Hold Me Like A Grudge

Album: So Much (for) Stardust (2023)
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Songfacts®:

  • Pete Wentz' lyrics for this song find Patrick Stump begging his "part-time soulmate" to show him some love and compassion. You can tell their relationship is rocky because he's telling her to hold on to him like a grudge.

    Stump needs his romantic partner in his life because he can't keep up with a world that's always spinning. But he knows he's also valuable to her, like "a diamond." Stump wants her to keep pushing him to be the best version of himself with some lovin' pressure.
  • The "part-time soulmate, full-time problem" line in the chorus sums up the song's thesis: that juxtapositions and contradictions are so human. "Anytime you meet somebody, there's at least two sides to them, and there's flaws, and sometimes those flaws are what you like about them, and you chase them because of the flaws," Wentz explained to Kerrang magazine. "It's one of the things that I love about humans, and I love that about books and movies: just seeing multiple sides, because it's how we all are."
  • The video is a continuation of Fall Out Boy's visual for their 2007 song "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race," which ends with Wentz breaking his leg stage diving.

    "This video starts at 'Arms Race,' and I fall and I break my leg, and then they fix my leg but it's bionic, and I become a superhero for 20 years, and we don't do the band, and it's a different timeline," Wentz told Kerrang.

    When they get a call from some guy who's from the future but stuck in the past, it messes up the space-time continuum, so Wentz looks for Stump, who's now a local wrestler, rocking an epic muscle suit.

    "It was fun," said Stump of his character. "It was by choice. I just thought it would be so funny. I used to wanna act years ago, and one of the things that was really difficult is that I don't really have the physicality – no-one ever wants you to be the villain. They just see this little dorky guy and they're like, 'Hey, you wanna play this little dorky guy?' And so I thought that'd be really funny."
  • Fall Out Boy released "Hold Me Like A Grudge" as the third single from So Much (For) Stardust. The album finds the band reuniting with producer Neal Avron, who helmed three of their biggest records, 2005's From Under the Cork Tree, 2007's Infinity on High, and 2008's Folie à Deux.

    Asked by Official Charts how they ended up reconnecting, Stump said they sought Avron out, but he needed convincing. "He doesn't really produce much now, he's a world class mixer," Stump explained. "He's moved into that space so successfully and won so many Grammys, but I kind of begged him. He said 'let's hear the music,' so I sent him some demos and convinced him."

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