by Pete Wentz on August 18, 2008, to promote the album. It was was inspired by George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
(1949), and the autocratic, overbearing Big Brother organization.
The campaign started when the website for Wentz's Decaydance Records
Decaydance Records
Decaydance Records is a record label based in New York City. Originally founded as an imprint of Fueled by Ramen, it is now an independent record label owned by Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy and partners. The first band Wentz signed to the label was Panic! at the Disco...
label was supposedly "hacked" by an organization called "Citizens For Our Betterment" (CFOB). Clues were left in links and images on the website, and Wentz left clues on his personal blog. On August 19, Wentz' wife Ashlee Simpson
Ashlee Simpson
Ashlee Nicole Simpson is an American singer and actress. In 2004, she rose to prominence with the success of her number-one debut album Autobiography and the reality series, The Ashlee Simpson Show. In October 2005, following a North American concert tour and a film appearance, Simpson released...
was seen carrying a pamphlet for the organization, raising suspicion and sparking many rumors online. In the days that followed, new posts appeared on the Citizens For Our Betterment website and Wentz continued to blog, at times referring to November 4, the same day as the 2008 U.S. presidential election
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
. Meanwhile, another band, Copeland
Copeland (band)
Copeland was an indie rock band, originally formed in 2001 by singer Aaron Marsh with his friend, bassist and backup singer James Likeness, in the city of Lakeland, Florida.-Inception:...
, launched its own viral campaign. As part of it, Copeland launched a similarly named site, CitizensFourOurBetterment.com, and spread links through various Fall Out Boy fan blogs to attract more people to the new website.
While this mixing of campaigns was done without the knowledge of the members of Fall Out Boy, Wentz did post an acknowledgement on August 22, when CFOB again "hijacked" Decaydance Records website. Decaydance act The Cab
The Cab
The Cab is an American rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada. Their debut album, Whisper War, was released on April 29, 2008. They have been called "The Band You Need to Know 2008" by Alternative Press magazine...
began performing with "Citizens for Our Betterment" written on the group's instruments. Finally, on August 26, a blog post of a press release was made on the band's FriendsOrEnemies.com page officially announcing Folie à Deux as the title of the upcoming album, due for release on November 4. Wentz said of the endeavor "To me, this is not a marketing campaign. It is a way to cause excitement about your art and have people earn it and understand it...I don't believe the full campaign has begun, and I also believe people are taking over the ship in a truly viral way. It doesn't hurt anyone, and hopefully it tells the story of the project better and makes it more appreciated."
It also revealed that a mixtape
Mixtape
A Mix Tape or Mixed Tape is a compilation of songs recorded in a specific order, traditionally onto an audio Compact Cassette.A Mix Tape, which usually reflects the musical tastes of its compiler, can range from a casually selected list of favorite songs, to a conceptual mix of songs linked by a...
, titled Welcome to the New Administration, was available for download for free on the FriendsOrEnemies website. The mixtape contained several snippets of new Fall Out Boy tracks, as well as new music from other bands such as Gym Class Heroes
Gym Class Heroes
Gym Class Heroes is an American hip hop rock band from Geneva, New York. They have collaborated with Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump on numerous occasions, notably for providing backing vocals on the song "Cupid's Chokehold." Stump also produced the majority of their album The Quilt.The group formed...
, Cobra Starship
Cobra Starship
Cobra Starship is an American synthpop band created by former Midtown bassist and lead vocalist Gabe Saporta in 2003 in New York City, New York...
, and Panic! at the Disco
Panic! at the Disco
Panic! at the Disco is an American alternative rock duo, formed in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2005. Since its split, the band's line-up includes Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith . Former members Ryan Ross and Jon Walker left the group in 2009...
. However none of the titles were confirmed for Folie à Deux. It also featured a song titled "America's Sweethearts" which was eventually confirmed for the album but with an alternate spelling, "America's Suitehearts
America's Suitehearts
"America's Suitehearts" is a song by American rock band Fall Out Boy and the second single taken from their fifth studio album, Folie à Deux . A demo/snippet titled "America's Sweethearts" was included on the band's mixtape, Welcome to the New Administration, as part of their viral campaign in...
