Annotations for The Foundations of Decay

Lyric: You must fix your heart
Annotation:
This line might be a reference to  Twin Peaks: The Return, where it is said by David Lynch’s character Gordon Cole in reference to those who do not accept another character’s gender transition.  Gerard is a Lynch fan and  even collaborated with him.  The context of the line within the show is likely part of the reason it was included. The band has been vocal about supporting trans rights, and Gerard, while not identifying with any label, has  previously expressed that they “identify a fair amount with the female gender” and  wore skirts and dresses on stage several times during the tour that followed the song’s release.

Lyric: Against faith (Cage all the animals)
Annotation:
In May of 2008, a Daily Mail article was published that blamed emo music for the tragic death of Hannah and called My Chemical Romance a “suicide cult band” and being “against faith” despite the band members being raised Christian. This article failed to mention the lack of mental health support in the UK, which was the most likely cause of Hannah’s death.  This led to protests by My Chemical Romance fans outside the Daily Mail office. During the demonstrations, fans yelled lyrics of the band and “Don’t blame MCR”  Gerard Way, in the UK Reading Festival, responded to the article by saying  “Fuck the Daily Mail” and “nothing is worth taking your life over” in response.

Lyric: It calls,
Annotation:
Many fans have speculated that the “swarm” refers to the fans. The swarm calling could refer to the people who needed the band to come back. The swarm calls as they decide whether to lean into the comforting familiarity of the decay, or whether to get up.

Lyric: We lay in the foundations
Annotation:
The foundations represent their legacy, what they have left behind. As time has passed they feel what they built has been crumbling and fading into irrelevance. As the storm of old fans, and broken pieces wash over them, they allow themselves to rest in it, and embrace the oncoming flood, wherever it may take them.

Lyric: Let our bodies lay, mark our hearts with shame
 Let our blood in vain, you find God in pain
Annotation:
The body is what the band IS – their image, their past work, what people think of them and their music. They are letting that ‘body lay’ by letting it pass away and die. The heart is what the band represents and their goal which hasn’t changed from before – to make great music that helps people. This says that whatever they make may not be like the previous ‘body’ but the heart will still be there. These lines are also reminiscent of Gerard Way’s letter about the MCR breakup titled “A Vigil, On Birds and Glass”, in which he closes with this: Because it is not a band- it is an idea. The Foundations lyric and the letter both seem to be saying “the band might die, but the ideas it carries never will.” I think the ‘blood’ here is referencing the band’s passion and ‘essence’, and dying in pain is if they try to make this comeback but it doesn’t go well or isn’t liked. They are saying ‘even if we try this comeback and it fails, we want our passion to burst forth and make itself known’.

Lyric: You look stressed out!
Annotation:
Following the theme that this song is about the band , more specifically the break up, this could be interpreted as Gerard being stressed from constant touring and relapsing into alcohol. This lyric jolts the listener from Gerard’s POV (his struggle against alcoholism/self-destructive habits) to that of an outsider observing Gerard’s internal conflict.

Lyric: We are plagued (But the poison is the cure)
Annotation:
Again, the breakdown is an argument between two voices – one urging them to stay in the comforting stagnation of the ruins, and the other trying to get them to rise from the ashes. The band is plagued, by their hesitancy to get back together and by the fears about the things that caused them to break up in the first place. Yet, facing the very thing that plagues them is the only way for them to cure themselves. To rise from the ashes is the only way for them to reconcile their past and reclaim their message.

Lyric: Against change (You can wander through the ruins)
Annotation:
The band has touched on change very much over the years. For years they have been able to “wander through the ruins”, or let the band be dead, an unchanging and holy monument of what they once were. In an interview with NME in 2019, Gerard Way spoke about the potential of the band getting back together: “It definitely came into my head, but I’d changed so much as a person. I didn’t know how I’d fit into it any more, I didn’t know how the band would fit into it any more." Change – how they have changed, how the world has changed, how the band has changed, is just one more thing they struggled with when deciding to reunite the band. Had they changed too much while the band had remained the same? Would they fit in the band anymore? Wouldn’t it be easier to lay in the foundations of decay? This passage is a back-and-forth between them rationalizing their decision to remain in the comfort of the ruins and the voice in the back of their heads that is fighting to convince them to return. This is the voice coaxing them to remain in the comfort of the ruins.

