THE HYST LIST // Criminally Underrated Fall Out Boy Songs

Fall Out Boy have seen their fair share of radio play over a decade now, with anthems like Thnks fr th Mmrs, Sugar We’re Goin Down and I Don’t Care catapulting them into the popsphere and shaking up the world’s take on emo. Last week they announced a run of 2018 Australian shows in celebration of their upcoming album Mania. Hits aside, here are some of their most underrated gems.

The Patron Saint of Liars and Fakes
Take This to Your Grave

Take This to Your Grave is an album that will forever sit comfortably in the highest echelon of pop punk. It took on the deeply saccharine hooks established by New Found Glory’s Sticks and Stones, the biting snarls of Jawbreaker, and Something to Write Home About’s blatant sadness, creating a darker and catchier monolith that is yet to meet its match. The lyrics ‘I still know the way to make your makeup run’, frenetic drumming and anxiety inducing lead lines are still as excitably melodramatic and scathing as they were 14 years ago.

Homesick at Space Camp
Take This to Your Grave

Pete Wentz’ angsty poetics is still being plastered on the Tumblr pages and school diary’s of teens today—with good reason. Lines like ‘My smile’s an open wound without you’  and ‘Tonight the headphones will deliver you the words that I can’t say’ are generation and genre defining. With references to Chicago and a straight up genius acoustic interlude so catchy and euphoric, the fact this wasn’t chosen as a single is a testament to how exceptional the album is a whole.

Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner
From Under the Cork Tree

There are bands from the same era whose career defining anthems failed to reach the heights that this album track does. All Time Low have tried for nearly 15 years ( and have eventually given up on) trying to re-write the famous ‘I’ll be your best kept secret and your biggest mistake’ line and make it as catchy as Fall Out Boy did. It’d be easy to say it’s a quintessential bittersweet pop punk anthem—but like all of Fall Out Boy’s work, that’d be reducing it to something much less than what it is.

I’ve Got A Dark Alley and a Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth (Summer Song)
From Under the Cork Tree

Infinite jokes have been made targeting the ridiculousness of Fall Out Boy song titles—if there’s a track that deserves a mouthful, it has to be From Under the Cork Tree’s most telling ballad of emotional vulnerability and lovesickness. In 2005, critically acclaimed rock music straddled on the last legs of the garage revival and the growing emergence of landfill indie which never seemed to greet emotion further than surface level acknowledgement. Fall Out Boy dial the sad factor up to 11 and turn the distortion down on a track that sees the album’s most subdued triumph.

Hum Hallelujah
Infinity On High

In 2007 Infinity On High dominated the airwaves and found its way into the CD collections of kids and teens across the world. Only Fall Out Boy could pull off the re-appropriation of a church hymn on one of the years biggest pop albums. It’s undeniably catchy, nuanced and quirky—a formula that’s repeated constantly but never becomes stale.

(Coffee’s for Closers)
Folie à Deux

If Infinity On High’s success and experimentation foreshadowed the prophecy that Fall Out Boy were to transcend the realms of pop punk, Folie à Duex was its fulfilling. The album’s bombastic, total over-the-topness and disregard for subtlety, that received an unfair amount of backlash, is perfectly summed up by Coffee’s for Closers. The sickly melancholic track features tight orchestral elements that enhance Stump’s iconic gospel-choir inflections, bringing Wentz’ rally cries—‘Kick drum beating in my chest again’—to life. Its rock opera-esque climax that builds into a recital hall feast of horns and strings is proof as to why the band have remained a musical force to be reckoned with for so long.

Tiffany Blews
Folie à Deux

Fall Out Boy were never a band to shy away from hip-hop and R’n’B influences (see: Jay-Z’s feature on Thriller, their infamous Beat It cover, the list goes on …). Tiffany Blews sees a worship of funk-tinged lead guitar lines that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Living Colour album, as well as hand-claps and ‘woah oh’s’ drenched in as much swagger as Patrick Stump can muster, crafting a bona-fide stadium pop anthem. Lil Wayne features on the track at the peak of his relevance showcasing that Fall Out Boy knew (and still know) how to play the pop game, without compromising quality.

The Kids Aren’t Alright
American Beauty / American Psycho

Fall Out Boy’s foray into post-hiatus territory was always going to be difficult. Save Rock and Roll saw the band try their hand and sleekly crafted indie-pop, resulting in hook laden chorus and and acoustic ballads. This was taken a step further on 2015’s AB / AP, resulting in the festival fodder, iphone-light-in-the-air anthem The Kids Aren’t Alright, that seamlessly blends driving bass, whistles and an arm swinging chorus that will see a permanent spot on their setlist for years to come.

FALL OUT BOY MANIA AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2018
with special guests WAAX

WEDNESDAY 28 FEBRUARY – RIVERSTAGE, BRISBANE – Licensed All Ages
FRIDAY 2 MARCH – QUDOS BANK ARENA, SYDNEY – Licensed All Ages
SATURDAY 3 MARCH – MARGARET COURT ARENA, MELBOURNE – Licensed All Ages
MONDAY 5 MARCH *Public Holiday – RED HILL AUDITORIUM, PERTH – Licensed All Ages

TICKETS: Available now through Select Touring >