Fall Out Boy album moved back six weeks

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Fall Out Boy has delayed the release of its new album by six weeks to December 16, citing concerns over the planned election day tie-in for "Folie a Deux."

"Six months ago we thought it would be a fun idea to release our album on election day but this is not the election to be cute," the band said in a statement. "We felt as though rather than making a commentary we were only riding the wave of the election. This seemed less and less like what we intended to do and more of a gimmick."

Later Monday, Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz said December 16 "is not the date we had originally planned nor the optimal date according some demographic marketing analysis, (but) we put our eight feet down and told our label it must come out this year."

A spokesperson for the group's Island Records label was not immediately available for comment.

To offset the delay, Fall Out Boy promised "a surprise or two" (one of which has been identified as an Elvis Costello guest appearance) as well as "an extensive preorder campaign that will take into account the current state of our economy" and both new songs and a podcast series via iTunes.

The first single from the album, "I Don't Care," has sold 167,000 downloads in four weeks of U.S. release, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

As another olive branch to expectant fans, Fall Out Boy will play "extremely small club shows" in the U.S. in November, with tickets only being available on the day of. Details have yet to be announced.

"Folie a Deux" is the follow-up to "Infinity on High," which debuted at No. 1 in February 2007 and went on to sell 1.3 million copies.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter