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.

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 Fueled by Ramen label.

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 2000s 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".

[1] Fall Out Boy was formed in 2001 in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette, Illinois by friends Pete Wentz and Joe Trohman.

Wentz was a "visible fixture" of the relatively small Chicago hardcore punk scene of the late 1990s, performing in various groups including the metalcore band Arma Angelus.

[2] Wentz was growing dissatisfied with the changing mores of the community, which he viewed as a transition from political activism to an emphasis on moshing and breakdowns.

[5] With Logan's help, the group put together a collection of songs in two days, and recorded them as Fall Out Boy's Evening Out with Your Girlfriend.

[6] The band booked a two-week tour with Spitalfield, and invited Hurley to fill-in for recently departed members, while Stump borrowed one of Trohman's guitars for the trek.

[7] John Janick of Fueled by Ramen had heard an early version of a song online and cold-called the band at their apartment, first reaching Stump and later talking to Wentz for an hour.

[7] Fueled by Ramen, at the time the smallest of independent labels clamoring to sign the band, would effectively release their debut album, and help build their ever-expanding fanbase before they moved to Island.

[6] The pre-production phase was completed in a warehouse the band used at night, free of charge, where they discussed how they wanted the songs to sound.

"[4] According to Johnny Loftus of AllMusic, Take This to Your Grave's lyrical content "merges musings on love and youth with healthy amounts of cutting cynicism, savvy popular culture touchstones, and cheeky phraseology".

[14] While Stump did not take his lyrics seriously, Wentz had recently re-committed himself to the band and "it felt like he had a list of things in his head he wanted to do right.

[14] Stump was more concerned with the melodies, including the rhythm, syncopation and alliteration of words, while Wentz felt none of it mattered if the lyrics themselves lacked meaning.

"[14] "'Tell That Mick He Just Made My List of Things to Do Today'" opens with a telephone dial tone, which Wentz found particularly enjoyable, as it provided stark contrast to the louder instrumentation to follow.

[13] The song's chorus was the result of many arguments between Wentz and Stump over the phonetic phrasing of words versus their meaning.

"[14] Lyrics such as "Let's play this game called 'when you catch fire' / I wouldn't piss to put you out," were inspired by Chris Conley's use of bizarre metaphors to prove a point on Saves the Day's Through Being Cool.

[13] "Grenade Jumper" references Christopher Gutierrez, a member of the Fall Out Boy precursor band Arma Angelus.

[13] The blue-tinted cover of Take This to Your Grave features the band's four members—left to right, Pete Wentz, Andy Hurley, Patrick Stump and Joe Trohman—sitting on a couch with their names printed above, in a nod to classic Blue Note jazz records.

[clarification needed] It was originally intended to be used on the back cover, and left one unnamed member of the band "pissed about it forever".

When it was sent to Fueled by Ramen for approval, the label responded that they "couldn't clear any of this stuff," such as posters of Cher, Morrissey and Edward Scissorhands, and images of Count Chocula and Darth Vader.

[14] Wentz elaborated on the selection of that particular image and not the record's original cover: "It makes me wonder: How many of these things are just accidental moments?

[24] Gradually, the band's fanbase grew as Fueled by Ramen pushed for the album's mainstream success[clarification needed].

The album was re-released in January 2005 as Take This to Your Grave: Director's Cut for a run of 5000 copies, featuring a dance remix and a cover of The Police's "Roxanne", along with enhanced CD footage of the band commentating and breaking down each song, and the music video for "Saturday".

Johnny Loftus of AllMusic described the album as a "spectacular debut art project," calling it "a smart collection of emo-influenced pop-punk tunes".

[17] Rolling Stone wrote that "FOB show[s] a knack for mixing caffeinated, up-tempo tunes with sensitive, tortured lyrics [...] Overall, it's the run-of-the-mill stuff you'd hear from just about any other Warped Tour act.

Alternative Press called the album a "subcultural touchstone," describing it as "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".

"[36] Gigwise called the album "an almost flawless slice of pop-punk [...] The record had just the right amount of sincerity, cynicism and slick pop-culture references — it didn't matter if you were 14 or 24, TTTYG would appeal to the streak of teenage bitterness inside all of us.

"[37] * denotes an unordered list All lyrics are written by Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump, except where noted; all music is composed by Fall Out BoyFall Out Boy Additional musicians Artwork