Two years off in rock is like asking for extinction, but Fall Out Boy has never had a problem reinventing their sound to keep themselves alive. They’re back today with “Young and Menace,†the ominous first song off of their upcoming seventh (!) album, Mania (out September 15), and a video that lives up to the album’s title. While the song interpolates Britney Spears’s “Oops! … I Did It Again†for its chorus, references Nikki Sixx for no good reason, and sounds like an Infinity on High–era song that’s been struck by lightning and run through a blender, its surreal video — though equally as all over the place — does contain an unexpected message that might be painful to see.
It follows a young girl who appears to be trapped in a world overrun by unicorn-llamas that doesn’t seem nearly as endearing as Where the Wild Things Are, until she’s driven to an even more alternate reality where a Fall Out Boy concert is her only salve. Because, turns out, those creatures represent something even more monstrous: an abusive parent. Pete Wentz says the video was inspired by Elf, but his interpretation of the song makes slightly more sense: “It’s hard to rationalize rage — it’s hard to quantify anxiety … this song does neither, it embraces the wave …â€