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Take This to Your Grave

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Professional ratings
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Allmusic[1]
Punktastic[2]
Rolling Stone[3]

Take This to Your Grave is the second studio album and first full-length release by American rock band Fall Out Boy. It is the group's first release under the Fueled by Ramen label and was released on May 6, 2003. The album title is taken from a line from the lyrics of the track "The Patron Saint of Liars and Fakes", which reads "Take this to your grave, and I'll take it to mine". It is the first album to feature current drummer Andy Hurley. Take This to Your Grave was recorded with a $40,000 investment from Island Records but worked by Fueled by Ramen.[4]

The album became an underground success and helped the band gain a dedicated fanbase,[5] as well as some minor commercial success. With singles "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy" and "Saturday" receiving video airplay on FUSE, mtvU and Target's in-store video stream and radio airplay on mainstream stations across the country, the album sold very well and was eventually certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of 500,000 units, but only in 2006,[6] after the success of the band's follow-up 2005 album, From Under the Cork Tree. Take This to Your Grave has sold over 553,000 units in the United States as of 2007, according to Nielsen SoundScan,[4] most of which came after the successes of the band's later albums, From Under the Cork Tree (2005) and Infinity on High (2007).

Background

Fall Out Boy formed near Chicago, Illinois in 2001.[7] The band debuted with a self-released demo in the same year, and in 2002 the group released its first full-length album, Fall Out Boy's Evening Out with Your Girlfriend through Uprising Records.[8] Both releases helped Fall Out Boy gain notoriety on the internet and attention from record labels. The band signed with indie label Fueled by Ramen and received an advance from major label Island Records, which financed the production of Take This to Your Grave.[8]

Recording and production

Take This to Your Grave was recorded at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin.[9][10] During the making of the album, the band members slept on the floor of a stranger's house for two weeks. The group ran out of money halfway through the process, so they asked the studio who provided them with soda to give them small amounts of food instead.[10] Drummer Andy Hurley compared the making of Take This to Your Grave to "going to war", stating that recording with the rest of the band was similar "being in the trenches together".[11] The group's goal with Grave was to make an album that was as "seamless and good from song to song" as Saves the Day's Through Being Cool.[11] The pre-production phase was completed in a warehouse that the band used for free at night. Here, the group members discussed how they wished the record to sound. Many songs intended for the album did not fit, and the band originally planned to use the leftovers for future albums, but abandoned the songs instead.[11]

Music

According to Johnny Loftus of Allmusic, Take This to Your Grave's lyrical content "merges musings on love and youth with healthy amounts of cutting cynicism, savvy popular culture touchstones, and cheeky phraseology."[12] Stump wrote "Saturday" about how he felt like a failure upon graduating from high school and originally kept the song to himself until the group needed additional songs.[13] Stump then collaborated with bassist Pete Wentz to complete the song's lyrics.[13] "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy" deals with jealousy and unrequited love.[14]

Album information

In the Take This to Your Grave album period, Fall Out Boy was in its early independent days and played small local shows, before their later mainstream success.

After the initial album release, a limited edition 12" vinyl edition of Take This To Your Grave was released. It featured an alternate cover. In addition to the regular album tracks, it featured a new dance remix to the album song "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy". The vinyl was limited to one pressing of 500 copies of a green camouflage version, and one 500-copy pressing of a black vinyl version. Both versions also came with six giant trading cards. After that, it was re-released as an Enhanced CD on January 25, 2005 as Take This to Your Grave: Director's Cut, limited to 5000 units. The CD features an enhanced section with video of the band breaking down each song word-by-word and note-by-note, all the songs from the original album release and two new tracks: a cover of The Police's "Roxanne" and the dance remix of "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy"[15] Grave was re-released on vinyl, a limited pressing of 2500 copies.

"Dead on Arrival", "Saturday", and "Homesick at Space Camp" were recorded as a demo session in two days, almost a year before going back into the studio to record seven other songs that would eventually make up the entire album. Those additional other seven songs were recorded in nine days with producer Sean O'Keefe. "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy" and "Grenade Jumper" were recorded in another demo session.[citation needed]

In the Take This To Your Grave: Directors Cut video, Fall Out Boy lead singer and guitarist Patrick Stump and bassist Pete Wentz discuss the partnership of the song writing for the album. Originally, Stump wrote the lyrics as well as the music, as witnessed in many places throughout the album. The songs "Dead on Arrival", "Grenade Jumper", and "Calm Before The Storm" were originally written by Patrick. "Saturday" was written by Patrick, but Pete realized the oddity of Patrick singing "Pat and I" and change the lyrics accordingly. Pete later went back and added his own lyrics to certain parts (e.g. changing the second verse of "Calm Before the Storm"). In interviews, Pete and Patrick have discussed how "The Pros and Cons of Breathing" was the first song written in the structure of how they write songs currently—Patrick writing the music and Pete writing all the lyrics. ""Tell That Mick He Just Made My List of Things to Do Today"" and "The Patron Saint of Liars and Fakes" are other examples of this song writing partnership, however, Patrick wrote the lyrics to the first verse and chorus of "The Patron Saint of Liars and Fakes", while Pete wrote lyrics to the second verse. More so, Patrick wrote the lyrics to the chorus of "Chicago is So Two Years Ago", while Pete wrote the verses.

