Countdown to my date with Fall Out Boy – 5 days to go

I never had a high school sweetheart. I had a high school train wreck. From Year 11 until a few months after graduation I was stuck on this one guy. We were no good together, but for some reason we kept gravitating towards each other. My friends got tired of hearing about it. They listened to me, talked me through every episode, but eventually their weariness was tangible. Luckily for them February of 2010 came and with it was the end to that particular chapter in my life. Most likely because I wasn’t seeing him every day. Out of sight, out of mind.

But because I was in high school everything was so dramatic. I needed a comforting voice in my ear to commiserate and talk me down. Or to talk me up and make me angry, whichever the situation called for. I had a few different songs for different shades of anger, depression, confusion. John Mayer, My Chemical Romance, Green Day, and I think some Elvis slipped in there at one point. But there was one song that could be both angry and depressing, depending on which I needed at the time:

Hum Hallelujah

From Infinity on High. I was actually really proud when this became one of my favourite Fall Out Boy songs. I have this annoying habit of listening to an album, picking out my favourite songs and they always become the singles. I always feel like one of those people who call themselves a “die-hard fan” when all they have is the most commercially successful album and the band members name and rank. But when I found “Hum Hallelujah” and fell truly in love with it, I felt secure in my fangirlness.

I always equated this song with all things adolescent. It was as though Patrick was singing about me (you know, at the time). Because the lyrics always made such sense to me, no matter what mood I was in. Here are some taster lyrics:

So hum Hallelujah just off the key of reason

I love you in the same way there’s a chapel in a hospital
(oh, that’s cold)

I could write it better than you ever felt it
(Actually, this line was my absolute favourite. To get me through the “stresses” of high school, I used to fictionalise my life. You know, rewrite scenarios so they had a better ending. Or I would give the two-dimensional me some closure, embedded in the pages of my diary. But in every single fictionalisation I knew that I was writing a version of him that felt more than he did. Or at least seemed to. So yeah, I wrote it better than he ever felt it. I used to belt this line out in my room. Or enthusiastically mouth the words along with my iPod while leaning my head against the window of my school bus. I was so deep.)

“Til tonight do us part”

This was a song that captured my heart in every sense of the word. I have a vague memory of talking to someone about this song and they just scoffed and said something along the lines of “but it’s Fall Out Boy!”. Well, now we have to deal with songs called “Bubble Butt” and the likes of Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, and Rihanna. Pretty sure Fall Out Boy is looking pretty good to you right now, huh?

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