The (After) Life of the Party

by far my absolute favorite song. the way its written and sung...amazing.

To me this song is about getting caught up in the Hollywood scene and drugs and all that jazz. He's basically using the metaphor of turning into a werewolf to explain that he is a different person when he does drugs and I believe the drug reference is to cocaine. "Blood cells pixelate and eyes dilate" refers in a supernatural sense to a man turning into a wolf but can also refer to the effects cocaine can take on one's body. Also, "Cut it loose" refers, to me at least, the cutting of a cocaine rock as its broken down to sniff and get high. The line that follows "Watch you work the room" is refering to the way the person can easily socialize at a party or gathering because of the energy and happiness they are now experiencing. "her nose runs ruby red" is an obvious side effect to cocaine ( to whoever said you dont get bloody noses unless an eightball is done...thats absurd, if you are a cocaine user chronic nosebleeds are a common annoyance). "Deaths in a double bed" can refer to the exhaustion that takes place the morning after a night of party. She is probably sleeping her whole day away in a hotel bed, ignoring phone calls and seemingly "dead to the world".

I dont know, thats just my take on this song.

does this give anyone else a very nostalgic feel? the beginning; I'm a stitch away from making it And a scar away from falling apart, apart just sounds very old to me.

Singing songs that could only catch me with the desperate amazing line. i mean, i've been a fall out boy fan from the beginning, and this new album is so much more grown up. so different, but so amazing as well. outdone themselves yet again.

Spoiler Alert I feel like this song is an interpretation of things that have happened in Pete's relationship with the girl who isn't named in his book Gray.

"I'm a stitch away from making it, and a scar away from falling apart." At the end of Gray, Pete finds out she's been in a terrible accident. She's in critical condition and this is his way of saying she's walking the thin line between life and death. If things can be fixed and she lives, he will be okay (for now), but if anything more goes wrong and she passes away, his entire world will fall apart.

"Blood cells pixelate, and eyes dilate. And the full moon pills got me out on the street at night." After she ends up dying, Pete sneaks his brothers car out of the garage and swallows an entire bottle of unnamed blue pills. he drives around and then gets too scared to die and ends up going to the ER and being admitted on suicide watch. while in the hospital, he says that everything was so white and dull that it felt like a machine almost and that his blood cells had pixelated and eyes dilated.

"Cut it loose, watch you work the room." When she died, she was on life support. Therefore once she was dead they cut her loose from all the machines and even though she was dead she could still manipulate people and she always knew how to get the best of people.

"Put love on hold, young Hollywood is on the other line" Pete has a lot of regrets about taking the opportunity he did by going to Hollywood with the band and jeopardizing their relationship and feels like if he had never taken the opportunity things would still be okay and she never would've died to begin with.

"Her nose runs ruby red, death's in a double bed singing songs that could only catch the ear of the desperate." She's in the hospital and she was in a car accident so her nose is bleeding, while Pete, feeling like he's the reason she died, is sleeping with whatever girls will get in his bed and going on tour.

"Kiss away young thrills and kills on the mouths of all my friends" I honestly dont have a clue what's behind this line. maybe jealousy and anger from when they were together or broken up or what have you.

while there's discussion about Gray being a fictional book, i believe a lot of it is the truth. i remember reading his blog and hearing about a lot of the things that are in the book. maybe he changed the real story in spots or stretched the truth for writing's sake but for the most party it's a memoir.

Ok, I could be wrong but when I first listened to this song, I thought it was about a romantic relationship, either a couple has broken up and one wants to get back togehter or a guy wanting to be with a girl.

Here's the first one. The guy has gotten to the point where if he doesn't do anything, he'll fall apart or if he does manage to get together with the girl, then he'll make it in time. Something about his heart beating faster whenever he thinks of her and the realization is there.

The second one I like more. The part about "Blood cells pixelate" and "Eyes dilate", I always thought it meant is whenever he sees her, either he's falling in love with her all over again or he realizes that he was always in love in with her. In order to make himself not think about this all the time, he does other things to occupy himself.

The "Cut it loose, Watch you work the room" part, I have a feeling it means he sees her from a distance and knows what she's been through and how she's living her life. All he wants to do is help. He loves her alot and wants her to see that.

So, that's my take on it. I've also read the other intepretations and they're pretty sound.

this website is stupid. Patrick Stump and Pete Wentz along with many other artists wanted their lyrics to be interpreted individually by each of their listeners. There is no one meaning for the words, everyone sings them whilst believing in what they believe it means. Again there is no "one meaning". The lyrics aren't and answer of some sort. They are the question and we are the answers.

The nose running ruby red part- a nod to TEB's "Slow Motion"?

loversandliars - I was wondering the same thing.

I think the song is kind of a reflection of everything- relationships, getting famous, people thinking they've "sold out" (in reference to the line "put love on hold, young hollywood is on the other line"), and just Wentz's mental health in general. Pretty strong song.

Once again, FOB wants to sound bigger and more epic, and they pull it off with ease. The back up vocals in the chorus are amazing.

Oh, put love on hold Young Hollywood is on the other line [too busy for the important people in his life.] And nose runs ruby red [bloody nose from altitude? metaphor? yup.] Yeah, I sit on a double bed [hotel room....]

Cause I the way I feel, it kills on the mouths of all my friends [it makes me think that he writes alot of lines and says alot of things not thinking about how the people who are close to him will take it. so when they ask about it, it "kills"]

oh and by the way, does anyone remember pete saying something along the lines of "i'm the (after)life of the party" in his blog like 2 years ago? Hahaha I just remembered that.

There's a ton of lyrics on the new album from Pete's blog... all that about the 'tree I used to lie beneath', walking the plank on a sinking ship etc.

It's great