The single "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy" was very close to not making the final cut for the album as frontman Patrick Stump was not a fan of the song at first. In the end the band decided to include it in the album, and later released it as the second single. It reached #84 on the defunct US Billboard Pop 100 in 2005. "Calm Before the Storm" was re-recorded for this album. An earlier version was featured on their debut mini-LP, Fall Out Boy's Evening Out with Your Girlfriend.

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Pete Wentz, Patrick Stump; all music is composed by Patrick Stump

No.TitleLength
1.""Tell That Mick He Just Made My List of Things to Do Today""3:30
2."Dead on Arrival"3:14
3."Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy"3:11
4."Saturday"3:36
5."Homesick at Space Camp"3:08
6."Sending Postcards from a Plane Crash (Wish You Were Here)"2:56
7."Chicago Is So Two Years Ago" (guest vocals by Justin Pierre of Motion City Soundtrack)3:19
8."The Pros and Cons of Breathing"3:21
9."Grenade Jumper"2:58
10."Calm Before the Storm"4:29
11."Reinventing the Wheel to Run Myself Over"2:21
12."The Patron Saint of Liars and Fakes"3:19
Total length:39:26
Take This to Your Grave: Director's Cut (Bonus track)
No.TitleLength
13."Roxanne" (The Police cover)3:11
14."Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy" (Dance remix)3:48

Charting

Take This to Your Grave debuted on the US Billboard Heatseeker Albums chart at #31 week ending March 6, 2004, almost a year after its initial May 2003 release, and peaked at #11 week ending January 15 2005 which was also almost another year later and spent twenty eight chart weeks in total. After its first three weeks, at #31, #41 and #22, the album fell off the charts and re-entered four months later at #29, falling out after logging nine more weeks after that. Three months later it re-entered at #37, then the next week saw a rise to #34 and peaked at #11, and then logged another eight weeks (below No. 20). Again, it fell off and shortly re-entered at #43 an inched up to #42 before dropping off and re-entering at #48 and spent its last week two years after Take This to Your Grave's release at #47 week ending May 14, 2005, as the band's follow-up release From Under the Cork Tree debuted at #9 which made the band inelligible to chart on the Heatseeker Albums chart.[16]

Weekly charts

Chart (2004-2006) Peak
position
UK Albums Chart[17] 96
US Heatseeker Albums[16] 17
US Billboard Independent Albums[16] 11
US Billboard Catalog Albums[16] 10

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
United States (RIAA)[18] Gold 500,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Personnel

Band members

The song "Reinventing the Wheel to Run Myself Over" was featured in the video game Burnout 3: Takedown.[19]

References

  1. ^ Loftus, Johnny. Take This to Your Grave at AllMusic
  2. ^ "Punktastic CD Reviews: Fall Out Boy - Take This To Your Grave". Punktastic.com. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
  3. ^ "Fall Out Boy: Album Guide". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2012-04-29. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ a b Martens, Todd (January 27, 2007). "Scene Is Believing: Fall Out Boy". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
  5. ^ "Bands - Fall Out Boy - Biography". Alternative Press. Alternative Press Magazine, Inc. Retrieved October 2, 2011.
  6. ^ "American certifications – Fall Out Boy – Take This to Your Grave". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 2009-11-22.
  7. ^ Wiederhorn, Jon. "You Hear It First - Fall Out Boy". MTV News. Viacom. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
  8. ^ a b Loftus, Johnny. "Biography: Fall Out Boy". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2009-11-22.
  9. ^ Take This to Your Grave (Media notes). Fueled By Ramen. 2003. {{cite AV media notes}}: |format= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |artist= ignored (|others= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |publisherid= ignored (help)
  10. ^ a b D'Angelo, Joe (December 8, 2004). "Fall Out Boy No Longer Forced To Sleep On Strangers' Floors". MTV News. Viacom. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
  11. ^ a b c Believers Never Die – Greatest Hits (Media notes). Island Records/Fueled By Ramen/Decaydance. 2009. {{cite AV media notes}}: |format= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |artist= ignored (|others= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |publisherid= ignored (help)
  12. ^ Loftus, Johnny. "Review - Fall Out Boy's Take This to Your Grave". Allmusic. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
  13. ^ a b (2004) "Take This to Your Grave - Director's Cut". Fueled By Ramen.
  14. ^ Mervis, Jake (July 18, 2003). "Fall Out Boy: Take This to Your Grave Review". Orlando Sentinel. Howard Greenberg. Retrieved October 1, 2011.
  15. ^ "Releases". Fueled By Ramen. Retrieved 2011-08-08.
  16. ^ a b c d "Take This to Your Grave - Fall Out Boy | Billboard.com". billboard.com. Retrieved 9 August 2011.
  17. ^ "Chart Log UK: Adam F - FYA". Dipl.-Bibl.(FH) Tobias Zywietz. Retrieved July 8, 2011.
  18. ^ "American album certifications – Fall Out Boy – Take This to Your Grave". Recording Industry Association of America.
  19. ^ Burnout 3: Takedown Soundtrack IGN. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
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