I have this distinct memory of absolutely loathing Fall Out Boy in middle school in the early-mid 2000s. I was a newly-transplanted Californian in Oklahoma who watched a lot of late-night MTV2 and Fuse and who vaguely liked the general outline of punk rock and ska that had been handed down to me from my parents, and Fall Out Boy (and emo more generally) represented this kind of weakening or softening of the kind of music I liked. I hated Patrick Stump’s voice, I hated how all the girls swooned over Pete Wentz, I hated the fact that the music didn’t sound angry enough to “be punk,” and like, generally just spent a chunk of my young teen years being really mad they existed.
Of course as I grew older and less of an idiot when it came to music or examining my own internalized homophobia (which, let’s be clear, is the root of most of the mid-2000s anti-emo hatred among punks. It gets worse if you look up what punks did to queer “emos” all over the world around that time), I grew to come to terms with Fall Out Boy, mainly because their work isn’t by and large all that bad, and as they got older, they also tried new things. I can’t say I’d ever call myself a fan but if one of their hits came on in a playlist or smth I wouldn’t rush to change the song or anything.
Except! For! Today’s release: a cover/reprise of Billy Joel’s classic shitter, “We Didn’t Start The Fire!” my fucking god what a bad fucking song. Absolute trash. The worst shit I’ve ever heard. The absolute audacity of these motherfuckers to try to “rhyme” George Floyd and Metroid. Get the fuck out of here. Never again.