"We're friends, just because we move units."
That line was a bit of snark on an album full of tortured wordplay and smarter-than-thou cynicism, but little did we know it would come to be prophetic. Fall Out Boy was only breaking through, but it was already the beginning of the end. Across an album of emo and pop-punk anthems that spoke to a generation coming of age in a time of unjustified war and soon-to-be avoidable financial collapse, the songs gave us messages about the futility of caring, honesty, and getting involved beyond watching from afar.
"From Under The Cork Tree" came out as I was just about to graduate from college, which made it a fitting soundtrack for one phase ending and another beginning. College was an experience, to say the least. As an observer, I learned about alcoholism and drug use, and the decision making skills of people who would soon be considered 'adults' to the world. That was frightening, and made Fall Out Boy's cynicism feel more than necessary, but rather mandatory for survival.
Fall Out Boy were not a humble band, by any means, and Pete Wentz made sure he let you know that through his lyrics. He threw as much wordplay as he could into the songs, as if he had heard Elvis Costello and missed the point that one well-timed joke caught the audience's attention more than an entire stand-up set. Wentz would work through issues of inadequacy through his bravado, culminating in the line in "Sugar, We're Going Down" about being taken out by a "loaded God complex". The smoking gun of that image is the most defining moment of his career, and for good reason.
This album was the moment in time when the band's past, present, and future found the perfect balance. Their hardcore roots still bleed in around the edges, and their pop aspirations give polish to the more raw moments. This was the point where two diverging lines meet, only to go their separate ways for all eternity. Or so we thought. The more gloss the band put on their songs, the less effective they became. "Infinity On High" and "Folie A Deux" are both fine records, but they lack the punch and power of "From Under The Cork Tree", and Wentz' celebrity status would come to overshadow the band's outsider image. Fall Out Boy was no longer the band for whom everything was 'coming up Millhouse', they were the unhappy kid trying not to fuck up his part in the major motion picture.
And then we return to the line I started out quoting. When the band returned from their hiatus, so much had changed. Fall Out Boy was no longer a band laughing at the world who took them seriously. They were now a band that took themselves seriously, and did so by embracing the trends of the day in search of radio hits and... moving units. The fact that they succeeded does not make the shift toward literal cynicism any more forgivable, nor does it allow them to take any credit for moving back to their most popular sound when they had bled dry that vein of attention.
"Dance, dance, we're falling apart in half time," they sing. How true that was, as the band did fall apart, and it did take longer than an immediate collapse. Sometimes, the worst thing that can happen to a band is success, and that is sadly the case for Fall Out Boy. I don't say that necessarily as a criticism, because I believe Fall Out Boy was always destined to be a short-lived thing. Cynicism may endure, but it shifts as we get older. The snark of youth turns into a weariness, then into helpless resignation. Neither of those would fit the band's ear-candy-emo songwriting, so they were never going to burn brightly forever.
What is most interesting about Fall Out Boy's music, to me, is that is much the same experience as looking through old photographs of yourself. You recognize yourself, but in the same way you recognize the faded paint on an old billboard along the side of the road. It isn't bright, sharp, and in focus, but it contains clues to a past that we lose little pieces of with each passing day.
After twenty years, listening to Fall Out Boy is a reminder of simpler times. The crises of the world felt less existential, as did the crises of self. What I find helpful is to be able to draw the line from The Smiths to Fall Out Boy to the present day, realizing that there has always been reason to be skeptical and cynical. That fact does make it feel less like a flaw in my personality, and more like a fitting reaction to the world.
Dammit, I'm giving Fall Out Boy credit.
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