Annotations for Cubicles

Lyric: But you can’t now, I don’t blame you
 And it’s not your fault that no one ever does
Annotation:
His coworker is not able to notice him any more because she has now left her position at that job, as seen in the chorus. The speaker expresses low self-esteem by saying that he is not surprised that she never noticed him, implying that he sees himself as so unremarkable that he can’t understand why anyone would pay attention to him. He does not blame the girl, but he is upset that she is another in a succession of people who have ignored him. Nobody notices him because he is so insecure that he hides away. Gerard Way has been open about his struggles with body image and self-confidence,  writing on Instagram in 2019: Also a feeling that I have had and I know some of us have had where we aren’t comfortable in your own skin, or you are unhappy with your body or how it will be judged, or finding yourself covering up (I spent years doing this).

Lyric: But you don’t work here anymore
 It’s just a vacant three-by-four
 And they might fill your place
 A temporary stand-in for your face
Annotation:
The speaker expresses his regret over having been too shy to speak to the girl, as now she has moved on to a different job and he has missed his chance for ever. “Three-by-four” refers to the three feet by four feet dimensions of her empty office cubicle.  He anticipates that the company will hire a new person to work in her old cubicle, but it won’t be the same. This line could be a comment on the temporary nature of these types of cubicle workplaces, which hire many workers but have to keep replacing them as few of them stay permanently.

Lyric: I think I’d love to die alone
 Just (Just) take (Take), I think I’d love to die
 Me (Me) down (Down), I think I’d love to die
 Just (Just) take (Take), I think I’d love to die
 Me (Me) down (Down), I think I’d love to die alone
 I think I’d love to die alone
 I think I’d love to die alone
 I think I’d love to die alone
 Live and breathe and die alone
 I think I’d love to die alone
 I think I’d love to die alone
Annotation:
As he sinks deeper into his despair and self-deprecation, his thoughts change from thinking about dying alone to just hoping that he does die. His reason for growing fond of death no longer matters, and all that matters to him is that he ends up dead, to escape his loneliness, and to escape the uncaring, cyclical hell he has lived in for so long. Gerard Way has spoken in depth about his struggles with depression and self confidence over the years. At a My Chemical Romance concert during the Black Parade tour, he  told the crowd: If you find yourself depressed, hurt, like an outcast, like the only kind of place you could ever fit in is at a show like this, that is not the case. Because even though we’re all outcasts in our own way, we all do belong in this world, and we all fit in this world, do you understand me? Despite the hopeless tone of “Cubicles,” six years after its release Gerard married his wife, the  Mindless Self Indulgence bassist  Lyn-Z Way.

Lyric: I’d photocopy all the things that we could be
 If you took the time to notice me
Annotation:
He could photocopy all the possibilities of their relationship if he got the chance, meaning that even if they were together, he could print pages and pages of things that they could do together. Before My Chemical Romance was formed, Gerard Way worked as an intern at Cartoon Network in New York, where he would have used the photocopying machine. This could mean that “Cubicles” is an autobiographical narrative based on a real workplace crush. Gerard Way when he worked at Cartoon Network, pitching his idea for a new cartoon called  Breakfast Monkey It was while Way was on the ferry commuting to Cartoon Network from New Jersey that he  witnessed the 9/11 attacks and decided to form My Chemical Romance.

Lyric: I know you don’t work here anymore
 I know you don’t work here anymore
 I know you don’t work here anymore
 I know you don’t work here anymore
 I know you don’t work here anymore (Anymore)
 I know you don’t work here anymore (Anymore)
 Sometimes, I think I’ll die alone
 Sometimes, I think I’ll die alone
 Sometimes, I think I’ll die alone
 Live and breathe and die alone
 Sometimes, I think I’ll die alone
 Sometimes, I think I’ll die alone
 Sometimes, I think I’ll die alone
Annotation:
The writer’s fantasies are shot down by reality; he took a look around and noticed that his crush no longer works in his office building. All he ever did was admire her from afar and dream about the impossible things they could do together, but he was not brave enough to actually speak to her or gain her affection. As he begins to accept his fate, he goes from dwelling on the loss of her presence to focusing on what the repercussions of his missed opportunities are. He feels that he will never find love, and that he is destined to die alone. The repetition here is likely to represent the monotony of a 9-5 office job, and the speaker’s repeated failure in finding a relationship.

