Hiatus. Normally, I would have never taken another glance at this word. But in 2009, my favorite band, Fall Out Boy, used this six-letter word to break my heart. My four favorite men had announced that they were taking an indefinite hiatus from the band and going on to other projects.
Talk about a knife to my heart. This was the band whose music I had to listen to on a daily basis in order to function properly. This was the band for whom I would risk getting grounded just to stay up and watch on “Saturday Night Live” or to watch lose the Best New Artist at The Grammys in 2006. (I’m still boycotting the Grammys because of this.)
Thankfully, I had gotten to see the band in Chicago when they were opening for Blink-182 on their reunion tour, before they officially announced they were going on hiatus. So, after I searched Wikipedia for the “truth” of the hiatus, I decided it was time to drown my soul…with the album that made me fall head over heels with four guys from the suburbs of Chicago, _From Under the Cork Tree_.
Pete Wentz absolutely shines with the lyrics on this CD. It was one of the first CDs that I pored over the lyrics, just so I knew exactly what Patrick was singing. One of the lines, “The best part of ‘believe’ is the ‘lie,’” (provided with vocals by William Beckett of The Academy Is…) stirred something in me so much, I decided to get it tattooed on my wrist. (Well, I got beLIEve. Close enough.)
All of the songs make you want to do something, whether it be dance around your room, singing into a hairbrush (not that I ever did that), mosh or just lay in your bed and absorb the music that is being pumped into your ears.
I could go on for days about how amazing this album is. It is the highlight of the band when they were in their prime, before babies and fame hit them like a ton of bricks. Seeing them perform the songs from this album live will be one of my most treasured memories.
This album got me through quite a few breakups, fights with friends and parents and utterly boring days. It made me love absolutely everything Patrick, Joe, Pete and Andy. (Including Pete’s little marriage to Ashlee Simpson.) It keeps my standards up for any other album the band has put out since.
The guys say they’re not broken up. Everyone around me says they really are. Until the day it gets announced that it’s official, I’m going to hang onto that little bit of hope, and my inner 13-year-old will dream of the day when her four favorite guys will come back and make the awesome music that they can definitely make.