Lyric: Swarm
Annotation:
In the tour the band undertook while this song was released, merch included shirts and posters that included a photograph of a fly with the text ‘SWARM’ overlaid  Additionally, the cover for the single shows a swarm of flies.

Lyric: Against all life (’Cause the message must be pure)
Annotation:
This is challenging the assumption that My Chemical Romance broke through to the mainstream “against all odds”; on the contrary, people actually want some angst and darkness, because that stuff is in all of us. Music doesn’t have to be “pure” and clean to be accepted.

Lyric: Now, if your convictions were a passing faith
 May your ashes feed the river in the morning rays
Annotation:
The song is about the band’s formation and their journey to the present day. When they started out, their conviction was to make music that saves lives  and in this line, Gerard is wondering if that belief is now gone. The lyrics bear allusion to the Retour des Cendres of Napoleon I, who wrote in his will “Je désire que mes cendres reposent sur les bords de la Seine, au milieu de ce peuple français que j'ai tant aimé.” In death, his body became a venerated relic that was laid to rest within a guilded tomb at Les Invalides, and many contemporary paintings depicted him as a saintly figure.

Lyric: And so he gets to die a saint
Annotation:
The band also seems to be exploring a sort of visual humor/horror in the dichotomy in the gravity of these lines and the artist/hero’s journey. On some level, any good hero/artist must accept the inevitable “death of the author” vis-a-vis acceptance of the inherent contradiction of “originality”. Every individual is at its best a 50/50 genetic split of some form of two parents, conditioned by friends, mentors, and their experiences. The clown / mime explores this dichotomy by holding up a “a jet black hotel mirror” to the world through mockery of both the clown/mime’s conception of “self”  and their audience’s. Further, many have different reactions or perceptions of whether clowns/mimes are “funny” or “creepy”. In many instances, this is highly influenced by the setting – a clown at a children’s party may be perceived as “humorous”, whereas a clown within a haunted house may be perceived as “terrifying”. ( https://twitter.com/forthevencm/status/1536068657045979137?s=20&t=brDFY--XJcwVQrscMACGQ) ( https://twitter.com/gerardway/status/740934169484660736?s=20&t=brDFY--XJcwVQrscMACGQ)

Lyric: And if, by his own hand, his spirit flies
Annotation:
In this context “spirit flying” refers to death, “by his own hand” therefore makes this line about suicide. In context with the following lines: if the subject was to kill himself, and therefore fulfill what everyone expected Gerard to do to himself back during the height of the band’s popularity, therefore the fans will remember him with honors as the patron of emos and damn the rest as just common whores in it for the money because only suicide Gerard is the real deal. The band uses Catholicism in their lyrics many times, and this characterization of Sainthood is surprisingly correct. Saints are those in Heaven.  Officially recognized Saints are catalogued and studied to point out that emulating that person’s life is a sure means to Salvation. For example, Origen is clearly in Heaven and is a Doctor Of The Church, but is explicitly forbidden from being called a Saint.  This is because Origen castrated himself, and so naming him a Saint would be claiming that the mortal sin of mutilation is therefore a way to Heaven. Therefore to claim that Girard would be the “Saint” of the emos by killing himself, it would be saying that suicide is the “answer” to all the sadness they share: that he would achieve a form of absurd “salvation” by it and therefore fans could achieve it for themselves by emulating the suicide of hypothetical Gerard. Clearly, Gerard does not approve of this image and so in this line mocks the idea of suicide being glorified.  This is not the only song he does reject this image in; even in “thank you for the venom” back in 2004 does Gerard not only present the “emo scene” as a strange religion aping Catholicism but backwards, but tells he would rather die than be the “emo scene”s face. Deeper than this, suicide (the par excellence form that the third Sin That Cries To Heaven For Vengeance of blasphemy takes) sends one straight to hell; it it’s the only thing that sends one straight to hell.  The irony of claiming that it would cause one to be Sainted in the eyes of the public or the fan base is silly on one hand and abhorrent beyond belief on the other. Gerard in the next lines further pushes this point home when he pokes fun at the “mcr saved my life” memes of the mid 2000’s contrary to this.  In one of the many meanings this line could have, Gerard may have passed on being the face of “the scene” but after his death he is now their Patron Saint, somehow. How could a band both save your life while simultaneously pushing you to end it?  That’s not possible, and so therefore the memory of the band is grasped by two hands and on each hand is a lie: on one is the “patron saint of emos” who pushes suicide as “salvation,” and on the other is the Patron Saint of emos who reaches down to pull them away from suicide. Neither is the Truth, Gerard is just a singer for a band and they make music for a living. Gerard is not a Saint or a demon, but in some ways was always just a whore looking for money and selling whatever the “john” would buy.  Music was that product, “the scene” was the flavor that sold the best at the time.  “Don’t make me your face or a Saint or your Savior or the devil, I’m just here to make money and yell into a microphone,” you could just imagine him saying. Gerard therefore wants to correct the record about the false past but then move beyond it.  Gerard did not cause the collapse alluded to in the song and nor could he have prevented it, but he does definitely want to dance in the ruins because that’s what singers do.  You may join him in doing so, but he would prefer you not impose upon him any such labels. The very last line of the song is a direct corollary to this mockery.  Gerard calls the sad, despondent Crusader in the opening lines a “coward” for just lying motionless in the ruins.  Being dead is no excuse for giving up after all, and neither is being at fault.  MCR has been dead for over a decade, but how has that stopped them?

Lyric: Let our bodies lay, mark our hearts with shame
 Let our blood in vain, you find God in pain
Annotation:
The body is what the band IS – their image, their past work, what people think of them and their music. They are letting that ‘body lay’ by letting it pass away and die. The heart is what the band represents and their goal which hasn’t changed from before – to make great music that helps people. This says that whatever they make may not be like the previous ‘body’ but the heart will still be there. I think the ‘blood’ here is referencing the band’s passion and ‘essence’, and dying in pain is if they try to make this comeback but it doesn’t go well or isn’t liked. They are saying ‘even if we try this comeback and it fails, we want our passion to burst forth and make itself known’.

Lyric: And as you stumble through your last crusade
Annotation:
The Crusades were  a series of religious wars between 1095 and 1291 that involved the Christian church fighting against Muslims for control of holy sites that both sides believed to be sacred. These conflicts were bloody and violent. The last or final Crusades were considered to end in defeat for the Christians. The use of ‘stumbling’, along with the previous religious imagery, implies the band may be facing a similar battle in vein here. They are on a mission that feels worthy and important to them, but others may see their return as needless or simply as a vanity project.

Lyric: And as the vermin crawls
Annotation:
“Vermin” in this song could represent those who feed off the destructions or decay of others in society. It represents people who have picked on those people who are down for their own gain. The band is unsure if they are able to return when people like this exist in the world.

Lyric: Let the flesh
 Submit itself to gravity
Annotation:
One major sign of age is that of sagging flesh from bones. This also keeps in line with the song’s central theme of “decay”. Gerard sings about surrendering one’s self to the relentless march of time towards death. These lines could symbolize several types of change: 1) The change in the band as they move from their past into this reunited form, they may be letting their old selves die away; 2) The personal change Gerard feels as he approaches middle age, more than two decades since My Chemical Romance was founded. The line is also reminiscent of a lyric from  “Bulletproof Heart”: Gravity don’t mean too much to me I’m who I’ve got to be

Lyric: See the man who stands upon the hill
 He dreams of all the battles won
Annotation:
Gerard introduces the main character of the song: an old man surveying a vista from atop a hill. The members of My Chemical Romance are now middle aged: no longer the kids they were when they became famous. At this latter stage of their careers, they are at a crossroads in life, able to reflect on their successes, but also looking ahead to an uncertain future. The reflection the “battles won” could refer to all of the successes that the band has had in the past. This sets up the rest of the song as a possible exploration of  My Chemical Romance’s legacy, and what comes next for them.    The military imagery of “battles won” is also reminiscent to the band’s  Black Parade era, which featured prominent use of military marching uniforms.

