Folie à Deux (; French for "madness of two") is the fourth studio album by the American rock band Fall Out Boy, first released in Japan 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.
Unlike their prior 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 received positive reviews from critics, with many focused on the creativity and various styles touched on, while others expressed concern that it was overly indulgent. It did not build on the commercial success of Infinity on High, debuting at number eight on the US Billboard 200 and selling over 149,000 copies in its first week of sales. As of 2013, Folie à Deux has sold over 449,000 copies in the United States.Fall Out Boy to 'Save Rock and Roll' in May Billboard. Retrieved July 16, 2013.
Folie à Deux was Fall Out Boy's last studio album before their hiatus from 2009 to 2013. The band released a greatest hits album, Believers Never Die – Greatest Hits in November 2009, before announcing the hiatus just days later.
Background
Fall Out Boy began writing material for a possible successor shortly after the release of the 2007 album, Infinity on High. In March 2008, the band attempted to enter the Guinness Book of World Records for being the only musical act to perform in all seven continents in nine months, planning to perform in Antarctica for an audience of scientists. However, the group was unable to make the flight from Punta Arenas, Chile to Antarctica due to poor weather. Despite this unsuccessful attempt, the group felt energized from the experience and became inspired to write more music. This led to more material to sift through when the band decided to enter the studio. Fall Out Boy spent time during June 2008 formulating ideas at Avron's home, where "three to four" song ideas were developed. Lead vocalist/guitarist Patrick Stump and bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz began turning these ideas into songs over the following month. Wentz explained that the process was the same as usual: "I'll go over to Patrick's house and he'll kind of just sit there and play songs, and I'll be like, 'Ah, that one's awesome!'"
The band intended to work on new music sooner, but the release of its cover of Michael Jackson's "Beat It" as a single stood in the way. The single "stalled out" label Island Records, who wanted the band to film a music video for further promotion. Stump entered the studio with the intention of being less "self-indulgent", believing he dominated the band's previous record. He wished to focus more on creating a cohesive album in which different sounds come together instead of featuring his vocals at the forefront. With the help of Neal Avron, who produced Fall Out Boy's last two records, the quartet decided to simplify the music on Folie à Deux as opposed to the multi-layered sound of Infinity on High. The band was interviewed about the album constantly before even a single note was recorded, leading to misconceptions about how the record would sound. The album was first rumored to consist of entirely acoustic folk music, while other sources later alleged it would delve into rap rock.
Recording and production The band members elected to maintain a relatively low public profile during the recording of Folie à Deux, following the intense media attention that accompanied their previous album, Infinity on High. Singer Patrick Stump entered the studio with a large volume of material, reportedly 50 songs. Unlike the band’s earlier, more thematically interconnected releases, the album was conceived as a stylistically broader, more "freeing" project. The group purposefully cut short the amount of time set aside for recording the album and did not notify label executives before beginning work on the record, aiming to recreate the urgency of their early career. "There was something really interesting about that creative process when we were starting," explained Stump. "The more time you have, the more potential you have for excess." He felt that the process was reminiscent of the making of Take This to Your Grave because both albums were created using a "first-thought, best-thought" mentality: "I think we were trying to find what making a record that way would sound like now, but with four adult Fall Out Boys." Producer Neal Avron, who had worked on the band's prior two albums, returned to oversee the sessions.
The recording and release of Folie à Deux took place during a period of mounting internal strain and external distraction for Fall Out Boy. By this stage, the band had maintained a demanding cycle of touring and recording for several years, while simultaneously navigating increasingly complex personal lives and public attention. Producer Neal Avron recalled that tabloid scrutiny surrounding bassist Pete Wentz—including intense paparazzi presence during sessions—contributed to a chaotic atmosphere. In retrospect, Stump described the period as one in which the band, alongside Avron, reached a creative peak musically, while interpersonal relationships within the group were at a low point. Avron described increased "bickering" and a reduced day-to-day studio presence from Wentz; he remembered that the lead single "I Don't Care" emerged in part from a contentious exchange between Stump and Wentz. Stump recalled: "I threw something across the room over a major-to-minor progression." By this point, Stump later conceded, "I had gotten tired of trying to retrofit my melodies with Pete lyrics and Pete had gotten tired of trying to push melody ideas."
Folie à Deux overall saw Stump take on a more prominent role within the band, with his musical sensibilities shaping the album more strongly than on previous releases. The record incorporates a broader range of influences, including pop and R&B, as well as artists such as Prince, Michael Jackson, and Elvis Costello. Although the band’s interpersonal dynamics had shifted—appearing less cohesive than in earlier years and, to some observers, operating more like "coworkers" than a close-knit unit—concerted efforts were made to foster a more collaborative creative process. On earlier releases, guitarist Joe Trohman and drummer Andy Hurley had expressed concerns about limited creative input, as songwriting was largely driven by Stump and Wentz. During the development of Folie à Deux, efforts were made to address this imbalance, with Trohman in particular seeking greater involvement in the band's creative process. At the same time, Trohman was dealing with personal challenges, including substance abuse, which ultimately affected the extent of his songwriting contributions.
The album also features additional collaborations, including guest cameos from Costello, Lil Wayne, and Pharrell Williams, who developed beats for "W.A.M.S.". The inclusion of numerous guest performers was intended to serve a conceptual role, with Wentz likening them to characters within a play. Some tracks, such as "What a Catch, Donnie", took on a retrospective tone; Stump later indicated that he and other members felt the band might be "winding down," shaping the song into a self-referential piece that incorporated motifs from earlier works and featured guest contributions from contemporaries of the mid-aughts emo scene, including Brendon Urie, Travie McCoy, Gabe Saporta, Alexander DeLeon, and William Beckett. Participants in the recording process described the track as carrying the atmosphere of a farewell.
Composition
Music 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. 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."
The record contains more instruments not present in the band's previous work, including synthesizers, sequenced drums, and strings. Critics noted similarities between the album and 1980s arena rock. 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." 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. He also employs a jazz guitar interlude on "w.a.m.s." which has been likened to Steely Dan. 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.
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. 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." "Coffee's for Closers" is similarly percussive and features drummer Andy Hurley drawing influence from marching band drumwork. 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.