A Fever You Canât Sweat Out (a song by song break down) is
AFYCSO went double platinum!! So in honorâŠ
Ryan obviously knows that the best writing has no one specific meaning, and he loves to play with irony and double meanings. His songs are reflective of Hemingwayâs iceberg theory, in that he doesnât tell you everything but you can fill in the holes with what can be inferred. Keep in mind that everyone can decipher these songs for themselves, only the band knows the real meaning.
Purpose: States that the album will be a telling of fictitious rough stories and things that only keep the mediaâs attention until the ânext big thingâ comes along.
The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage
This song can be looked at in parts. Itâs an introduction to them as a band and what they want, as well as being a promise that they will always just âkeep doing them.â It introduces Panic! as a band; how they want to be big, make a difference, and be known. This song highlights that they are young; they still have dreams, ambitions and a want for attention, and they know that that want is commonly confused with over-confidence. This song is a promise that they donât plan on quitting, after all afycso is the âprologueâ of their careers. They also make a statement on the current music industry saying how many artists only try to make what sells. Itâs saying not everything (in media) is as it seems. Theyâre telling you that theyâre not going to be like that⊠or theyâll try. Itâs a promise that theyâre here for the music, as long as we are too.
London Beckoned Songs About Money Written by Machines
About: how they will handle the opinions that will certainly thrown there way after the album is released. They make it clear that they want to be original, be themselves and not worry about what people (critics included) will think. Itâs a simple statement of âlike us for who we are or donât like us at all,â In this song, the band states that they do want people to like it but if they donât, then simply âshrug it offâ and donât listen to their music. It's them saying that theyâll keep doing what theyâre doing if everyone âdisapprovesâ or if they become a big hit. The song concludes at the end of the day, they donât care about the criticâs opinions.
Nails for Breakfast, Tacks for Snacks
This song is part one of a story that is continued in Camisado.
Story: Someone is in the situation of being at a hospice close to death because of a failed suicide (by overdose on prescription drugs). They have put themselves in this situation so many times that going to the hospice has become a getaway from there own life and problems. While theyâre hospitalized, they question god, asking why they have not died yet. At the hospital they are just prescribed more pills (for depression) to offset the pills they should have taken one at a time originally. The main individual feels alone everywhere and no matter how many pills are prescribed, nothing changes. What this person needs is a moment of self-discovery (an epiphany). In short, the patient needs to get their act together, because they are doing this to themselves, and all the doctors know it. (stuttering something profound things gives it away)
Camisado - meaning to attack at night (spanish)
Story: This song is a continuation of the individual in Tacks for Snacksâs story. We find out that he was trying to cope with a âchain of eventsâ by killing himself. (we will find out what those events were later in the album) He is looking for attention so he tries to kill himself. We know he is looking for attention because he calls the hospital to let them know he might be dying hoping they will quickly come to his rescue.The âanesthetic never sets inâ and in his quest for attention, he realizes is like every other âregular decorated emergencyâ. After he realizes he is nothing more than the average suicide attempt he feels even more worthless, he creates more problems on the gurney.Â
Meaning: Panic! is saying that if you canât remove someone from their personal struggles, you remove their struggles from them. Basically, if you canât keep a kid away from attempting suicide, keep the ability to attempt suicide away from the kid.
This song is what happens after Lying and Its Better, so you may want to read those explanations first.
Inspiration: the book Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk
Random Fact: Aubergine dreams is the brand of make-up the bride in the book wears!
Story: A couple are getting married, itâs a shotgun marriage. Someone is telling the bride to âhold yourself together and stand up straight and proud. Youâre getting married.â The bride is horrified and bleeding on the ballroom floor at her wedding because her water broke. She didnât mean to get pregnant, but sheâll make it look all fine and dandy, so sheâs just playing a role. Sheâs crying out of sadness, but the people buy it as tears of happiness, along with the fake smiling. She is going to have some responsibility on her hands with that kid, in her home with the broken marriage. She wants envy, malice and the attention of her soon to be husband, but boys will be boys (he is not paying attention). The women is standing there bleeding and someone (a boy) thinks to tell the photographers. And even at this tragic scene boys will be boys, lurking around girls, and she just wants a break.
Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off
This song is the beginning of a story. It goes Lying, But Its Better, and then Time to Dance.
Fun Facts: Natalie Portman says the words âLying is the most fun a girl can have without taking her clothes off, but itâs better if you do.â in the movie âCloser.â The movie deals with sleeping around, lying, and cheating. A character publishes a book titled âThe Aquariumâ. The music video is a direct reference. (fish tank heads)
About: (another story) Itâs about a guy whose girlfriend cheated on him. he has questions for her afterwards. He asks her if it was worth it to cheat on him. He thinks sheâll never have someone better than him. He asks her to look past the testosterone. Past the heat of the moment, at the long-run. Was this boy she cheated on him with really more worthy of having sex with her than him? No. Sheâll always want him, and sheâs blown it. He says boys are controlled by their lust, and girls end up looking like fools. Heâs making a general statement about boys who are only after sex, and the girls who are made to look like idiots, because they have sex with the boys who donât really love them. He then talks about the guilt that comes after cheating, and how he hopes that she no longer wants his attention because that would be selfish and she has already been selfish by having multiple lovers.
The statement: Ladies and gentlemen, due to circumstances beyond our control. We are unable to continue our broadcast of dance music. We shall continue now with our piano instrumental.
There are two different styles of instrumentals on this album that is all.
But Itâs Better If You Do
The same storyline follows from Lying to But Itâs Better and then into Time To Dance.
Fun Fact: The instrumentals at the end of But Itâs Better If You Do run in sequence to the beginning of I Write Sins, Not Tragedies. (listen here)
Story: The narrator (who was asking questions to his cheating ex last time) has simply had bad luck with unfaithful girls. He has moved on from the girl from Lying and now found a girl he is intent on marrying. He is a honest guy but seems very naive. He does want to go to the bachelor party with strippers because he thinks it would be disrespectful to his bride, but his friends throw him one he doesnât want anyway, even normally he would not be caught dead in a strip club. He fakes having a good time for the sake of his friends. While there he finds out that his bride to be was cheating on him as well (bad luck). (This is not the girl who gets married to him in time to dance yet) Sadly, he starts paying attention to the strippers thinking maybe one of them will love him, and is given a lap dance, and then they have sex. (this is the cause of the shotgun wedding in Time To Dance) He wonders if this is what his cheating ex-bride would have wanted him to be doing. (Time To Dance shows the perspective of the stripper he knocked up)
Meaning/Moral: We give up our morals to get by in this world. We do things that appear to be intimate, but in fact are only superficial.Â
I Write Sins Not Tragedies
The title refers to Douglas Couplandâs novel Shampoo Planet, wherein the main character says: âI am writing a list of tragic character flaws on my dollar bills with a felt pen. I am thinking of the people in my universe and distilling for each of these people the one flaw in their character that will be their downfallâthe flaw that will be their undoing. What I write are not sins; I write tragedies.âÂ
Story: There is a groom, heâs pacing the church because he is nervous. As he is pacing he walks by a room where he over hears a conversation between a bridesmaid and a waiter. The bridesmaid continuously says how beautiful the wedding is, but the waiter retaliates by telling her that the bride is a whore (unfaithful to him). This upsets the groom and he storms into the room yelling he wished the door was closed so he would not have heard. To him ignorance is bliss. He sits down to figure the situation out with some rationality. The only conclusion he can come to is that his marriage is saved. Meaning he will never have to go through the struggles of divorce.
THIS IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT WEDDING THAN THE ONE IN TIME TO DANCE!
I Constantly Thank God for Esteban
This song has many theories!! Many people believe it is a continuation of I Write Sins, and others see it as criticism of the audience and the state of the music scene.