Lyric: We lay in the foundations of decay
Annotation:
As it has been eight years since their last new music in 2014, the band has been lingering in their legacy. It is easy to fall back on your past success than to attempt to create something new. Also, the band’s last album, Danger Days, was about a post-apocolyptic, decacying California. In this sense there is a double meaning; as along with the band looking back at their decaying legacy, they can also look back on their past foundations, in regard to subject matter, which has concentrated on deacy.

Lyric: Yes, it comforts me much more
 Yes, it comforts me much more
 To lay in the foundations of decay
 Get up, coward!
Annotation:
The vocals on this last verse are calmer up to the last line, almost dreamy, as if it was safer and more comfortable to just decay away. But in the last line, as if speaking to itself, the band urges, screaming, to get up. They call themselves “coward” for wanting to avoid their fears of trying again and failing, or falling into the negative things that they experienced while active before (Gerard for example stated he developed a drinking problem and a lot of negative emotion which contributed to the band breaking up in 2013). In the end, they got up and faced their fears releasing this song. PROPOSED SUGGESTION: It suggests that it would’ve been better to be one of the fallen, being in the “foundations of decay,” rather than dealing with the trauma. Last sentence could be interpreted as the “snap out of it” from the previous line The last line is similar to one in “Sleep” where Gerard screams “wake up”.

Lyric: Will you welcome your extinction in the morning rays?
Annotation:
When My Chemical Romance broke up in 2013, many fans thought they would not return, and that they were “extinct”. However, in 2019, they announced their tour and reunion tour, and they released this song in 2022 after 10 years. However, even though My Chemical Romance is back, it is likely that they will not be as popular as they were in the 2000s when they were in their prime. Many people listening to their music are old fans who have been awaiting their return. In this line, MCR is welcoming the fact that they are slowly becoming more “extinct”. This has the good and bad parts, but they are possibly hinting that they are happier to be appealing a certain audience rather than receiving the media scrutiny and stereotypes they dealt with at the time. it could also be them asking themselves if they are willing to accept failure and that they may not be successful in gaining a large audience again. They accept that there is a possibility that they will be considered outdated or forgotten. This could also be an overall reference to vampires, another common theme of old MCR songs.

Lyric: And so time with age
 It turns the page
Annotation:
After the band broke up, each member turned a page in their lives and accomplished new things outside of My Chemical Romance. This included Gerard’s comic book series,  The Umbrella Academy, later adapted into a successful  Netflix series, and  Frank Iero’s various solo projects. Furthermore, these lines also represent the band as a whole. Despite their age and long-established careers, as they form as a reunited group in the 2020s, they are ready turn a new page in the story of MCR.

Lyric: But fate had left its scars upon his face
 With all the damage they had done
Annotation:
No battle is won without scars. Taking the song as an exploration of the band’s legacy, these lines express regret and pain at what they have left in their wake. At the time of their breakup, My Chemical Romance had become a beacon for many individuals struggling with depression and self-harm. In the band documentary  Life on the Murder Scene, the band always wanted to serve a purpose: to save lives. https://youtu.be/uGM8S3OoULI?t=23 Perhaps Gerard underestimated the impact that the band would actually have on the world and even his own mental health. He touches on this in  “Thank You for the Venom”: I wouldn’t front the scene if you paid me … You wanna follow something? Give me a better cause to lead Fronting the band also took a personal toll on Gerard Way. In an interview with  NME in 2014, Gerard stated that his struggles with addiction became a major contributing factor to the band’s breakup. I relapsed, not into drugs but booze…I was self-medicating again to get through, and I’d forgotten how miserable that made me. It took me to the dark place again, but there was more at stake this time. I started to face the hypothetical reality of [daughter] Bandit not having a father. I started taking that seriously, thinking, ‘I want her to have a dad. A guy that’s present. Because one way or another – either by death or by asylum, she’s gonna be fatherless if I keep this up…[It was a choice of] Break the band or break me.

