These days, albums are delayed for all sorts of reasons, but Fall Out Boy's Folie à Deux could be the first in history to get bumped for patriotic purposes.

In a statement posted Monday (October 13) on FriendsOrEnemies.com, FOB announced that Folie, which was originally -- and [article id="1593554"]very pointedly[/article] -- scheduled to hit stores November 4, is being delayed because the band felt that the upcoming presidential election is too important to be mocked. Seriously.

"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. This is the most important election of our time and, as much as the record is a social commentary and the term 'folie à deux' is relevant to the candidates, 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," their statement read in part. "While we have all individually expressed our positions on the candidates that we support, we feel that many of the interviews and press for the record have skewed us into a partisan band. We never intended to be the band that shoved our ideas down people's throats. We only hope people look at the bigger picture and investigate the issues further on their own."

So, just when will Folie see the light of day? Why, that's a very good question -- which is why we e-mailed FOB's Pete Wentz to find the answer. And after a day spent searching for a reliable Internet connection in Europe (where Fall Out are on tour), he finally got back to us.

"Folie à Deux will be released on December 16. While that late in the year may be a surprise to some, we felt that it was important to get our record out this year for our fans," he wrote. "Though this is not the date we had originally planned, nor the optimal date according to some demographic marketing analysis, we put our eight feet down [and] told our label it must come out this year. We're already bummed enough that [article id="1596681"]Chinese Democracy is gonna beat us to release[/article]."

So there you have it. No reason was given for the delay, and while the whole "this is the most important election of our time" thing does seem rather, well, honorable, it might not be entirely valid. For months, there have been whispers that FOB might be at odds with their label, Island Def Jam, over the handling of the album. Just a few weeks back, [article id="1595765"]Pete Wentz publically fumed[/article] about a product-placement-heavy version of their "I Don't Care" video that debuted on iTunes without the band's permission -- and Monday's statement doesn't exactly shy away from placing the onus squarely on the label.

It also probably didn't help matters that the label already has a rather stacked November release schedule, with both the Killers' [article id="1591701"]Day and Age[/article] and Kanye West's [article id="1596368"]808s and Heartbreaks[/article] due later in the month. (MTV News' calls to Island Def Jam for comment on the situation had not been returned at press time).

In the meantime, Fall Out Boy promised fans that they would make up for the Folie delay by adding "a surprise or two to the record," including a "golden ticket" campaign and a new preorder scheme "that will take into account the current state of our economy." They also wrote that they would honor all existing preorders for the album and announced plans for a special fans-only small-club tour, to kick off when Folie was supposed to hit stores.

"We are extremely sorry, but we feel that we are doing this for reasons that suit our ideals and are unselfish," they wrote. "We are now playing a select series of extremely small-club shows in the States in November. This will not be a tour and will not be in areas we have played in a while. These shows will take place in extremely small clubs that we played in prior to Take This to Your Grave. Tickets will be very affordable and only available on day of."

[This story was originally published at 1:59 pm E.T. on 10.13.08.]