ROCKSTOP...your source for pop and modern rock CD reviews: My Chemical Romance- The Black Parade

DAVE's TAKE:

"I drink for the horror that I'm in
for the good guys and the bad guys
for the monsters in our bed
Three cheers for tyranny
unapolagetic apathy
cause there ain't no way that I'm coming back again
and through it all
how could you cry
for me.........
cause I don't feel bad about it
so shut your eyes
kiss me goodbye
and sleeeeeeee eee eee eep"

Never has a band made talking about death sound so good, as the above lyrics from "Sleep" do on My Chemical Romance's new album: Welcome to the Black Parade. If you're a modern rock fan then you're probably familiar with some their previous hits off their last album, "Helana" and "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)". That same sound is definitely present on this album. Like Green day, they have gone with the Rock-opera type album focusing on a central theme and borrow heavily in the sound department from arena rock bands of old. Not suprisingly, Rob Cavello who also helped produce Green Day's: American Idiot, also co-produced this album. The Queen references are so obvious that they don't need mentioning unless you've never heard of Queen before. My Chemical Romance does at least put their own modern rock twist on the sound.

Nowhere are the Quuen comparisons more obvious than on the intro song "The End" which clones Queen right down to the song structure: A slow piano intro with sing-songy lyrcis followed by an over the top bombastic chorus that sounds all too familiar to "Bohemian Rhapsody"

Now just because My Chemical Romance borrows sounds of old does not mean this is a bad album. Far from it. Like Cobra in G.I Joe pulling DNA from all of the greatest evil leaders of all time to create Serpentor, My Chemical Romance seems to extract the best of old 80's and 70's rock sounds and modernize it.

As the front cover suggests with its gothic skeleton, lyrically almost of the songs deal directly about death or dying. But the album does anything but make you depressed due to the way the songs are played.

In fact, the super catchy lead single "Welcome to the Black Parade", starts off slow and explodes into rapid pace yummy rock goodness, has some of the most upbeat lyrics:

"When you're gone we want you all to know We'll Carry on,
We'll Carry on
Though your dead and gone believe me Your memory will carry on
Carry on
We'll carry on
And in my heart I cant contain it
The anthem wont explain it"

After that track the album treads more on the ballad side of the road with superb tracks like "I don't Love You", "Cancer" and "Sleep", whose lyrics opened up this blog and my personal favorite track on the alubm due to the guitar work. Then there are the rockabilly sounding tracks "House of Wolves" and "Mama" that have Cherry Poppin Daddies bass type rhythms. "Teenagers" is hard to describe other than I'm sure I've heard the sound used somewhere before but just can't place it.

The album rounds out with another ballady type song "Disenchanted" with the following lyrics:

"If I'm so wrong How can you listen all night long
Now will it matter after I'm gone
Because you never learn a goddamned thing

It's just a sad song, with nothing to say
About a life-long wait for a hospital stay
And if you think that I'm wrong
This never meant nothing tooooooooo you"

THe album rounds out with "Famous Last Words" perhaps the most straight-up rock sounding song on the album and some of the more positive lyrics on the album:

"I am not afraid to keep on living
I am not afraid to walk this world alone
Honey, if you stay, I'll be forgiven
Nothing you can say can stop me going home"

But it still ends with a bombastic chorus. So Welcome to the Black Parade definitely borrows from other bands sounds, almost unabashedly so but it works due to the great execution and consistent musical performance on each song. The lyrics are quite admittedly over-the top overkill but

OVERALL RATING: 8/10 (Heavily borrowed sounds but played extremely well)

SOUNDS LIKE: Queen( How many times do I have to repeat this), 80's rock,

BEST SONGS: Welcome to the Black Parade, I Don't Love You, Sleep, Mama, This How I Dissapear, House of Wolves, Famous Last Words

SONG/VIDEO SAMPLES:
Rolling Stone Review page (listen to all songs)

"SLEEP"