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Critic's Review
Johnny Loftus, All Music Guide
Fall Out Boy's resounding success since Take This to Your Grave and From Under the Cork Tree guaranteed the reissue of their debut mini-album. Originally released in 2002 on the California imprint Uprising, Evening Out With Your Girlfriend was a Fall Out Boy primer, a hyper tantrum of humor, self-deprecation, puppy love, and Get Up Kids worship. "World's Not Waiting (For Five Tired Boys in a Broken Down Van)" and "Short, Fast, and Loud" were album summaries in song title, harmony, and triumphant chord crash; the energetic "Honorable Mention," with its allusions to detentions and being John Cusack, wasn't far behind. "And maybe next time/I'll remember not to tell you something stupid like I'll never leave your side." The band's youth accounted for some precocious lyrical turns, considerable debts to influence, and the out-of-control moments like "Moving Pictures." But Uprising's 2005 reissue proves that Evening Out With Your Girlfriend is as vital for Fall Out Boy fans as any of the band's subsequent releases. And besides, who can resist a Parker Lewis reset? [The Uprising reissue included a label sampler that includes a track each from the Fall Out Boy-affiliated projects Project Rocket and the Kill Pill.]
