Sometimes, you wonder if we're ever lookin’ back
At a picture of 2019
And sayin', "That's the way, the world, it used to be
Before our dreams started burstin’ at the seams"
We're out here and we're ready, we're here and we're ready
To livestream the apocalypse
I don't care if it's pretty, the view's so pretty
From the deck of a sinkin’ ship, yeah, oh
[Pre-Chorus]
’Cause everything is lit except my serotonin, yeah
Everything is lit but my lightning bolt brain
Everything is lit
[Chorus 1]
But, baby, please, I just need someone to hold me
Even though you don't even know me
Oh, I’m goin' neon in the night-time
Oh, what a time to be alive
[Post-Chorus]
What a time to be alive
What a time to be alive
What a time to be alive
They say that I should try meditation
But I don't wanna be with my own thoughts (own thoughts)
It never felt that much like medication
And I just wanna be your cherry on top
We're out here and we’re ready, we're here and we're ready
To livestream the apocalypse
And I'm goin' on and on and on
Make me like a charm on your necklace, oh, your necklace
[Pre-Chorus]
Oh, 'cause everything is lit except my serotonin, yeah
Everything is lit but my lightning bolt brain
Everything is lit
[Chorus 1]
But, baby, please, I just need someone to hold me (Someone to hold me, yeah)
Even though you don't even know me
Oh, I'm goin' neon in the night-time
Oh, what a time to be alive
[Post-Chorus]
What a time to be alive
What a time to be alive
What a time to be alive
What a time to be alive, to be alive
[Guitar Solo]
[Chorus 2]
When, when, when I said, "Leave me alone", this isn't quite what I meant
I got the quarantine blues, bad news, what's left?
So, it seems the vulture's gettin' too full to fly, oh
What a time to be alive
[Post-Chorus]
What a time to be alive
What a time to be alive
What a time to be alive
[Outro]
What a time to be alive (What a time, what a time to be alive)
What a time to be alive (What a time, what a time to be alive)
What a time to be alive (What a time, what a time to be alive)
What a time to be alive
Sometimes you wonder if we're ever lookin' back
About
“What A Time To Be Alive” is the penultimate track on Fall Out Boy’s eighth studio album, So Much (For) Stardust.
It goes through looking back on how the world has changed so much and uses that as an excuse to look back before COVID-19. but also to tell you to live in the moment during the good times while they’re around.
In an interview with Kerrang! Radio, Pete described this song as “Patrick Stump going full Patrick Stump,” further describing it at “provocative and futuristic, but at the same time reminds me of stuff I grew up hearing my parents listen to.”
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Patrick: “When I read the lyrics, there was something about when I got to that phrase ‘what a time to be alive.’ There’s such a sarcasm in it. I really wanted to write the kind of song that the DJ puts on at the wedding, but the wedding is happening in the middle of the apocalypse.”
Pete: “It’s like a New Year’s song for the worst year that has ever happened.”
Patrick: “I think some of my favorite pop music has been when people are singing along without catching what they’re singing, that “Born In The U.S.A.”-kind of thing.”
Pete: “It’s always funny when you have the realization that, ‘He’s saying the exact opposite of what I thought he was saying.’”
—via Variety
Patrick Stump:
It encapsulated to me everything that we were experiencing at the time, And the crazy thing is we wrote it before the pandemic! There’s a couple of lines at the end that were added after the fact, but the rest of it is us sitting there in 2018 going, ‘God, can the world get any worse?‘ …It’s a kind of anger that you don’t get when you’re 16, because when you’re 16 you go into your room and you kick the wall and you throw your books across the room or whatever. But now you’re angry, and there’s nothing but responsibility in every direction, so you have to just internalize it and bury it somewhere, you know?
—via Kerrang!
- 4.Fake Out
- 5.Heaven, Iowa
- 9.Flu Game
- 12.What a Time to Be Alive