breaking news in Pete Wentz’s incredibly recursive, self-referential relationship with himself:
THE MANIA SINGLES ARE EXPLICITLY LINKED TO SPECIFIC BAND ERAS
CRYSTAL BALLS ALWAYS CLOUDY EXCEPT WHEN THEY LOOK INTO THE PAST AND CALLING YOU FROM THE FUTURE: the themes are laid out for us to infer that this album is a jumble, a retrospective, an out-of-order examination of the same thing from different times, angles, and selves
Is Mania is peterick retrospective album????? uh, probably
……let me explain……
The order of release is, I think, significant, so let’s proceed accordingly. Pete’s metaphors have always layered up and referenced back on themselves, with scraps from his 2005 lj appearing as recently as in AB/AP lyrics. so let’s do some tinhat digging…
Young and Menace – as made obvious by the title/chorus of the track, this is about being young and out of control. Sure, Pete might feel that way now to some extent, but this is one of the most settled and clearly happy periods of his life that we’ve ever witnessed. it’s safe to assume from readings of their discography that he felt significantly more monstrous (ah, to be a young bisexual! is there a keener #monster feel that exists) in the past.
lyrical markers to prompt us to backdate this track:
I only wrote this down to make you press rewind
Britney Spears 2000 lyrics reference
I woke up in my shoes again links us to the line in grand theft autumn from 2003 my new fashion for waking up with pants on
probable era of reference for this track: 2001-2003
Champion – once again, this track makes more sense if we place it at a time in his life when Pete and his bandmates were struggling with personal demons as well as the fickle abuse of public perception. its theme fits much better with prehiatus content from the boys’ lives, and the song opens with a prompt of exactly that:
I’m calling you from the future (to let you know we made a mistake --> and if you don’t think this ties in p e r f e c t l y to Tryst Theory we are living very different lives my friend)
there’s a fog in the past
I’m just young enough to still believe specifically, like y&m did, brings up youth as a theme; and they do seem to know what to believe in, now, personally. To me, this line is evocative of Believers Never Die and seems to place the song in that era; the lyrical content certainly addresses hiatus themes and the extremely rough time most of the boys had surviving it. (even andy told an interviewer he thought about suicide during the hiatus, and we all know how pete immolated)
specific references to pete’s rage and trying to blow out the light, like he’s trying to extinguish something in himself because of the pain it causes, and the way Patrick has always been linked up with light metaphors in pete’s writing
I got nothing but dreams inside conflicts directly with the TLOTRO lyric I’m here with having dreams. I mean we do have the omnipresent dialectic dilemma of bisexuality, and I am dicks-and-hearts-out for bi!Pete readings, but I think this specific contradiction is here to remind us, again, that these songs are dated for different eras. being full of dreams maps on really well to you are the dreamers, we are the dream; I dreamed about the afterlife but I never really lived; I used to waste my time dreaming of being alive, now I only waste it dreaming of you.
(I think there are lots of good indicators that we can read these dreams as being pete’s dreams of being with Patrick, and I should probably write a whole post about that at some point)
probable era of reference for this track: 2005-2009ish
The Last of the Real Ones – this song, I think, is the only one anchored in the present day. (also can we talk about interviews where pete teases this song before its release and calls it their first real/only real love song????? augh)
I really specifically want to look at this bit: I’m here at the beginning of the end, oh the end of infinity with you—anyone who read my last meta post knows how I feel about the infinity = gay love content of fob’s discography—I’m done with having dreams, the thing that I believe, oh you drain all the fear from me.
listen I think we have ample ground to read that line, I’m done with having dreams, and especially the fearlessness, to mean that pete’s not just dreaming of Patrick anymore—either as a message that he’s ready to start now, or perhaps evidence that active trysting ™ has resumed (and check out the y&m elvis duran interview if you want to imagine a version of pete who had to get so drunk on sake at a sushi place that he created an excuse for him and Patrick, sharing a hotel room in nyc, to MAKE SOME EXPENSIVE MISTAKES)
the thing that anchors this most firmly in present day for me is the idea of finding true gold, finally being fearless, and understanding the worth that can be uncovered under golden plating. it took pete a lot of years and suffering to get to the point where he could appreciate that truth about himself and the people around him. this is such a love song. this is such an insane peterick love song. oh my god, you guys.
openly talking about his therapist and mental health is also more reminiscent of the modern canon, although it did appear occasionally in folie era
probable era of reference: present day
I’m seeing them play tonight in St Louis—hit me up if you are too!—and after I hear the new song I will update this with my thoughts on it. no spoilers yet—I want the first time I hear it to be live and in person with the people I love most in the world, because that is an experience that will probably never be replicated for me and wouldn’t have been possible without the album delay. thanks guys 💜 💜 💜 💜 💜
The Ferrari 488 is an expensive automobile, and the Man who purchased it made an expensive mistake: He crashed it after a less than two mile test drive. In this article we’ll look at the crash, the damage done to the car, and the reaction of the owner. You may also be interested in knowing how much the car costs, and why the owner opted to buy it right away.
Man crashes $1.4 million Ferrari…
