All artists who influence on a world scale have to deal with the pressures of fame after they rise to prominence — and that was actually the state of affairs Fall Out Boy confronted with their breakthrough sophomore set, 2005’s From Beneath The Cork Tree.
On this case, although, the issue got here to a head earlier than the band had accomplished the report. Having settled into comfy cult standing following the discharge of 2003 debut Take This To Your Grave, the Illinois indie-rock quartet then signed with Island Data prior to creating From Beneath The Cork Tree. The brand new deal was a serious step ahead, nevertheless it additionally raised the stakes for the band – to such a level that bassist and first lyricist Pete Wentz grew to become in poor health and ended up in hospital when the load of expectation merely felt too nice.
“I think a lot of it was through not sleeping,” he revealed to U.Ok. weekly NME in a 2021 interview. “And trying to figure out [the band’s future] and being on the precipice of something fuelled a lot of anxiety.”
Fortunately, Wentz quickly recovered sufficient to rejoin his bandmates in California for the From Beneath The Cork Tree classes. His private experiences knowledgeable the report’s introspective themes (they mirrored “the anxiety and depression that goes along with looking at your own life,” he instructed the NME), however when Wentz’s phrases had been aligned with vocalist and guitarist Patrick Stump’s most accessible set of pop-punk tunes up to now, Fall Out Boy had hit on a profitable method.
Produced with energy and readability by Neal Avron (New Discovered Glory, Weezer), From Beneath The Cork Tree featured two of Fall Out Boy’s signature tracks. The explosive “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” shot to No. 8 – giving FOB its first U.S. High 10 hit – whereas the infectious “Dance Dance” additionally went High 10 with assist from Alan Ferguson’s MTV Music Video Award-winning promo, primarily based on a superb parody of the movie Revenge Of The Nerds.
In actuality, although, From Beneath The Cork Tree proffered lots extra of the same caliber. Its third and last single was the quirky, Molly Ringwald-referencing “A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More ‘Touch Me’,” however actually the equally anthemic likes of “Of All The Gin Joints In The World” or “Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner” would possible have performed simply as effectively. Certainly, even permitting for the underlying melancholy in most of Wentz’s lyrics, just about all of From Beneath The Cork Tree’s songs contained an inherent radio-friendliness which ensured that the report couldn’t fail to make an impression within the mainstream.
In step with this prediction — and with additional assist from opinions equivalent to Rolling Stone’s, which praised FOB’s “knack for crafting ginormous, soaring anthems” — From Beneath The Cork Tree proceeded to turn out to be a fixture within the charts. It debuted at No. 9 on the U.S. Billboard 200, occurring to maneuver 2 million copies at dwelling and collectively round 7 million copies worldwide. Its success cemented Fall Out Boy’s repute at dwelling and overseas, and whereas the band would take pleasure in sustained success with albums equivalent to Infinity On Excessive and American Magnificence/American Psycho, From Beneath The Cork Tree retains a particular place of their hearts.
“This was the album that made it possible to do all the other stuff,” Pete Wentz instructed NME in 2021. “If this one hadn’t worked or hadn’t connected with people, we wouldn’t have gotten to go to the U.K. and around the world. I have such reverence for these songs because they feel bigger than our band.”
Store for Fall Out Boy’s From Beneath the Cork Tree now.
