Take This to Your Grave by Fall Out Boy

Take This to Your Grave is the debut studio album by American rock band Fall Out Boy, released on May 6, 2003 by Fueled by Ramen. When the band was signed to Island Records, the label employed an unusual strategy that allowed them to sign with independent label Fueled by Ramen for their debut and later move to Island for their second album. Sean O'Keefe had helped with the band's demo, and they returned to Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin to record the bulk of their first album with him. Living on a stranger's floor for part of the time and running out of money halfway through, the band recorded seven songs in nine days, bringing them together with the additional three from the demo. While Patrick Stump had previously written all of its lyrics and took them lightly, Pete Wentz took to the process with considerable seriousness and obsessively picked apart his bandmate's lyrics. The exhausting process led to numerous revisions of single songs and several arguments. The album cover, which shows the four bandmates sitting on a broken futon, features a blue tint reminiscent of jazz records, and was the second choice after the original was rejected by the label. Take This to Your Grave gradually created interest in the band as they toured across the country, including a five-day stint on Warped Tour 2004. The album produced three singles, including the minor success "Grand Theft Autumn/Where Is Your Boy", and has often been named as a vital blueprint for pop punk, with Alternative Press calling it a "subcultural touchstone" and a "magical, transcendent, and deceptively smart pop punk masterpiece that ushered in a vibrant scene resurgence with a potent combination of charisma, new media marketing and hardcore-punk urgency".