". The band confirmed that it intended to release the mixtape in conjunction with the "Citizens" campaign, and felt that it was relevant to not only the themes of the album, but the 2008 election as well. Wentz explained "The whole campaign is part of the record and people can call it whatever they want, but the mixtape was part of that campaign, and we'll see what happens from here...In creating this autocratic organization, we created a democratic campaign, because people have made it go the direction they wanted it to go."
Release date change
Initially, the album's release date was reported to be November 4, 2008 — meaning that it would coincide with the 2008 presidential election. Fall Out Boy later announced on October 13, 2008, that the early November was in doubt, citing concerns over the planned election day tie-in. The band stressed out and worked very hard on a tight deadline to get the album out on November 4. While on a promotional tour in SpainSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, the band realized that things were "spinning out of control," and, in a rushed-out statement, explained:
Deciding to postpone the album release in a season in which A-list artists Kanye West (808s & Heartbreak
808s & Heartbreak
808s & Heartbreak is the fourth studio album by American hip hop artist Kanye West, released November 24, 2008 on Roc-A-Fella Records in the United States. Recording sessions for the album took place at Glenwood Studios in Burbank, California and Avex Recording Studio in Honolulu, Hawaii during...
), Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
(Circus
Circus (Britney Spears album)
Circus is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Britney Spears. The album was first released on November 28, 2008 by Jive Records. Spears started work on the album in early 2008 with a range of producers including long-time producers Bloodshy & Avant and Danja...
) and Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses
Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band, formed in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, in 1985. The band has released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album...
(Chinese Democracy
Chinese Democracy
Chinese Democracy is the sixth studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses, released in November 2008 on Geffen Records. It is the band's first studio album since "The Spaghetti Incident?" , released exactly 15 years before Chinese Democracy, and their first album of original studio...
) had already set release dates, the only one available was six weeks later than expected. It was soon announced that a new release date for Folie was December 16, 2008. Although December 16 was not an ideal date according to demographic marketing analysis, Stump said "we put our eight feet down [and] told our label it must come out this year."
Commercial performance
Folie à Deux did not perform as well commercially as its predecessor, Infinity on High. It debuted at number eight on the US Billboard 200Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
chart with first week sales of 150,000 copies during a highly competitive week with other big debuts, becoming Fall Out Boy's third consecutive top ten album. This is in contrast to the band's more successful previous effort which shifted 260,000 copies in its opening week to debut atop the chart. Folie spent two brief weeks within the top twenty out of its twenty-two chart weeks.. It also entered Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
's Rock Albums and Alternative Albums charts at number three. With 39,000 digital downloads as part of its sales totals in its debut week, the record opened at number one on Billboard Digital Albums chart, the band's second number one album on that chart. Fall Out Boy were bested in their chart debut by R&B singers Keyshia Cole
Keyshia Cole
Keyshia Myeshia Cole Gibson born October 15, 1981) is an American singer–songwriter and actress. She gained nationwide acclaim when her 2005 debut album, The Way It Is went platinum. Her sophomore album Just Like You went into production shortly after that and was released in September 2007...
— whose A Different Me
A Different Me
A Different Me is the third studio album by American R&B singer Keyshia Cole, released on December 16, 2008 in the United States. The album has been certified gold by the RIAA.-Conception:...
landed at number two on sales of more than 321,000 — and Jamie Foxx
Jamie Foxx
Eric Marlon Bishop , professionally known as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, singer-songwriter, stand-up comedian, and talk radio host. As an actor, his work in the film Ray earned him the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a...
, whose Intuition
Intuition (Jamie Foxx album)
Intuition is the third studio album by R&B singer Jamie Foxx. It was released on December 16, 2008 in the United States under J Records....
logged 265,000 for a number three debut. Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift is an American country pop singer-songwriter, musician and actress.In 2006, she released her debut single "Tim McGraw", then her self-titled debut album, which was subsequently certified multi-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America...
