Folie à Deux (album)
Folie à Deux ([fɔli a dø]; French for "A Madness Shared by Two") is the fourth studio album by American rock band Fall Out Boy, released on December 10, 2008, by Island Records. As with their previous two albums From Under the Cork Tree (2005) and Infinity on High (2007), its music was composed by lead vocalist and guitarist Patrick Stump, with lyrics penned by bassist Pete Wentz. Regarding the writing process, the band considered Folie à Deux to be their most collaborative record.
This article is about the Fall Out Boy album. For the psychiatric syndrome, see Folie à deux.Folie à Deux
December 10, 2008
July–September 2008
The Pass Studios and The Casita, Hollywood, California
50:23 (52:23 with hidden track)
Unlike their earlier releases, the album was recorded in relative secrecy with producer Neal Avron from July to September 2008. The recording sessions inspired lyricism relating to decaying relationships, moral dilemmas, and societal shortcomings, many with a political edge. The album's style moved away from early emo power chords and toward a wider variation in genres. Fall Out Boy recruited several guest artists for Folie à Deux, as well as employing instruments and recording techniques previously unfamiliar to the group. To promote the album, the band launched a viral campaign based around a Big Brother-type organization named "Citizens For Our Betterment" and embarked on an extensive tour schedule.
Folie à Deux debuted at number eight on the US Billboard 200, selling over 149,000 copies in its first week of sales, although it was less commercially successful than Infinity on High. The album received favorable reviews from critics, with many focused on the creativity and various styles touched on while others expressed concern that it was overly indulgent. As of 2013, Folie à Deux has sold over 449,000 copies in the United States.[1]
Composition[edit]
Music[edit]
On Folie à Deux, Fall Out Boy continued its pattern of musical experimentation that began on the band's previous album, Infinity on High. Singer/guitarist Patrick Stump was once again the primary composer, and attempted to create compositions that echoed the themes discussed in Wentz's lyrics.[22] As the lyrical content shifted in new directions from the group's previous works, the musical style employed by the other band members evolved as well. On this topic, Trohman commented "It's not like we said, 'We want to push the envelope,' It's not that at all. We just wanted to try cooler things. The album still sounds like Fall Out Boy. It has big choruses. But you can't do the same thing every record."[15]
The record contains more instruments not present in the band's previous work, including synthesizers, sequenced drums, and strings.[23] Critics noted similarities between the album and 1980s arena rock.[24] Joey Rosen of Rolling Stone commented that "They further explore their funky side here: Stump is emerging as one of the world's most unlikely blue-eyed-soul stars, breathing life into classic R&B chord progressions and flaunting his agile voice."[25] Trohman drew influence from Queen while creating guitar harmonies to match Stump's vocals on the record, while his other styles were inspired by Metallica, Prince, and The Rolling Stones.[14] He also employs a jazz guitar interlude on "w.a.m.s." which has been likened to Steely Dan.[26] Trohman felt that the band were musically expanding at a thoughtful pace: "To me, it felt as if this was our version of Queen's shift from the hard rock of Sheer Heart Attack to the genre-bending experimentation of A Night at the Opera," he said in 2021.[19]
The pregap hidden track "Lullabye" is an acoustic ballad influenced by Bob Dylan, written with the intention of helping Wentz' son, Bronx Mowgli, fall asleep.[27] Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly categorized the album's opener, "Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes", as a "towering guitar anthem built on wedding-march organs, thundering drums, and singer Patrick Stump's limber vocals."[28] "Coffee's for Closers" is similarly percussive and features drummer Andy Hurley drawing influence from marching band drumwork.[22] The first single "I Don't Care" has been described as "disco rockabilly", and contains a repeating blues riff throughout the song; Stump's vocal performance on the track has been compared to John Lee Hooker.[23][26]
"Headfirst Slide into Cooperstown on a Bad Bet" is an example of the album's theme of contrasting moods, and "struts in on a massive drum line and crunching, processed guitars, gets amplified by a four-piece horn section, then falls away to a simple, somber piano line" according to James Montgomery of MTV.[22] The Elton John-influenced "What a Catch, Donnie" is a piano-driven ballad that features a string section in the background.[26] As the song closes, it features Brendon Urie, Alexander DeLeon, Travie McCoy, Gabe Saporta, Elvis Costello, and William Beckett singing parts of previous Fall Out Boy songs.[29] According to Stump, the song contains lyrics that were important to the band and "gives us the chance for this record to come full circle".[29] The backing vocals in "America's Suitehearts" have been compared to groups such as The Beatles.[25] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic stated "Fall Out Boy pile everything onto their fifth album: cameos from superstars and running mates, so many that Lil Wayne and Debbie Harry are barely heard; thundering arena rock rhythms and ultra-slick hair metal riffs; hints of soul and R&B."[30] Critics have described the album as being a power pop,[31][32] pop rock,[33] pop,[24][34] R&B,[35][30] pop-punk,[36][37] and alternative rock[38] album.
Commercial performance[edit]
Folie à Deux has sold 449,000 copies in the US to date February 2013,[82] but did not perform as well commercially as its predecessor, Infinity on High. It debuted at number eight on the US Billboard 200 chart with first week sales of 149,000 copies during a highly competitive week with other big debuts, becoming Fall Out Boy's third consecutive top ten album.[83][84] This is in contrast to the band's more successful previous effort which shifted 260,000 copies in its opening week to debut at number one the chart.[84] Folie spent two weeks within the top 20 out of its 22 chart weeks.[83] It also entered Billboard's Rock Albums and Alternative Albums charts at number three.[83] With 39,000 digital downloads as part of its sales totals in its debut week, the record opened at number one on Billboard Digital Albums chart, the band's second number one album on that chart. Fall Out Boy was bested in the group's chart debut by R&B singers Keyshia Cole—whose A Different Me landed at number two on sales of more than 321,000—and Jamie Foxx, whose Intuition logged 265,000 for a number three debut.[84] Taylor Swift's Fearless reigned at number one during that week.[84] Within two months of its release, Folie à Deux was certified Gold in the United States by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), denoting shipments of 500,000 copies.[85]
Outside the United States, the album was also less widely successful than Infinity on High but managed to reach the top 10 in Australia where it received a Platinum certification from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for shipments of 70,000 units.[86] On the Australian chart, the record debuted and peaked at number nine and spent its first seven weeks within the top 20 out of its fifteen weeks in the top 40. In the United Kingdom, the album spent six weeks on the UK Albums Chart and was later certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for the shipments of 60,000 units.[87] Folie logged 12 weeks on the New Zealand Albums Chart with a peak of 26. The album also peaked at number twenty-one on the Top Canadian Albums chart.
Legacy[edit]
Though the band distanced themselves from the album initially, Folie à Deux has seen renewed acclaim in recent years. It has been widely described as ambitious,[96] and "radically different".[97] Stereogum's Annie Zaleski praised the "gigantic leaps in songwriting."[98] In 2023, Stump described their eighth album, So Much for Stardust, as "what would it have sounded like if we had made a record right after Folie instead of taking a break for a few years."[99] For the album's fifteenth anniversary, the band issued "Pavlove", a song only available on deluxe versions of the album, to streaming services for the first time.[100] Additionally, the band released a vinyl reissue, plus merchandise and apparel celebrating the album's anniversary.[101] The same year, the band also resumed performing many of the album's songs live, including "Headfirst Slide"[102] and "Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes". "I feel like we’re gonna work some more of it in at future shows," Wentz confirmed.[103]