The song was well received by critics, who praised its composition and themes. Several publications considered it one of the best songs released in 2022. It charted in several countries, reaching number 1 on the Rock & Metal chart in the United Kingdom and number 132 on the BillboardGlobal 200. On May 17, Warner Records released the song onto mainstream rock radio, and the band debuted it live at the Eden Project. It was used as the opening song for every show of their Reunion Tour afterwards.
Background, production and release
Six years after their break-up,[1]My Chemical Romance reunited for a reunion show on December 20, 2019.[2] They subsequently scheduled additional shows worldwide, including a run of summer festival shows in mainland Europe and a North American tour.[3] In June 2021, the band's lead singer Gerard Way stated in an interview that he was working on music with Doug McKean,[4] the engineer behind two of the band's past studio albums, The Black Parade (2006) and Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (2010).[5]
McKean produced "The Foundations of Decay" alongside Way and guitarist Ray Toro. McKean also engineered the song, while Rich Costey and Jeff Citron mixed it and Mike Bozzimastered it. Alongside the main band lineup of Gerard Way, guitarists Toro and Frank Iero, and bassist Mikey Way, it features Jarrod Alexander on drums and Jamie Muhoberac on keyboard. Gerard Way wrote the lyrics, while the band itself is credited for songwriting.[6] "The Foundations of Decay" was the last project McKean worked on before his death in July 2022.[5]
The song opens up with static noise before introducing a mellow electric guitar, piano, and a "laid-back drumbeat" paired with Gerard Way's distorted vocals.[14] It then crescendos into the chorus, which Hannah Dailey of Billboard described as having "anthemic force" in a similar vein to the band's 2006 single "Welcome to the Black Parade".[14] Ali Shutler of NME compared the opening guitar to the intro of Aerosmith's "Dream On" (1973).[17] "The Foundations of Decay" goes between guitar breakdowns and slower-paced moments that highlight the lyrics, which were described by Dailey as "electric guitar-stamped rage fests" and "simmering moments of storytelling", respectively.[14] Shutler opined that the composition combined elements from their past studio albums, viewing the guitar breakdown as similar to one from The Black Parade (2006). Maria Sherman of NPR compared the song to ones found on the band's first album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love (2002).[17][22] Sherman and Moore compared it to that album's "Demolition Lovers", with Moore likening their usage of multiple acts and Sherman viewing their opening guitar segments as similar.[20][22]
An excerpt of the second part of "The Foundations of Decay", which references the band's origins and the September 11 attacks. Cassie Whitt of Alternative Press viewed this verse as referencing the "Hero's journey" trope.[7]
The lyrics discuss the band's origins and legacy.[17] Shutler described the song's opening as Gerard Way "wrestling" his legacy and age ("Let the flesh submit itself to gravity"), and viewed some of the lyrics as him battling nihilism, nostalgia, as well as finding safety behind doing nothing.[17] When discussing the group's beginnings, the song references the September 11 attacks, with Gerard Way describing his experiences that day which led to the creation of My Chemical Romance.[17]
As the song continues, it becomes more optimistic and hopeful as Gerard Way says to go "against faith".[17] The guitar breakdown in the middle of the track consists of Gerard Way screaming in a manner that Eli Enis of Revolver viewed as reminiscent of black metal.[23] By the end of the track, Gerard Way softly expresses his desire to continue doing nothing ("Yes, it comforts me much more" / "To lay in the foundations of decay") as the song begins to fade out, before he yells "get up coward".[17][7]Billboard described the ending as a "scream-filled free-for-all".[14]
Cassie Whitt of Alternative Press suggested that the lyrics also contain Catholic imagery and themes, with laying in the "foundations of decay" representing incorruptibility and waiting for canonization;[7] she opined that the same verse also covers misogyny ("And so he gets to die a saint" / "But she will always be a whore").[22] Whitt also viewed the verse about the September 11 attacks as similar to the hero's journey trope, seeing each lyric as representing a specific stage of the trope: the call to adventure, the adventure begins, the allies made, and the trials and ordeals. She also suggested that the full song can be interpreted as someone refusing to accept the call to adventure until a supernatural force intervenes, represented by the "get up coward" line.[7]
Critical reception and legacy
Many writers praised the song's composition. Sarah Jamieson of DIY viewed it as combing the band's past works into one, describing it as a "slow burning offering that swells into frenetic life" throughout its runtime and highlighting its latter half.[24] Ali Shutler of NME considered it to be a reinvention for the band with "fire, urgency and plenty of joy".[17] Mitchell Peters of Billboard highlighted Gerard Way's performance, calling it as "impeccable".[25] Dailey described the song as going from "guitar-stamped rage fests" to "simmering moments of storytelling",[14] while Enis characterized it as their heaviest release since Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (2004).[23]
Several writers complimented the lyrics and themes,[25][26] with Peters writing that they demonstrated My Chemical Romance's storytelling capabilities.[25] Shutler believed that the song's lyrics demonstrated that the band had not lost any of its talent during their time apart. He further wrote that while the band writing new music could have been risky due to the reverence for their past works, it was "never [...] bogged down with legacy".[17] Jack Rodgers of Rock Sound described it as "six minutes of dark, destitute and dramatic story-telling and world-building" unlike anything the band had released up to that point.[26]
Jamieson described the release as a "grand statement" and a "return of epic proportions",[24] while Shutler called it a "fierce, fearless return".[17] Rodgers deemed it a "defining moment" in the band's return that showed that they "[meant] serious business".[26] In her review of the band's live performance at the Barclays Center in September 2022, Danielle Chelosky of Alternative Press described "The Foundations of Decay" as a quintessential song in My Chemical Romance's discography.[27] In 2025, Moore ranked "The Foundations of Decay" as My Chemical Romance's fifteenth-best song, writing that the "wait for new music was well worth it".[20]
Several media outlets listed it as one of the best songs of 2022,[28][29][26] with the staff teams of The Los Angeles Times and NME ranking it as the twenty-second- and twenty-third-best song of the year, respectively.[28][29] Suzy Exposito of The Los Angeles Times described it as a "fist, bursting defiantly from the soil" towards people who thought that emo music was no longer relevant.[29]NME called it a comeback that exceeded the expectations of both older and newer emo music fans.[28] Rodgers included it in an un-ranked list of the year's ten best songs.[26]
Commercial performance
"The Foundations of Decay" debuted at number 132 on the BillboardGlobal 200.[30] In the United States, "The Foundations of Decay" received 497,000 streams and sold 1,900 digital copies within a few hours of its release. In its first few days, it received 1.1 million radio audience impressions.[31] In a Billboard readers' poll, it was voted by over 40% of readers as the week's best song.[25]
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