Lyric: In this water-cooler romance
 And it’s coming to a close
Annotation:
Here, the phrase “water-cooler romance” is used to describe a crush from afar on a coworker who doesn’t talk to you often. In office jobs, people often take a break from work by gathering around the water cooler and exchanging small talk. He could be saying the only time he’s ever managed to talk to this girl was at the office water cooler, where they only exchanged brief and unimportant words.  The lyric could also be a play on words referencing the art medium of watercolors. As Gerard Way was an  artist, he would have been familiar with the different types of paint. Watercolors are the faintest and lightest art medium, which represents their barely-there relationship.  This line is also referenced in the band’s 2004 music video for their song  “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” in which the words “My Watercooler Romance” appear on the ending screen.

Lyric: This happens all the time
 And I can’t help but think I’ll die alone
Annotation:
In the context of his workplace, the speaker constantly sees people being removed and replaced, which makes everything feel small and insignificant. In the context of his personal life, he has fallen for a lot of girls, all of which he has been too shy to talk to, and this time it’s getting to him. He worries about the impermanence of everything, from the many easily replaceable co-workers he’s watched leave, to the many missed chances with girls. Because of this, he feels like he’s never going to find someone he can connect with because he is too nervous to talk to anyone, and even if he did, everybody leaves anyway. This line could also be a commentary on capitalism and the isolation it creates. The idea of feeling isolated within an office full of people could be a reflection on how the cubicles physically separate the workers. These grey offices alienate people so much that they can easily be replaced.

Lyric: We could be in the park and dancing by a tree
 Kicking over blades we see
 Or a dark beach with a black view
 And pin-pricks in the velvet catch our fall
Annotation:
He’s dreaming about the strange yet enjoyable things that they could be doing as a couple. These things aren’t really activities that “normal” couples do, and they have an eerie air to them. It shows the slight disturbances in his mind. “Kicking over blades we see” could mean walking together through the park where they had been dancing by a tree, as the “blades” could refer to blades of grass. However, it could also be interpreted as kicking over razors in back alleys, or knives on the floor.  “Pinpricks in the velvet” refers to the common imagery of the night sky as a black cloth, with the stars shining like light would shine through pinpricks in the velvet material. The idea of stars catching their fall makes their love seem impossible and magical, which emphasises his belief that this romance could never really happen.

Lyric: So I’ll spend my time with strangers
 A condition and it’s terminal
Annotation:
With the constant rotation of easily replaceable coworkers, combined with his shyness and reluctance to speak to people, he finds himself surrounded by strangers at work. His “condition” is his constant loneliness, which is becoming so emotionally painful that he feels it is bound to kill him eventually. The stress of always being surrounded by strangers and seeing his coworkers constantly leaving causes him to worry about the impact he will leave. The idea of his loneliness being “terminal” brings in the thought of his death, and the questions this brings about if anything is even worth it, as when he dies, he will simply be replaced.

Lyric: It’s the tearing sound of love notes
 Drowning out these gray-stained windows
 And the view outside is sterile
 And I’m only two cubes down
Annotation:
The narrator of this song finds that his love for the girl two cubicles away from him is stronger than the dreary monotony of his office job. The sound it makes when he tears a love note from a pad of paper is enough to drown out the dull setting and the boring view outside the window. However, since later in the song he reveals that he is too shy to approach the girl, this line could also mean that his attempts at confessing his feelings are useless. The noise of love notes being torn to pieces disrupts the stillness of the office.

