Sometime in 2008, I bought Fall Out Boy’s Infinity on High from the Woolworths store near my school. I’m going by what my past self said in the post for ‘Bang the Doldrums’, I don’t think he would have a reason to make that up. I can’t remember the exact reason as to why I did, but I’ll go ahead and hazard a guess. The album would have been out for a year by then. The music videos, particularly for ‘This Ain’t a Scene…’ and ‘Thnks fr th Mmrs’, were inescapable on MTV2 for a period. But I distinctly remember taking a strong liking to ‘”The Take Over, The Breaks Over”‘ when that tune came around. I couldn’t find anywhere online to download it. I didn’t know about Limewire or any of those types of places. And in 2007, there wasn’t the abundance of pirating music websites that would soon arrive all over the place a couple years later. So I’m guessing when I saw that copy of Infinity on High on the shelf or wherever, it was time to secure it there and then so I could listen to ‘”The Take Over…”‘ whenever I wanted.

All three of those songs – the singles, I mean – I haven’t listened to in years. Infinity on High as a whole I haven’t actually gone through in a long while. Folie à Deux, that’s the shit. But album opener ‘Thriller’ has been a longtime favourite of mine, probably since I first heard it when I chose to listen to the CD on my PlayStation 2 of all things. So I put the disc in, ‘Thriller’ – the title an obvious reference to Michael Jackson just ’cause – starts to play, and… is that Jay-Z speaking? Yes, it is. What formed the association between he and the band, I still don’t know to this day. I’m not sure whether it’s been stated outright. But it is him. He lays out the album’s preface, dedicating it to the fans and deriding the critics, before the band launch in with a heavy introduction with rapid fire palm-muted guitar notes and a double-pedalled bass drum. And then Patrick Stump comes in with the “Laaaaaaast…” etc. etc. lyric and it’s plain sailing from there onwards. His vocal performance is the best element of the entire thing.

In 2007, Fall Out Boy were more successful than they’d ever been since releasing From Under a Cork Tree two years earlier. Their major-label debut. A lot of popularity was gained, as well as a number of haters, as signature tunes like ‘Dance, Dance’ and ‘Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down’ became anthems in an emo pop resurgence that the band inadvertently became the main representatives of. ‘Thriller’ is bass guitarist and lyricist Pete Wentz’s commentary on all of this, but his main priority is to call out the fans who joined along for the ride and those who had been there from the start – affectionately labelled the ‘car crash hearts’ – which Patrick Stump does so passionately in those choruses. I’ve personally always had a liking for the “I can take your problems away with a nod and a wave of my hand ’cause that’s just the kind of boy that I am” lyric. I’ve always tried to have that effect with people, myself. The song closes out as it began, with the heavy instrumental, before Jay-Z pops in again to close the song out proper. Fitting, as ‘”The Take Over…’ follows and its title is a straight lift from one of his songs. If the band got him on the song just for that thread, I can’t really hate.