's Fearless
Fearless (Taylor Swift album)
Fearless has been well-received by music professionals, with many praising Swift for her introspective lyrics, as well as her mature sound. According to the music review aggregator Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an...
reigned at number one during that week. Within two months of its release, Folie à Deux was certified Gold
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
(RIAA), denoting shipments of 500,000 copies.
Internationally, the album was also less widely successful than Infinity on High but managed to reach the top ten in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
where it received a Platinum certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
(ARIA) for shipments of 70,000 units. On the Australian chart, the record debuted and peaked at number nine and spent its first seven weeks within the top twenty out of its fifteen weeks in the top forty. In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the album spent a brief six weeks on the UK Albums Chart and was later certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry
British Phonographic Industry
The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies...
(BPI) for the shipments of 60,000 units. Folie logged twelve weeks on the New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
Albums Chart with a peak of twenty-six. The album also peaked at number twenty-one on the Top Canadian Albums chart.
Singles
As part of a new marketing ploy, Fall Out Boy released several songs on iTunesITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
before the release of Folie à Deux, which, when purchased, would go towards purchasing the entire album as part of the "Complete My Album" feature. The lead single, "I Don't Care
I Don't Care (Fall Out Boy song)
"I Don't Care" is a song by American rock band Fall Out Boy and the lead single from their fifth studio album Folie à Deux in 2008. It was first available for listening on and on September 3, 2008. The song was released to iTunes on September 8, 2008...
" was first released on September 3, 2008 to Wentz's social networking site, "FriendsOrEnemies.com", reaching a peak at number twenty-one on the Bilboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
. It was certified Platinum by the RIAA for shipments of one million copies. In Australia, the song peaked at number twenty on the ARIA singles chart, being certified Gold by the ARIA, denoting shipments of 35,000 units. The music video for the single hit the web on September 25, but was pulled from iTunes and YouTube shortly thereafter. Wentz wrote furiously on his blog, finding the video was full of product placement shots for Nokia phones: "This will probably end up deleted either by me or someone else but the version of the video that we worked on night after night is not the version that aired. Yet somehow a cut full of glorious camera phone shots did. Just to let you know. It doesn't make any sense to us. That bag of money is being donated straight to a cause far more worthy." The initial post was deleted and replaced with a still of Popeye
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, who has appeared in comic strips and animated cartoons in the cinema as well as on television. He first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929...
with "censored" taped over his mouth.
"I Don't Care" was followed a month later by the digital release of "Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet
Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet
"Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet" is Fall Out Boy's first digital single from their fifth studio album Folie à Deux. It was released as part of the build up to the new album on iTunes on October 7, 2008....
" on October 7, 2008. Contrary to popular misconception the song was not an actual single, rather it was just a song posted online. The second digital song, "What a Catch, Donnie
What a Catch, Donnie
"What a Catch, Donnie" is Fall Out Boy's second digital download single and third radio single from their fifth studio album Folie à Deux . It was released as part of the build up to the new album on iTunes on October 14, 2008 and charted on the US and Canadian singles chart...
", was released a short time later on October 15, 2008, followed by the Suave Suarez remix of "I Don't Care" on November 4. The second radio single, "America's Suitehearts
America's Suitehearts
"America's Suitehearts" is a song by American rock band Fall Out Boy and the second single taken from their fifth studio album, Folie à Deux . A demo/snippet titled "America's Sweethearts" was included on the band's mixtape, Welcome to the New Administration, as part of their viral campaign in...
" was also released digitally to iTunes on December 2, 2008, reaching number seventy-eight on the Hot 100, as well as number thirty on the Pop Songs chart. "Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet", "What a Catch, Donnie" and "America's Suitehearts" were digitally released before the album as part of iTunes' "Complete My Album" feature. "America's Suitehearts", was then released as the album's second single on January 12, 2009, with "What a Catch, Donnie" commissioned from Folie à Deux as the third and last single in 2009. Music videos were created for each. Again, the singles received much less success compared to those from Infinity on High.
