Fall Out Boy Separate Themselves with From Under the Cork Tree

From Under the Cork Tree, the major label debut from Fall Out Boy is a piece of modern art. All the elements from the widely succesful Take This to Your Grave are here. The hooks, the lyrics, and yes, the profoundly long song titles such as "Our Lawyer Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued" and "I've Got A Dark Alley And A Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth."

Lyrically, bassist Pete Wentz delivers again with lines like "Douse Yourself in Cheap Perfume/It's So Fitting Of The Way You Are/You Can't Cover It Up" ["I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me"]. With this effort, Wentz, Vocalist/Guitarist Patrick Stump, Guitarist Joe Troman, and Drummer Andy Hurley, give us a fuller, and dare I say, more produced sound. 

It is the sound you get when you arrive. Produced by Neil Avron (New Found Glory), Cork Tree's sound is crisper and cleaner than the Boy's previous disc. Aside from penning this record, Wentz got into the vocal duties as well, trading off throat wrenching growls with New Found Glory's Chad Gilbert on "I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy and All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me." 

Also making appearances on Cork Tree are The Academy Is...'s William Beckett on "Sophmore Slump or Comeback of the Year," and Panic! At The Disco's Brendan Disco on "7 Minutes In Heaven (Atavan Halen)." With From Under The Cork Tree, aka Take This To Your Grave On Steriods, Fall Out Boy offers hook after hook, song after song. 

It has the obviously catchy tunes-"Of All The Gin Joints In All The World" to the darker side with "Dance, Dance," but overall this is a collection of 13 very well written tracks worthy of any major label. With Cork Tree, Fall Out Boy separate themselves from the crowded Pop-Rock pack.