The Fall Out Boy Albums Ranked
Fall Out Boy is one of those bands that now feels so divorced from their heyday, both in terms of sound and ubiquity. But I guess if you’re at the top of the charts for your respective genre, in FOB’s case emo and pop punk of course (until it wasn’t), there’s nowhere else to go but down. Plus, decades can kind of have that effect. I don’t think the most popular work of the band has necessarily diminished in the eyes (or ears) of pop listeners and dedicated fans alike, but there’s no denying the buzz surrounding Fall Out Boy is not what it once was.
I think that only feels weird because I grew up with Patrick Stump, Pete Wentz, Andy Hurley, and Joe Trohman making up one of the biggest bands in the world. Formed in 2001, Fall Out Boy has released eight albums in the nearly 20 years since 2003. Added to that output is a slate of EPs, remix releases, live albums, and more. Of particular note is FALL OUT BOY’S EVENING OUT WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND (2003), a “mini-LP” once intended as the group’s debut studio release that was instead sidelined within their official discography as an EP. As such, I don’t rank it here. But it is worth listening to to get the full breadth of the group’s evolution, as are the EPs MY HEART WILL ALWAYS BE THE B-SIDE TO MY TONGUE (2004), PAX AM DAYS (2013), LLAMANIA (2018), and LAKE EFFECT KID (2018). Every once in a while, a band or artist actively suffers when I return to their work in earnest. That is somewhat the case with Fall Out Boy, although as I’ll explain, their best stuff still scratches my angsty itch.
#8 — SAVE ROCK AND ROLL (2013)
Favorite track: “The Phoenix”
In spite of the hype for the hiatus-breaker that was SAVE ROCK AND ROLL, I knew it sucked back when it came out. Listening to it now, it’s even worse. I don’t know if Fall Out Boy was trying to be tongue-in-cheek with the title, considering how they dispensed with an even remotely rock sound for inane and abrasive pop. There was a Fall Out Boy before SAVE ROCK AND ROLL, and there’s a Fall Out Boy since SAVE ROCK AND ROLL. And that’s not a compliment. This started just about a decade of middling-to-bad releases from the group, which has only been marginally improved at the closing of that ten-year mark. “The Phoenix” is technically my favorite track because it’s got one of those earworm choruses, but it doesn’t escape from its source album’s overproduced mess of a sound. Ironically, SAVE ROCK AND ROLL acted as the nadir counterpoint to the band’s productive and good-to-great earlier years.
#7 — MANIA (2018)
Favorite track: “Wilson (Expensive Mistakes)”
Although in a lot of respects MANIA is only barely ahead of SAVE ROCK AND ROLL on this list, I do think the former is at least a smoother attempt to curry favor with the contemporary mass-produced pop machine. “Wilson (Expensive Mistakes),” for example, has a reverb-y sonic quality in its chorus that isn’t unpleasant. But that’s about the extent of my kind words for MANIA. Because of its release near the end of my college years, full of music from other, younger artists that Fall Out Boy was apparently trying to ape, its release especially irked me at the time. Today, I’ve cooled on (my hate for) MANIA a little bit, albeit marginally to the point that I just find the record a profound disappointment rather than a radical insult to my good taste.
#6 — AMERICAN BEAUTY/AMERICAN PSYCHO (2015)
Favorite track: “Fourth of July”
After the crash-and-burn that was SAVE ROCK AND ROLL, its follow up AMERICAN BEAUTY/AMERICAN PSYCHO is positively refreshing. At least its extremely slick pop production results in an impressive ethereal sound here and there, as on standout track “Fourth of July.” There’s even a song or two more that aren’t terrible! But don’t get me wrong: AMERICAN BEAUTY/AMERICAN PSYCHO isn’t an album that I’d willingly listen to in full. Stump’s belting vocals, which had been developed through a refinement of Fall Out Boy’s pop punk sound, are just subsumed into the pounding drum beats and swirling, glistening production. And although its highs are higher than the previous albums on this list, the record serves up its share of groaners. AMERICAN BEAUTY/AMERICAN PSYCHO, as with SAVE ROCK AND ROLL and MANIA, is a so-so-to-bland pop record that stings all the more considering its makers’ roots.
