#and yeah babe this is still social contract you not escaping it by just labeling it differently

[thankstothe]

[georgiaswarr]

jimmy kaga-ricci part 1 (part 2 / part 3)

beautiful faces - declan mckenna

if there ever was a screen adaptation of iwbft i can 100% imagine this song playing while the boys are walking the red carpet at the wcmas, when jimmy is surrounded by stardom and “beautiful faces”. however, even though he has great ambitions, he is also pretty disillusioned by the world of fame, the power games, the fake friends and the stress - deep down he’d rather just stay inside and, for once, relax

i say a little prayer - aretha franklin

i like to imagine this as a song about jimmy’s love for rowan and lister, and how in relation to his faith, praying for them is one of his love languages

ashley - halsey

hoooooo boy, this song pretty much has jimmy’s entire arc shoved into 3 minutes; “standing now, in the mirror that i built myself / and i can't remember why the decision wasn't mine / but it seems i'm only clingin' to an idea now” - jimmy feeling like their original dream about starting a band, their childhood passion and wonder has been lost along the way, they’re only clinging to an idea “someday, when i burst into flames / i'll leave you the dust, my love / hope a bit of it'll be enough to help remember the / days when we came to this place / i told you i'd spill my guts, i left you to clean it up / i'm bursting out of the” - his dreams about breaking away; however, the fact that the line is sort of cut off abruptly shows how he isn’t quite ready to burst out yet, not until friday “is it really that strange if i always wanna change?” - rowan and lister don’t understand why he wants to leave the band “i told you i'd ride this out / it's gettin' harder every day / somehow, i'm burstin' out of myself” - in the second chorus we finally have that catharsis of him actually running away and deciding to do what makes him happy

humongous - declan mckenna

this is mostly about jimmy’s relationship to the media (including social media). he’s been very closely scrutinised for years now, and things like racism, transphobia, the j*wan photo, fuckin paul marks, even the bliss story have taken a toll on his psyche - and that doesn’t even begin to cover his paranoia that is strongly fuelled by the people constantly watching his every move. the line “do you care? / i'm big, humongous, enormous and small” sounds like a cry of despair - he’s made out to be this huge, untouchable god-like figure, while in reality he feels small and easily breakable, but nobody in the media cares about his real feelings

sweaters - blanks

jimmy and rowan wanting to have a chill evening and play splatoon or something instead of attending lister’s party

social - smallpools

same theme as sweaters. the “social” here could also be taken as part of the bigger picture of fame - “if you can hear this now / bow out, save yourself” could be jimmy warning others about the dangers of fame, so to speak

roaring 20s - panic! at the disco

rule of threes; jimmy feeling anxious at the party, surrounded by people he doesn’t know or care about, wanting to go home to his grandad, etc

lavish living - carey st

this song reminds me of the ark’s london apartment; first of all, it’s huge and lavish, as the title says. then there’s also several lines in the song that remind me of various scenes; “you're so upset so what's the point of me right now” - jimmy feeling helpless after the bliss story broke and not knowing how to cheer rowan up “met a fibber yeah you met him last month / he told you things and he said it wasn't love / you're so obsessed so what's the point of us // pull away from the party / i don't think that this is meant to be / but me oh my oh make me go crazy” - the party on tuesday, magnet making a move on jimmy, bicci undertones, etc

demons - hayley kiyoko

“it's creeping in, it's gonna get me by the end of the night / i'm sinking deeper, still, i'm reaching for the end of the light / burning in the lava / you can't go and pray this type of pain away” a song describing jimmy’s anxiety and paranoia

i spend too much time in my room - the band camino

stolen from @kindaorangey‘s jimmy playlist (+explanation), this song strongly highlights jimmy’s inner turmoil, him overthinking things, etc

hero - family of the year

“baby needs some protection / but i'm a kid like everyone else” jimmy didn’t ask to be worshipped. he often says that he doesn’t get why everyone looks up to him, “loves” him, etc when all he is is a normal guy

it ain’t me babe - nancy sinatra

similarly to hero, here we have jimmy trying to tell his fans that he isn’t their saviour, he isn’t the one they “want” and “need”

the archer - taylor swift

“i wake in the night, i pace like a ghost / the room is on fire, invisible smoke” you know on wednesday when jimmy comes back from his escape to the park and has a panic attack? this song feels a lot like that; it’s his mistakes and insecurities, the world and other people trying to tear him down, all of this culminating in him feeling unworthy, wondering “who could stay”, but then of course rowan is here for him, he could stay. in the end, however, the first line - “combat, i’m ready for combat” - is repeated, which in the context of iwbft could have a sinister tone - the worst is yet to come

midas - skott

this reminds me of jimmy wondering why the label, their management, and even lister and rowan actually want to go through with the new contract, why they want to be bigger and richer. there’s a lesson about the greed and capitalism of the music industry in there

some nights - fun.

“this is it, boys, this is war / what are we waiting for? / why don't we break the rules already?” fame feels like a war to jimmy by now, which is reflected by the joan of arc and the soldier motif in iwbft. on multiple occasions, he asks rowan and lister to just break away from all of it, rules and conventions be damned “so this is it? / i sold my soul for this? / washed my hands of that for this? / i miss my mom and dad for this? / no, when i see stars, when i s- / when i see stars, that's all they are / when i hear songs, they sound like a swan” once again we have jimmy’s realisation that fame isn’t worth it. he doesn’t see the glamour that everybody claims fame brings. additionally, the swan metaphor refers to the fact that swans only sing once, right before they die, which is in tune with the death motif in iwbft, everything feeling very close to the end additionally, @kindaorangey made some excellent points here

lifeline - we three

so far jimmy has mostly been going with the flow, not putting up much of a fight to get what he wants, letting other people “shiver, feel it, take it, break it, make it what you want and / lose it, choose it, find it , mind it, bruise it, use it how you’re gonna” - it being his life, basically. of course that changes on friday but i’m getting ahead of myself

sometimes - h.e.r.

“i had a plan, i had it mapped out / i knew where i was going when i left out / oh, you couldn't tell me that i wouldn't be there on time / i had some guarantees, i had a deadline / but now i know things change for better or worse / you could say that i'm the same, but i ain't adjusted to all the hurt” - once again, the theme of jimmy’s childhood dreams and hopes ending up worse than he imagined