Ethnography - Fall Out Boy

Fall Out Boy's Chicago Is So Two Years Ago deals with the push and pull of rocky relationships. The boy is someone who is easily hurt and pushed around, and yet he cannot avoid the girl he knows is going to knock him around. He can't seem to get away from her, making the woman out to be some kind of siren who is capable of dropping him and constantly commanding his attention at once. In the end, he does not want to apologize, he wants her to hurt like he does, and let the pain end.

Chicago Is So Two Years Ago:

my heart is on my sleeve
wear it like a bruise or blackeye
my badge, my witness
that means that i believed
every single lie you said

cause every pane of glass that your pebbles tap negates the pains i went through to avoid you
and every little pat on the shoulder for attention fails to mention i still hate you

but there's a light on in chicago
and i know i should be home
all the colors of the street signs..
they remind me of the pickup truck out in front of your neighbor's house

she took me down and said:
"boys like you are overrated. so save your breath."
loaded words and loaded friends
are loaded guns to our heads

cause every pane of glass that your pebbles tap negates the pains i went through to avoid you
and every little pat on the shoulder for attention fails to mention i still hate you

but there's a light on in chicago
and i know i should be home
all the colors of the street signs..
they remind me of the pickup truck out in front of your neighbor's house

you want apologies
girl, you might hold your breath
until your breathing stops forever, forever
(...every pane of glass) the only thing you'll get
is this curse on your lips:
(every pane of) i hope they taste of me forever

and there's a light on in chicago (every pane of glass)
and i know i should be home (every pane of)
all the colors of the street signs.. (every pane of glass!)
they remind me of the pickup truck out in front of your neighbor's

with every breath i wish your body will be broken again, again
with every breath i wish your body would be broken again, again
with every breath i wish your body will be broken again, again
with every breath i wish your body would be broken again

The Pros and Cons of Breathing shows Pat Stump (or songwriter Pete Wentz's) basically inflicting pain on himself by constantly crawling back to a woman who has used him and moved on. The woman is already forgetting about this forlorn boy who wants to "hate you half as much as I hate myself." The woman seems so much less feeling and involved in their relationship, and has simply moved on while the boy deals with the agony of post-relationship.

The Pros and Cons of Breathing:

Bury me standing under your window with the cinder block in hand
Yeah cause no one will ever feel like this again
And if I could move I'm sure it would only be to crawl back to you
I must have dragged my guts a block... they were gone by the time we {talked}...

[Chorus: x2]
Whoa, I want to hate you half as much as I hate myself
{But} you know that I could crush you with my voice

Stood on my roof and tried to see you forgetting about me
Hide the details I don't want to know a thing

I hate the way you say my name like it's something secret
My pen is the barrel of the gun.
Remind me which side you should be on

[Chorus x2]

Stood on my roof and tried to see you forgetting about me
Hide the details I don't want to know a thing

I wish that I was as invisible as you make me feel [x2]

(Whoa, I want to hate you half as much as I hate my) [x2]
(1..2..3..4..)

I wanted to find an example that was not focused on girls. Though it was hard to come by, I found a much friendlier song that deals with missing someone. The ending of Homesick At Space Camp mentions friends, but there is not telling if he is referring to any specific gender. In contrast to the other songs though, this may refer to his crew of great male friends, kind of a "Bros before Hos" ideal in comparison to the rest of the album. But in the context of the song, it could simply be about missing someone/people in general.

Homesick At Space Camp:

Landing on a runway in Chicago and I'm grounding all my dreams
of ever really seeing California, because I know what's in between
is something sensual in such non-conventional ways.
Tonight the headphones will deliver you the words that I can't (say).

Tonight the headphones will deliver you the words that I can't say.
(Tonight I'm writing you) a million miles away

Tonight is all about "We miss you" (We miss you) "We miss you" (We miss you)
Tonight is all about "We miss you"
And I can't forget your style or your cynicism,
somehow it was like you were the first to listen to everything we said.
My smile's an open wound without you...and my hands are tied to pages inked to bring you back.

Tonight the headphones will deliver you the words that I can't say.
(Tonight I'm writing you) a million miles away

Tonight is all about "We miss you" (We miss you) "We miss you" (We miss you)
Tonight is all about "We miss you now"

These friends are, new friends are golden [x3]
These friends are, new friends are...

Tonight the headphones will deliver you the words that I can't say.
Tonight the headphones will deliver you the words that I can't say.
Tonight the headphones will deliver you the words that I can't say.
These friends are, new friends are golden

FOB’s Sugar We’re Going Down:

Am I more than you bargained for yet
I've been dying to tell you anything you want to hear
Cause that's just who I am this week
Lie in the grass, next to the mausoleum
I'm just a notch in your bedpost
But you're just a line in a song
(A notch in your bedpost, but you're just a line in a song)

Drop a heart, break a name
We're always sleeping in, and sleeping for the wrong team

We're going down, down in an earlier round
And Sugar, we're going down swinging
I'll be your number one with a bullet
A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it
[x2]

Is this more than you bargained for yet
Oh don't mind me I'm watching you two from the closet
Wishing to be the friction in your jeans
Isn't it messed up how I'm just dying to be him
I'm just a notch in your bedpost
But you're just a line in a song
(Notch in your bedpost, but you're just a line in a song)

Drop a heart, break a name
We're always sleeping in, and sleeping for the wrong team

We're going down, down in an earlier round
And Sugar, we're going down swinging
I'll be your number one with a bullet
A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it
[x2]

Down, down in an earlier round
And Sugar, we're going down swinging
I'll be your number one with a bullet
A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it

We're going down, down in an earlier round (Take aim at myself)
And Sugar, we're going down swinging (Take back what you said)
I'll be your number one with a bullet (Take aim at myself)
A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it

We're going down, down (down, down)
Down, down (down, down)
We're going down, down (down, down)
A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it

We're going down, down in an earlier round (Take aim at myself)
And Sugar, we're going down swinging (Take back what you said)
I'll be your number one with a bullet (Take aim at myself)
A loaded God complex, cock it and pull it