#5 — SO MUCH (FOR) STARDUST (2023)
Favorite track: “What a Time to Be Alive”
It’s no coincidence that Fall Out Boy’s best album this side of their first hiatus is also a concerted effort to distance their sound from the three albums released before SO MUCH (FOR) STARDUST. The newest record from the band at the time of this writing and the closer of the biggest gap between releases (it’s been more than five years since MANIA) isn’t a total return to form, as you can see. But there’s no denying that the guitar-oriented sound of STARDUST is closer to, at least, INFINITY ON HIGH than SAVE ROCK AND ROLL. Fall Out Boy has always practiced pop punk, regardless of the individual members’ hardcore roots (although listen to the EP PAX AM DAYS to get a Black Flag inflection), and if we’ve got to lean closer to the pop than the punk, this is much more preferable. A lot of STARDUST still has a sheen that jangles a bit too much and can get a bit nerve-wracking (even on nominal favorite “What a Time to Be Alive”), but more than anything, this record is able to capture a kind of gravitas that has been lacking from Fall Out Boy’s past few albums. SO MUCH (FOR) STARDUST is not really up to the standard of the group’s earlier work, still existing with the “lesser four” that neatly divides Fall Out Boy’s eight album run so far.
#4 — INFINITY ON HIGH (2007)
Favorite track: “I’m Like a Lawyer the Way I’m Always Trying to Get You Off (Me & You)”
I wrote in my introduction that listening through Fall Out Boy’s discography for this piece lessened my esteem for the band. That is primarily because of my experience of listening through SAVE ROCK AND ROLL on, but revisiting INFINITY ON HIGH, I found my enjoyment stymied a bit more than I expected. I didn’t have a sudden reversal of opinion on this album, the holder of great hits like “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” and “Thnks fr th Memrs,” but I did concede that the appeal of Fall Out Boy for me is indeed couched in a more angsty period of my life. That being said, INFINITY ON HIGH is a fun piece of listening no matter how old I am. With their third album, the band had “evolved” their sound into more electronic and poppy territory, to mostly good results. But as a cohesive work, INFINITY ON HIGH is almost facile; neat, well-crafted, but missing an emotional core provided by a strong musical concentration or through line.
#3 — TAKE THIS TO YOUR GRAVE (2003)
Favorite track: “Saturday”
“Saturday” was the first Fall Out Boy song I remember hearing; improbably enough considering my age, on a Warped Tour sampler CD. Something about it appealed to me in a way that I’ve never been quite able to articulate since. You see, I’ve always had the theory that, at least across their best and earliest work, Fall Out Boy always does a slight zig when they should zag for maximum pop potency on their choruses. And yet, these songs turn out extremely catchy. Maybe this means nothing, or maybe it would mean more if I knew anything about music theory. In any event, FOB’s “debut” (I’ve already mentioned EVENING OUT in the intro) is a really good record. Undoubtedly their scrappiest album, although it’s not without its share of refined production even this early, TAKE THIS TO YOUR GRAVE was notably written in a partnership that would define the band’s methods in the future. Stump’s melodic instincts met Wentz’s obsessive lyricism to form what quite a few consider to be the band’s best record to this day. I understand that appeal, as TAKE THIS TO YOUR GRAVE is a rock-solid emo experience that rarely lets up. When it does, however, it’s only because of the growing pains that were revealed by subsequent refinements. But that’s part of the appeal of TAKE THIS TO YOUR GRAVE, an adolescent piece of musically powerful rage and malaise and sadness and awkwardness.
#2 — FROM UNDER THE CORK TREE (2005)
Favorite track: “Sugar, We’re Goin Down”
With “Dance, Dance” and “Sugar, We’re Goin Down,” Fall Out Boy became pop powerhouses. Their source album, the sophomore release FROM UNDER THE CORK TREE, is correspondingly a reining in of TAKE THIS TO YOUR GRAVE’s messier instincts and an exaggeration of that album’s catchiest accomplishments. But FROM UNDER THE CORK TREE was still able to maintain its rock base, not quite expanding into the eclectic influences of its successor INFINITY ON HIGH. There’s something undeniably fun about the whole of FROM UNDER THE CORK TREE, anchored by its hits, sure, but also by a track list that stays playful while not quite conceding to the lowest common denominator.
#1 — FOLIE Á DEUX (2008)
Favorite track: “She’s My Winona”
I get the arguments for the earliest Fall Out Boy albums. In some ways, I agree with them. But there’s just something about the scale of FOLIE Á DEUX that will always stick with me. Perhaps it’s because the record, which marks the greatest quality differential between successive albums in partnership with SAVE ROCK AND ROLL, was my first new one from the band. What I mean is that FOLIE Á DEUX was the first Fall Out Boy album I remember being released to my rapt attention, with multiple listens in short order and discussions with friends about it. But besides the social circumstances surrounding my initial experiences with the album, FOLIE Á DEUX was also released at a time when I was entering those pesky teenage years. Angier and harder music would appeal to me in short order, but the operatic and flamboyant delivery of Stump, over soaring yet rocking backing, resonated with me in a different way. To this day, I appreciate how FOLIE Á DEUX is the representative for a bigger Fall Out Boy sound, without sacrificing an offbeat lyrical and arranging heart.
