If you're a fan of music history, you know that there's a reason why some bands don't make it back together. The most common reason is because they've achieved a kind of inescapable success, and their fans simply don't believe in their potential.
Fall Out Boy are one of the few rock bands that've managed to hold onto their popularity after a decade in the public eye. It's the kind of longevity that a lot of bands can't afford, let alone find the strength to endure it.
For most rock bands, that kind of success isn't just a matter of luck - it's also about the power of your fans. Unlike pop bands, who are always in a hurry to break out of their comfort zone and push forward, Fall Out Boy have built up an army of loyalists who don't want them to stop making their music any time soon.
They've made albums that have pushed the limits of genres, and they've taken their cues from every corner of pop culture. Their music is complex, and in many ways they’ve shaped the way we think about rock music.
Irresistible is a perfect example of that. It features frontman Patrick Stump crooning about his cynical, codependent relationship with Demi Lovato in a song that's almost as bleak and painfully honest as the lyrics suggest.
Until that point, Fall Out Boy had been a band of scrappy underdogs - playing small shows in friends' living rooms and slumming it on the fringes of punk rock. That youthful scrappiness gave them a unique charm that suited their early sound - a blend of indie-pop and punk-rock that sounded like no other band at the time.