Written by: Averie Ridings
After over a year of cryptic tweets and fans watching their clocks for Saturday 7pm, and following the full deletion of what was meant to be the album Friendly Reminder, Houston trio Waterparks released their third full-length album, FANDOM. They had built up the hype for this album with the five singles they had released over the course of 2019, all showcasing the different sounds that this album has to offer. By far, this one has the most diversity, ranging from songs that highlight their pop-punk roots to pop songs. But you’re probably thinking- “Who names an album FANDOM?” At a first glance, it looks like a pretty strange moniker for a record. However, it starts to make sense when you read into the lyrics and pick up the real theme of the album. The primary topic that nearly every song on the album ties into is that of expectations set by, well, the Fandom.
FANDOM talks about different aspects of toxic fan culture, the most prominent being that of the expectations given to artists. Track three, “Dream Boy”, is a perfect example of this. While this one may sound like a poppy love song, further lyrical analysis will prove that that is not, in fact, the case. Lines such as “Build your expectations/ Saturated and inflated/ ‘Cause I was born to be your favorite” highlight how fans will create this hyper realistic image of who their favorite artists are. They’ll expect them to be greater-thans, when that’s just a “saturated” viewpoint. Track seven, “[Reboot]”’s, main chorus line, “I never promised you your dream boy,” is a call-back to “Dream Boy” (as well as the most important line on the album as it contributes to both the main and sub themes). While “Dream Boy” is about the expectations being built, this line is him saying- hey- that’s not who he is, and not who he ever claimed to be.
An album with the theme of “Fandom” is going to discuss more general flaws within fan culture than expectations , though. A shining example of this is the very first verse of “I Miss Having Sex But At Least I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore”, which has lyrics that were initially leaked back in May during Slam Dunk Festival- “I’m sick of all this ‘How’d you get your band name?’/’Is that your real first name?’/’Can you text me, can you follow back ‘cause it’s my birthday?’”. People are always quick to bombard artists with so many invasive questions, tending not to care whether or not they want to answer said questions, which is what this piece of the song is getting at. In verse two, the line, “I’m not even an icon/But I still get death threats often so their meaning starts to soften” is quite important, as it shows how even though he isn’t a big celebrity, there’s still enough fandom toxicity that he regularly receives death threats. Furthermore, the track “Easy To Hate”, can also be taken in the context of “Fandom”. Its choral line, “It’s too easy to hate you”, can be viewed as being about how people will find it so easy to completely “cancel” an artist over little to nothing.
Further on from the actual Fandom, lyricist Awsten Knight writes about holdbacks within the music industry itself. The most outstanding example of this is track two, “Watch What Happens Next”. Every lyric on this song is a tear at how the pop-punk scene would rather keep bands smaller than watch them prosper, such as “It’s a cultural holdback”, written about how there’s so many things that they can’t do musically that would draw in a larger audience due to how much backlash they would get over it. Even later on in the album, track 11, War Crimes, features a lyric about his musical peers, “I’m learning bands I love, don’t want the best for me”, about how other artists in the scene would rather them stay small so that they don’t surpass them- enforcing the “cultural holdback” line.
But of course, a fifteen-track album isn’t going to just have one straight theme. In fact, a lot of songs, rather than pointing towards the theme of “Fandom”, they focus more on the aftermath of a breakup, and the different emotions felt throughout. Tracks like “Turbulent”, “I Miss Having Sex but at Least I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore”, and “[Reboot]” reflect anger. However, ones like “High Definition”, “Never Bloom Again”, and “I Felt Younger When We Met” are based on sadder aspects of said breakup. These show the diversity of the line “I never promised you your dream boy” line- not only does it apply to the fanbase, but it can also apply in the context of a breakup, highlighting how that it is a subtheme of FANDOM.
FANDOM is an album that talks about both things that haven’t been heavily discussed within the scene and things that many people can relate to, over a variety of different sounding songs. If you want a pop-punk song, there’s a song for that. If you want a dance song, there’s songs for that. There are both happy, upbeat songs, and sad emo melodies, all set to lyrics that you shouldn’t just take one glance at. Regardless of what mood you’re in, there’s something on this album for you.