From the get-go, this album had special meaning for me just due to the enchantingly disturbed title. The only songs I really listened to with any type of addictive repetitition were “Thriller” and “Thnks fr th Mmrs.” I was left a little unfulfilled by the album as a whole and began to mourn the loss of their old style.Īlmost 2 years later (wow, has it really been that long?), in walks Folie a Deux, according to Pete, it’s “THE RETURN” of Fall Out Boy.
The references to the movie “Closer” and the hidden significance behind the lyrics in each song is enough to give me shivers, almost (you can check out the meanings in this wikipedia entry, although some of them are simply hearsay or assumptions), but still, IOH was not a blow-my-mind album. So I rolled, and upon further investigation I did end up finding tracks and messages on this album that resonated with me deeply (and proceeded to fully relay these feelings to the band one very late night at Angels & Kings…yikes). after practically throwing a fit about it being the polar opposite of A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out). But that’s how it works, right, things change and you gotta roll with the punches (hey, I ended up loving Pretty.Odd. In any case, the way that IOH strayed so far from their ever-amazing Take This To Your Grave caused my stubbornness about it to last longer than necessary. So while some of the past albums were about broken hearts, betrayal of friends, and clawing through darkest times of growing up, IOH consequently had to be about getting immensely famous, navigating the scene and the ups and downs of being rock stars. I was immediately disappointed in how the Hollywood spotlight had affected the music and lyrics (Jay Z?), but after awhile I grew to accept that they write about what they’re going through at the time.
I couldn’t even listen to “I’m Like a Lawyer With the Way I’m Always Trying to Get You Off” and even “Golden” without almost throwing up in my mouth. What I got instead with IOH was a popped-out, glittery version of FOB. When Infinity on High came out in Feb 2007, I was hoping for a sweet follow-up to From Under the Cork Tree (2005), an album that really changed my life and helped me define precisely what was going on in my head and heart.