Critical response
The album received generally positive reviews from music critics. At MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, which assigns a normalized
Standard score
In statistics, a standard score indicates how many standard deviations an observation or datum is above or below the mean. It is a dimensionless quantity derived by subtracting the population mean from an individual raw score and then dividing the difference by the population standard deviation...
rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...
score of 73, based on 12 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Dan Martin of NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
gave the record a very positive review, calling a "defining statement" with the band's "most stylistically hatstand-but-indisputably-best songs yet." He wrote, "We’re not saying it’s as good as genre watermarks American Idiot
American Idiot
American Idiot is the seventh studio album by the American punk rock band Green Day. It was released on September 21, 2004 through Reprise Records and was produced by longtime collaborator Rob Cavallo. In mid-2003, the band began recording songs for an album entitled Cigarettes and Valentines...
or The Black Parade
The Black Parade
The Black Parade is the third studio album by American rock band My Chemical Romance. Released on October 23, 2006 through Reprise Records, it was produced by Rob Cavallo, who has also produced albums for Green Day. The album is the first on which Bob Bryar plays drums. It is a rock opera centering...
. We’re just saying it comes close," closing with calling it a "staggering achievement." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic rated the album four out of five stars and compared it to labelmates Panic! at the Disco
Panic! at the Disco
Panic! at the Disco is an American alternative rock duo, formed in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2005. Since its split, the band's line-up includes Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith . Former members Ryan Ross and Jon Walker left the group in 2009...
's effort earlier in the year, Pretty. Odd.
Pretty. Odd.
Pretty. Odd. is the second studio album by the American rock band Panic! at the Disco. Recorded at the Studio at the Palms in Las Vegas with additional production at Abbey Road Studios in London with producer Rob Mathes, the album was released March 21, 2008 on Decaydance and Fueled by Ramen Records...
He wrote that "Fall Out Boy capture the Zeitgeist of the latter half of the 2000s better than any band: there's so much going on in Folie à Deux, you either choose to take it all seriously or take none of it. Fall Out Boy make as much sense when heard either way." Scott Heisel wrote for Alternative Press, commending the band for their "creativity, ingenuity and willingness to try just about anything." He compared the meaning of the term folie à deux ("a madness shared by two") to the two very distinct feelings expressed in the different sides of the record, calling the album a good representation of the band's career.
Many critics commented on the album's musical experimentation. Jody Rosen of Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, in his review, stated that "the musical mix on Folie à Deux suggests a band with an advanced case of ADD
ADHD predominantly inattentive
ADHD predominantly inattentive is one of the three subtypes of Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder . While ADHD-PI is sometimes still called "attention deficit disorder" by the general public, these older terms were formally changed in 1994 in the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of...
, ricocheting between genres and eras, tempos and time signatures, often several times in a given song." Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
s David Marchese complemented the album's forays into strange territories, calling tracks such as "I Don't Care" and "What a Catch, Donnie" impressive. Rock Sound
Rock Sound
Rock Sound is a British magazine which champions rock music. The magazine aims at being more "underground" and less commercial, whilst also giving coverage to more well known acts.-History:...
s Faye Lewis also enjoyed the variety, calling the album "a non-stop exotic cabaret for the ears, delivering a far-reaching selection of songs that leap between a blend of catchy pop punk
Pop punk
Pop punk is a fusion music genre that combines elements of punk rock with pop music, to varying degrees. Allmusic describes the genre as a strand of alternative rock, which typically merges pop melodies with speedy punk tempos, chord changes and loud guitars...
." However, some critics felt that the band was excessive in its attempts to create a diverse work. Margaret Wappler of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
believed that "Folie à Deux imagines itself in the stadium. […] It's not that FOB can't have grandiosity, but every stadium needs open air." She called the album's sounds a "pleasure bot of right-now pop, adroitly programmed with crunchy '80s melodies, emo's dark prowess and symphonies à la Sgt. Pepper's
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is the eighth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released on 1 June 1967 on the Parlophone label and produced by George Martin...
.," while stating "For all the steps forward, Folie a Deux also seems to contain a microchip for its own destruction."
