“Heaven, Iowa” by Fall Out Boy

All things considered, it would seem that the title of this song (“Heaven, Iowa”) is a reference to the classic Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams (1989). Fall Out Boy used said film, in a cleverly-creative way, to tease the forthcoming of “So Much (for) Stardust”, the album from which “Heaven, Iowa” is derived. 

And it would seem that this song’s title was derived from a popular phrase associated with Iowa which itself was inspired by Field of Dreams.

For those who aren’t familiar with its plot, the movie basically revolves around the main character having a vision to illogically build a baseball field in an obscure part of the state known as Dyersville. And upon doing so, the spirits of a bunch of old baseball players appear, from that great stadium in the sky, so to speak. So “Heaven, Iowa” is not an actual place and, within the context of this song, is rather symbolic.

THE LYRICS OF “HEAVEN, IOWA”

As such, neither “heaven”, “Iowa” nor Field of Dreams is mentioned in the lyrics. Apparently, the connection that the film has to what’s being put forth in the song would be in terms of pointing to the dogged vocalist’s own faith, though not sports’ related but rather when it comes to his romance with the addressee. For instance, his only request of the apple of his eyes is that she “dream sweet of” him. 

And being that he refers to the two of them as “scar crossed lovers”, that would imply that they both have traumatic romantic histories. But as insinuated in the bridge, he is willing to fully take the plunge nonetheless.

Let’s say that there’s no logical reason for Patrick to believe that this relationship will work out as opposed to the previous ones which have failed. But as with Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, he is forging ahead anyway, with the faith that this relationship with the person he loves will prosper. 

Furthermore, he is asking her to adopt a similar disposition of being unreasonably optimistic, if you will, as opposed to minding all of the things that can potentially go wrong.

“Scar crossed lovers, forever
I’m checking myself out forever
I’m saving this all for later
Scar crossed lovers, forever
Here we are untouched forever
I’m saving this all for later”

“HEAVEN, IOWA”, ANOTHER FALL OUT BOY COMPOSITION

As is their norm, the entirety of Fall Out Boy – Pete Wentz, Joe Trohman, Andy Hurley and frontman Patrick Stump – are credited with writing this song of theirs. In this case, they employed Neal Avron, who also executively produced their earlier albums “From Under the Cork Tree” (2005), “Infinity on High” (2007) and “Folie à Deux” (2008), to serve the same role on “So Much (for) Stardust”. 

RELEASE DATE

This track, along with the rest of the album, came out on 24 March 2023 via Fueled by Ramen and DCD2 Records.