As a continuation of I Write Sins (story):Â He (the groom) goes up to the altar and calls out everyone on coming to the wedding to see a âshowâ, because they all knew about the bride being unfaithful. He also questions the preacher on how he could marry two people and know that there was sin. Everyone at the wedding who knew and didnât tell him is a contradiction because they knew the marriage would not last. He can finally see his so called friends/family (everyone invited to the wedding) for who they really are and light as been shed on the situation at last. He is disappointed and tells the invitees that they would go to hell if they were all part of the same parish. (parish: group of church attendees under the lead of a minister)
As criticism of âthe sceneâ (very literal): This song refers to the stage lights. When you are on stage you canât see anything if the spotlights are on because they shine in your eyes. By dousing the lights the audience and the people on stage can mutually see each other. Once the lights are off the band âis in for a show tonight.â This is a sarcastic comment on what you are finally able to see when the spotlights and pretenses are turned off: the sweaty frantic scene kids. Heâs more or less laughing at the audience and the state of the scene. Keep in mind this was âthe sceneâ of 2004.
Thereâs a Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Havenât Thought of It Yet
The Story (this one stands alone from the rest): The song starts as a man enters into a gathering. And he notices that it was more formal than he was expecting, he isnât dressed in riches. He eventually decides it can be fun to be out of place because they become the center of attention. Eventually, people start talking about him. And the reason of the talking is jealously of his confidence. Cancer spreads so that means everyoneâs attracted in one way or another to him if heâs cancer .An ex-girlfriend of his is also at the party. She also thinks he looks good but wonât say it out loud, and sheâs wonders when he gained his confidence, and she canât stand it. (This reminds me of the song sk8r boI by Avril Lavigne, she rejects him, then heâs fine without her and even better.) She feels uncomfortable around him and ashamed that people have want his attention, not herâs. She goes to the bathroom and cries, then tries to make herself feel better. She wants to get back at him for making her feel this way, and he wants to get back at her for dumping him. The tables are numbered so he knows where the cigarettes with nitroglycerin are. (nitroglycerin is an explosive liquid) He then says to her he knows itâs a bad night because no ones checking her out or flirting. They go to get punch together and he spikes it before she gets a drink. This surprises her.
Ending: there is no clear ending, we do not know what became of the cigarettes. Itâs been suggested that she blacked out after drinking the spiked punch, causing the song to end.
Build God, Then Weâll Talk
Story: The setting is a run down motel. Itâs the kind of place that condones prostitution but that night is different because the girl is not a prostitute but a catholic virgin who is forced to screw her boss because she needs the job at his firm. She needs the job because she desperately needs the money from the job, not prostitution. The lawyers wife turns a blind eye to all his affairs and stays with him only for the money. After the sex the lawyer leaves and she is cleaning herself up when a policeman raids the room, breaking through the door. She drops her things in shock but she holds a different âpurse.â She will now carry the weight of the guilt around. The cop sees the money she was paid for the sex and assumes she is a whore. He forces her to have sex with him too, other wise he would turn her in to the law for prostitution.Â
Sound of Music reference explained: These lines are meant to dispel the idea that life is about âsugar and spiceâ in real life itâs about hard situations and making guesses on how to get by.
Deeper Analogy: In todayâs world people use religion as a tool obtain status in society. It for some is nothing more than an accessory that improves looks, because without morals what is it really at all? This song showcases that by the virgin selling her virginity for a job, her religion became an accessory to be worn rather than a belief to live by. Â
Title: It says it all make god ârealâ and then we can talk about using him as justification. Just because you are religiously affiliated doesnât mean you can use it to mask all your wrong doings.
Caricature: Â a funny or warped view of reality (the song is showing what a skewed view of commitment and sex the world really has)
âA Fever You Canât Sweat Out is an album of pure dancerock energy belted out by a bunch of guys who were still too young to even drink.â Â
(hey iâll do this for other albums if anyoneâs interested)((you can message me and request other records or songs if youâd like))
titsay
gummygunk
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prguitarman