Q
Q (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
called the album "a barrelling, hugely confident record that should see Fall Out Boy swiftly elevated into mainstream rock's premier league," and Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....
called it "the brightest, breeziest, giddiest record Fall Out Boy have ever made." Jaimie Hodgson of The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
complemented producer Neal Avron's "squeaky clean" production. Jesse Cataldo of Slant wrote that "the band's songs are catchy at heart, enjoyable in a trifling but substantial way, until they're smeared with layer after layer of smarm, nullifying any chance of their music being consumed as a simple, empty pleasure." Cataldo also expressed displeasure with Lil Wayne
Lil Wayne
Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. , better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included...
's performance as well as production from Pharrell Williams, which he deemed a "promising concept […] quickly discarded," summarizing that, "Folie à Deux seems to prove, if nothing else, that Fall Out Boy is good at masking their best qualities and pushing forward their most annoying ones."
Tours and performances
The day before Folie à Deux arrived in stores (December 15), Fall Out Boy had planned on staging an impromptu concert in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park
Washington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City's 1,900 public parks. At 9.75 acres , it is a landmark in the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village, as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity...
. However, the band did not obtain a permit to do so. Taking inspiration from Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
and similar folk singers from the 1960s, the group wanted to do something free and spontaneous as a gift to fans. The band and its management argued with the NYPD about allowing the show to go on. In the end, they were told that picking up any instruments would earn them a trip to jail, so the band instead led the audience in a sing-along. Stump sang while Wentz and Trohman played air guitar and Hurley drummed on his knees. Stump later commented in an interview that "Those cops back there — and I have no problem with the cops, trust me — but those cops were like the Grinch
The Grinch
The Grinch is a fictional character created by Dr. Seuss. He first appeared as the main protagonist in the 1957 children's book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!...
. They just took all the presents."
On January 20, 2009, Fall Out Boy performed at the 'Be The Change' Youth Ball, which celebrated the inauguration
Inauguration of Barack Obama
The inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States took place on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. The inauguration, which set a record attendance for any event held in Washington, D.C., marked the commencement of the four-year term of Barack Obama as President and Joe...
of President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
. The group was invited to perform by Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
mayor Adrian Fenty
Adrian Fenty
Adrian Malik Fenty was the sixth, and at age 36, the youngest, mayor of the District of Columbia. He served one term—from 2007 to 2011—losing his bid for reelection at the primary level to Democrat Vincent C. Gray...
, who was also a fan of the band. At the ball, the band jokingly dedicated a performance of "Thnks fr th Mmrs
Thnks fr th Mmrs
"Thnks fr th Mmrs" is a song by American rock band Fall Out Boy, released March 27, 2007, as the second single from their fourth studio album, Infinity on High...
" to former president George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
. Upon meeting Obama, Wentz remarked "It's mind-blowing. It's one of those things where it's such an amazing experience — just being in his presence is amazing."
To promote the album, Fall Out Boy embarked on the Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux
Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux
The Believers Never Die Tour Part Deux was a two-month concert tour that was headlined by American rock band Fall Out Boy in 2009 to support the release of their 2008 album Folie à Deux. Starting on April 3 and finishing on May 17, the opening acts were Cobra Starship, All Time Low, Metro Station,...
, which included dates in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. The name of the tour was based on the band's 2004 Believers Never Die Tour. In keeping with the political themes of Folie à Deux, the tour was intended to be a commentary on the current state of corporate America. The band began the sets with a "corporate retreat" in which the group performed in dress suits with policemen in riot gear playing drums by the side of the stage. Afterwards, the band would change to casual attire for the rest of the set. Wentz noted that the purpose of the formal dress was to demonstrate "how the rich rob the poor", and encouraged fans to direct attention to poverty-stricken nations such as Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
and the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
.
The supporting acts on the tour were Cobra Starship
Cobra Starship
Cobra Starship is an American synthpop band created by former Midtown bassist and lead vocalist Gabe Saporta in 2003 in New York City, New York...
, All Time Low
All Time Low
All Time Low is an American pop punk band from Baltimore, Maryland, formed in 2003.The band consists of vocalist and rhythm guitarist Alexander Gaskarth, lead guitarist and backing vocalist Jack Barakat, bassist and backing vocalist Zachary Merrick, and drummer Rian Dawson...
