Following the release of Fall Out Boy’s 2003 full-length debut, Take This to Your Grave, the Chicago quartet was flooded with hyperbolic praise. The group, which was signed by tiny independent label Fueled by Ramen, was declared the “next big thing” by multiple media outlets, and its album sold more than 200,000 copies. So expectations were high for the band’s major-label follow-up, From Under the Cork Tree, which came out on May 3 and will debut at #9 on next week’s Billboard albums chart. Some pundits predicted a groundbreaking pop-punk expedition, and others awaited a heart-rending emo excursion, but Fall… Read more »
When writing the lyrics for “From Under the Cork Tree,” Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz, far right, shifted his focus from a romance gone horribly wrong to a more introspective vew of the world. After writing an album’s worth of lyrics about a girl who shattered his heart, Pete Wentz realized that the world is a bigger place than a cold-hearted woman and he needed to pen tunes that reflected that – a world where tsunamis could devastate parts of Asia, a war in Iraq could affect people on a global scale and the Molly Ringwald vs. Samantha Fox debate… Read more »