We grabbed Pete Wentz a while back and put Fall Out Boy’s bassist and lyricist on the spot and made him rank the band’s back catalogue in his order of preference from favourite to… well, not quite as favoured. Hey, look, we only ask the toughest and most probing questions when we interview artists. And yes, we are aware this one is particularly cruel – but it’s always loads of fun watching people squirm…

7. AMERICAN BEAUTY / AMERICAN PSYCHO (2015)

“I like this record a lot. In some ways it was more of an extension of what we were doing on Save Rock And Roll, rather than it being a fully-fledged, standalone piece on its own. Which is fine and that’s cool and all, but I think that’s what forced M A N I A to be the departure it is.”

6. FOLIE À DEUX (2008)

“People worry that we don’t like this record, but I like it. It was a special one. We stepped out on it, but maybe we stepped out a little too far, looking back. It happened during this crazy sonic departure in culture, where the world went from having Sugar, We’re Goin Down on the radio to switching to four on the floor dance music. We had to put out a record in that context and it was so weird.”

5. TAKE THIS TO YOUR GRAVE (2003)

“There’s so many versions of me that puts this record on the top of this list, because it was the one that started it all. Making that record, we only had that amount of songs. We recorded it with no money and so there was so much that happened in the making of it that just happened by chance. Even meeting the Fueled By Ramen guys…”

4. SAVE ROCK AND ROLL (2013)

“It was really important for us. I don’t think any of us were sure what to expect coming back. Was it going to be a cult following? Or maybe we’d do one more tour and that would be it? That record did a lot of the heavy lifting to say, ‘You guys can really do this again.’ For everybody involved it felt astonishing. It felt a little bit like a magic trick.”

3. FROM UNDER THE CORK TREE (2005)

“Without Sugar, We’re Goin Down and the video for that song, I probably wouldn’t be speaking to Kerrang! right now. That was the one that really opened everything up for us. I remember all those moments so fondly: Warped Tour, TRL and all that.”

2. M A N I A (2018)

“For a lot of reasons, this is not a record we could have made five or 10 years ago. But I also think that this was one that came from a place of a lot of… I wouldn’t say tension exactly, but with having to scrap it and push it back, this was a record that feels important and it’s one we went through a lot to make.”

1. INFINITY ON HIGH (2007)

“It’s really hard not to do the new puppy thing and put M A N I A at number one, so I’ll say Infinity On High. That was both the easiest and hardest record for us to make, but more than any other record, it was a make or break one: for the band staying together, staying relevant in pop culture… all of that. I remember being told by a guy at our label that [This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An] Arms Race would be the end of our career!”

Posted on August 1st 2019, 12:04pm