, Metro Station
Metro station
A metro station or subway station is a railway station for a rapid transit system, often known by names such as "metro", "underground" and "subway". It is often underground or elevated. At crossings of metro lines, they are multi-level....
, and Hey Monday
Hey Monday
Hey Monday is an American rock band from West Palm Beach, Florida, formed in 2008. They released their debut album Hold on Tight in 2008 which produced notable singles "Homecoming" and "How You Love Me Now". The album was followed up with their 2010 EP Beneath It All, which achieved moderate...
. For five dates on the tour, Fall Out Boy brought along rapper 50 Cent
50 Cent
Curtis James Jackson III , better known by his stage name 50 Cent, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, investor, record producer, and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin and The Massacre . Get Rich or Die Tryin has been certified eight times platinum by...
. Wentz explained, "We've been fans of [him] since we heard 'Wanksta
Wanksta
"Wanksta" is the second single from the 8 Mile soundtrack. Released in 2002, the single, performed by 50 Cent, reached No. 13. It was first used on the mixtape No Mercy, No Fear.-Background:...
' in 8 Mile
8 Mile (soundtrack)
-Album:-Singles:-Certifications:...
. We've wanted to do something with him for awhile, and having him out on the tour is gonna take the show to a whole new level. It's exciting to bring two different genres together and give the fans a new experience". The rapper had similar feelings about the situation: "This will be a major moment in music history. Joining forces with Fall Out Boy, one of the most dynamic rock bands in the industry, will be an exciting and historic event for rock and hip-hop."
Track listing
Bonus tracks
1CD versions contain "Lullabye" (2:18), a pregapPregap
The pregap on a Red Book audio CD is the portion of the audio track that precedes "index 01" for a given track in the table of contents . The pregap is typically two seconds long and usually, but not always, contains silence...
hidden track
Hidden track
In the field of recorded music, a hidden track is a piece of music that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, vinyl record or other recorded medium in such a way as to avoid detection by the casual listener...
not available on digital versions of the album. Also not available on Irish version.
Weekly charts
| Chart (2008) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
9 |
| Austrian Albums Chart | 64 |
| Belgian Albums Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... |
40 |
| Canadian Albums Chart Canadian Albums Chart The Canadian Albums Chart is the official album sales chart in Canada. It is compiled every Wednesday by U.S.-based music sales tracking company Nielsen Soundscan, and published every Thursday by Jam! Canoe and Billboard, along with its sister charts the Canadian Singles Chart and the Canadian BDS... |
21 |
| Dutch Albums Chart MegaCharts MegaCharts is responsible for the composition and exploitation of a broad collection of official charts in the Netherlands, of which the Mega Top 50 and the Mega Album Top 100 are the most known ones. Mega Charts also provides information to the Stichting Nederlandse Top 40, of which the Dutch Top... |
79 |
| French Albums Chart Syndicat National de l'Edition Phonographique The Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique is the inter-professional organization which protects the interests of the French record industry... |
41 |
| German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
48 |
| Irish Albums Chart Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on its behalf by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically... |
52 |
| Mexican Albums Chart | 31 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
26 |
| Swiss Albums Chart Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
84 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
39 |
| US Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
8 |
| US Billboard Rock Albums | 3 |
| US Billboard Alternative Albums | 3 |
| US Billboard Digital Albums | 1 |
| US Billboard Tastemaker Albums | 5 |
Certifications
| Country | Certification | Shipments |
|---|---|---|
| Australia Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956... (ARIA) |
Platinum | 70,000 |
| United Kingdom British Phonographic Industry The British Phonographic Industry is the British record industry's trade association.-Structure:Its membership comprises hundreds of music companies including all four "major" record companies , associate members such as manufacturers and distributors, and hundreds of independent music companies... (BPI) |
Silver | 60,000 |
| United States Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States... (RIAA) |
Gold | 500,000 |
Year-end charts
| Chart (2009) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart | 82 |
| US Billboard 200 | 81 |
Release history
| Country | Date |
|---|---|
| Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south... |
December 10, 2008 |
| Australia Australia Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area... |
December 13, 2008 |
| United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages... |
December 14, 2008 |
| United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
December 16, 2008 |
Personnel
Band members- Patrick StumpPatrick StumpPatrick Vaughn Stump is an American singer-songwriter, composer, record producer, and music critic. He is the composer, lead singer, and multi-instrumentalist of Fall Out Boy, an American rock band from Wilmette, Illinois, and is also a solo artist...
