Single celebrates Day of the Dead

Although the Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration ended Nov. 2, Fall Out Boy celebrates the Mexican holiday in the new video for “HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON’T.”
Fall Out Boy tweeted the video early Wednesday morning with the caption, “It’s Time to Wake Up the Dead and Dance.”
“HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON’T” is the fourth song off the band’s seventh studio album, M A N I A, which was initially supposed to be released this past September. However, the band announced it pushed back the release date to Jan. 19, 2018 to continue working on the album.
For the band, the members see this album as the chance to create something new, and those who have listened to or followed the band, can see the drastic change between this album and older ones.
The video, directed by Mel Soria and Brendan Walter, begins with “DIA DE LOS MUERTOS 2017” written in red across a black screen before cutting to a skull and cross bones on tile, and then women walk through a gate with candles in their hands.
A woman appears with sugar skull face paint, a makeup tradition during Día de los Muertos, along with a skeleton who fades into purple smoke, which leads into the instrumentals and the entrance of those attending the celebration.
Everyone celebrating can be found at the holiday-inspired party dancing around the band, who is playing in the middle of all the action. The skull head reappears to fill the screen with clouds of purple smoke before cutting back to women with their sugar skull makeup, dancing in the crowd.
Throughout the video, it cuts back and forth between the skull head silhouette and scenes of women and children in the crowd, highlighting the many aesthetic aspects of the holiday. The skull-headed man is seen walking through a graveyard, emphasizing the celebration of life for those who have passed.
In terms of lyrics, although the band decided to stray from its former roots, the lyrics have a reminiscent vibe of albums Folie a Deux and Infinity on High. Lines such as, “I just pinch myself/no longer comatose,” and “And when your stitch comes loose/I wanna sleep on every piece of fuzz and stuffing that comes out of you,” seem like continuations of lyrics previously found in Folie a Deux.
“I just pinch myself…” could potentially be referencing “Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes” when the lyrics are, “pitching myself for leads in other people’s dreams.” They both highlight the idea of sleep and a comatose state and wanting to change dreams.
In the song when it reads, “and when your stitch comes loose…” the concept of stuffing and fuzz continues from “20 Dollar Nosebleed” where Patrick Stump sings, “It’s not you, it’s me/Actually, it’s the taxidermy of you and me.”
The initial lyrics use the idea of taxidermy to describe how the relationship is dead through the cliché breakup phrase, “It’s not you, it’s me.”
With the addition of wanting to sleep on every piece of fuzz and stuffing, it shows a possible shift in the relationship where he’s telling a love interest he’s willing to listen to any problems she has.
The final reference of past songs comes from Infinity on High’s “Bang the Doldrums” original lyrics that read, “Best friends/ex-friends till the end/better off as lovers/and not the other way around.” In contrast, M A N I A’s lyrics read, “But I just can’t, I just can’t pretend/we weren’t lovers first/confidants but never friends/were we ever friends?”
This difference in thought shows how the speaker is looking back and wondering if they were ever friends in the first place or if they just jumped from strangers to lovers. It also emphasizes the questioning of their overall relationship and what it meant to either of them.
The lyrics provide an interesting correlation with the backdrop of the Día de los Muertos celebration. However, the lyrics that focus heavily on the relationship with someone can also tie into the concept of the holiday, which focuses on celebrating the departed. Perhaps it could be referencing a dead relationship, but regardless, the acknowledgement of the Mexican holiday a couple weeks past is an interesting addition.