Lyric: Only to watch the roots corrode
Annotation:
These lyrics reference the mounting pressure that falls upon artists to outdo themselves with each subsequent release, thanks to both business entities like labels and even their fans. MCR previously touched on this idea with the 2006 track  “Blood”: So give them blood, blood, gallons of the stuff Give them all that they can drink And it will never be enough Gerard Way had previously commented on the pressure the band felt on where to go stylistically after their 2006 album  “The Black Parade” received critical acclaim, stating in an  NME article: When things start to succeed and go really well…that’s when a lot of people start to have an opinion and that’s when you run into struggle…everybody had a fucking opinion about what MCR should be. So, it made it difficult to figure out what direction to take next. You get caught up in this trap of ‘Is it ever gonna be good enough?’

Lyric: Let it flood, let it flood, let it wash away
Annotation:
In global theology, the act of washing oneself is the means of total purification. In Christian tradition, baptism is a sacrament meant to symbolise the washing away of the original sin. An individual is submerged or has water poured over their body, as a purification ritual. In Abrahamic tradition, a great flood caused by the Creator washed away all the sin on the Earth.

Lyric: But she will always be the whore
Annotation:
The dichotomy of women is generally seen as being a  saint or a whore; pure of heart or an unmoral being. Madonna is the Italian title used for the mother of the Christian Messiah, Mary. She is known for having conceived Jesus through immaculate conception, being a virgin at the time of conception. A  whore is a derogatory term used to describe a sexually promiscuous woman or a prostitute. These two perceptions of women, the Madonna and whore, are mutually exclusive; women cannot be pure and a sexual being at the same time. The line suggests that women will always be seen as a whore, where as men are venerated for the same ideals and practices women do. This line is also referencing the Biblical  “Whore of Babylon”, a female monster who is prophesised to be present during the Christian Apocalypse, in the  Book of Revelation: There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.

Lyric: Take his body as a relic to be canonized, now
Annotation:
In the Roman Catholic Church,  canonization is when the church names a dead person a saint. This is referring back to the song’s theme of death, ending, and “decay.” The theme of canonization appeared in previous My Chem songs such as  “Heaven Help Us,” where the lyrics ask: And will you pray for me? Or make a saint of me? And will you lay for me? Or make a saint of me? Gerard has also included patron saints and their ideology within his artwork.   In this context, canonization is ironic because some canonized saints' bodies never decay, even after being buried for years. With this line calling the body a relic to be canonized, this connection can be made.

Lyric: He was there, the day the towers fell
 And so he wandered down the road
 And we would all build towers of our own
Annotation:
These lines reference the  9/11 terror attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2001. Lead singer Gerard Way saw the Twin Towers fall after they were hit by hijacked commercial flights. He shared in an  interview: I didn’t see any of the planes hit, I saw the buildings go down, though. […] I ended up walking home that day. I got off the train, and walked home. This event became a key turning point in his life as he sought out a way to express the terror he experienced that day, leading to the creation of My Chemical Romance. He further explained at  2019 Comic-Con how the band became his outlet and own personal therapy during a particularly dark time in American history: So 9/11 happens, and I pick up the guitar again and I write  ‘Skylines And Turnstiles,’ and then I called Otter, and then I called Ray, and we got Mikey in – and we just started building this momentum. … It became my therapy from the PTSD that everyone had experienced from 9/11, and [I was just] processing that.    “Building towers of our own” references having your own impact on the world and shaping your own life. It could also refer to the band’s career and successes, both as a band and in their time apart.