– lead vocals, guitar, piano - Pete Wentz – bass guitar, backing vocals
- Joe TrohmanJoe TrohmanJoseph Mark Trohman is an American musician. He is best known as the guitarist of the Chicago-based pop punk band Fall Out Boy, as well as the lead and rhythm guitarist for heavy metal supergroup The Damned Things.-Early life:...
– guitar, backing vocals - Andy HurleyAndy HurleyAndrew John Hurley is an American musician and drummer. He is best known as a member of the Chicago-based rock band Fall Out Boy. Prior to Fall Out Boy, Hurley played in several different bands. He is currently the drummer in the heavy metal supergroup The Damned Things with Fall Out Boy guitarist...
– drums, percussion
Production
- Neal AvronNeal AvronNeal Avron is an American musician, record producer, mixer, and audio engineer. Working predominately in rock music, Avron began working on records in 1993 and achieved his production breakthrough when he co-produced Everclear's 1997 album So Much For The Afterglow...
– producer - Pharrell WilliamsPharrell WilliamsPharrell Williams , commonly known simply as Pharrell, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, composer, and fashion designer. Williams and Chad Hugo make up the record production duo The Neptunes, producing hip hop and R&B music...
– producer on "w.a.m.s."
Guest artists
- Elvis CostelloElvis CostelloElvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
– guest vocals on "What a Catch, DonnieWhat a Catch, Donnie"What a Catch, Donnie" is Fall Out Boy's second digital download single and third radio single from their fifth studio album Folie à Deux . It was released as part of the build up to the new album on iTunes on October 14, 2008 and charted on the US and Canadian singles chart...
" - Brendon UrieBrendon UrieBrendon Boyd Urie is an American musician and the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, pianist and singer-songwriter of Panic! at the Disco. He also plays drums, bass guitar, accordion, organ, cello, violin, and trumpet.-Early life:...
– guest vocals on "What a Catch, Donnie"; piano and guest vocals on "20 Dollar Nose Bleed". - Gabe SaportaGabe SaportaGabriel Eduardo "Gabe" Saporta is the lead singer and primary creative force behind the synthpop band Cobra Starship. He was previously the lead singer, bassist, and lyricist for the pop punk band Midtown....
– guest vocals on "What a Catch, Donnie" - Travis McCoy – guest vocals on "What a Catch, Donnie"
- Doug Neumann – guest vocals on "What a Catch, Donnie"
- William BeckettWilliam Beckett (singer),William Eugene Beckett Jr. was the lead singer of the band The Academy Is... , who were signed to Atlantic Records/Fueled by Ramen/Decaydance Records. While still in high school in 2002, Beckett and guitarist Mike Carden came together from rival bands in Chicago to form The Academy Is......
– guest vocals on "What a Catch, Donnie" - Alexander DeLeon – guest vocals on "What a Catch, Donnie" and "Tiffany Blews"
- Lil WayneLil WayneDwayne Michael Carter, Jr. , better known by his stage name Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. At the age of nine, Lil Wayne joined Cash Money Records as the youngest member of the label, and half of the duo, The B.G.'z, with B.G.. In 1997, Lil Wayne joined the group Hot Boys, which also included...
– guest vocals on "Tiffany Blews" - Pharrell WilliamsPharrell WilliamsPharrell Williams , commonly known simply as Pharrell, is an American rapper, singer, record producer, composer, and fashion designer. Williams and Chad Hugo make up the record production duo The Neptunes, producing hip hop and R&B music...
– synthesizer on "w.a.m.s." - Debbie HarryDebbie HarryDeborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...
– guest vocals on "West Coast Smoker"