Fans and foes are alternatively mourning and rejoicing following My Chemical Romance's announcement last Friday that "like all great things, it has come time for it to end". The band that drew comparisons to everyone from Marilyn Manson to Queen, that (back in the day) modeled their sound on Morrissey joining the Misfits, and that gave every man and his dog an easy (if not misguided) definition of 'emo' have called it quits just shy of 12 years.
While in lead singer Gerard Way's words "there wasn't even a blaze of glory in a hail of bullets," controversy has never been far away throughout their career. But inspite of fired drummers, accusations of brainwashing fans, glamourising suicide and selling out and the constant need to address the emo classification; the band worked very hard to bring theatricality back to rock and roll. Lead singer Gerard Way has said:
"We wanted to take rock to a place that it hadn’t been in a long time, and that is to tell stories... and we wanted to use these sweeping metaphors instead of just 'you broke my heart'."
In chasing this goal, they have left us with a compact and very appreciatable legacy in their four studio albums. Love them or hate them, they're a band who will not soon be forgotten by rock and roll historians. Therefore, as a fan and someone who has been asked the question that titles this post, I present you with this album-by-album ode to the dearly departed MCR.
I brought you my bullets, you brought me your love (2002)
Gerard Way was so affected by the events of 11 September 2001 that he went home, picked up a guitar and wrote 'Skylines and turnstiles'. It has rarely been played live since Three cheers for sweet revenge consumed the young alternative rock community in 2004, but it was a key part of MCR shows in the beginning and is a centrepiece of their debut album – it's brash, dramatic, full of pain and is voiced by a very tormented young man with ambitions for (or, depending on how you look at it, delusions of) granduer. The whole album plays out like that one song: it's got a simple sound which takes its cues from rock, punk, hardcore and pop, and grandious, often tongue-in-cheek lyrics ('Headfirst for halos', for example: "The red ones make me fly and the blue ones help me fall / and I think I'll blow my brains against the ceiling / And as the fragments of my skull begin to fall / fall on your tongue like pixie dust, just think happy thoughts and we’ll fly home"). The kind of imagery we'd see solidified on the next album (and that would become a huge part of the band's thing) are all here – death, violence, love and a hyper-real comic book universe. Released within three months of MCR forming, it's far from perfect, but with tracks like 'Honey, this mirror isn't big enough for the two of us', 'Vampires will never hurt you' and 'Our lady of sorrows'; their debut was (cliche alert) a clear statement of intent.
Three cheers for sweet revenge (2004)
This is where most people came in and where everything changed. MCR moved to a new record label (Reprise), they started wearing a uniform of sorts (the make up, the bullet proof vests, the blood for photoshoots, etc.) and they put together an album that will forever be the symbol of "what happened to alternative rock after pop punk". They learnt song structure, they were alternatively anthemic and then dirty and grimy, Gerard's voice was thicker and communicated a bigger range of emotions and his lyrics were bang on ('It's not a fashion statement, it's a fucking deathwish' provides some of the best lyrics of Gerard's writing career, including such gems as "Promise me that when I'm gone you'll kill my enemies", "Hip hip hooray for me! You talk to me! / But would you kill me in my sleep?" and "This hole you put me in wasn't deep enough and I'm climbing out right now / You're running out of places to hide from me"), the drums, guitars and bass weren't as messy as on the first album... everything was better, faster and stronger. They were clear and they were loud. MCR had arrived.
Like their debut, this album had a loose concept – "the story of a man, a woman, and the corpses of a thousand evil men" – but, like any great concept album, the songs work outside the overarching narrative – radio hits 'Helena' and 'I'm not OK (I promise)', along with 'Cemetery Drive' and (my personal favourite) the homoerotic, gothic caberet 'You know what they do to guys like us in prison' make this one of the best albums of the early/mid-2000s.
The Black Parade (2006)
While Bullets and Revenge skirted around the idea of a concept album and focused more on a unifying theme, MCR's third album was commited to a complete story and the band to a new persona. They held press conferences, spoke and performed as black and white Sgt Pepper's lookalikes "the Black Parade" – Gerard would even start shows on a hospital bed wearing a hospital gown before launching into the opening number. The 'Black Parade' idea came from Gerard's belief that death comes for you as your strongest memory, and for the album's protagonist – a man dying of cancer after a life of debauchery and military service – it is a marching band he saw with his father as a child.
Musically this was something quite new. MCR moved away from their punk and hardcore roots and embraced classic rock (think Queen and Pink Floyd) while maintaining a strong pop sensibility. Once again, the quality of Gerard's voice and the musicianship of the rest of the band improved drastically from their last effort. Lyrically, the positivity and fight to live and be happy came through clearer than ever (take the "we'll carry on" refrain from 'Welcome to the Black Parade" and the "I am not afraid to keep on living / I am not afraid to walk this world alone" chorus from 'Famous last words' as examples). Possibly their finest moment, even if I prefer Revenge. Key tracks include 'Dead!', 'The sharpest lives', 'Welcome to the Black Parade', 'Cancer' and 'Teenagers'.
Danger days: the true lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (2010)
The mammoth world tour supporting The Black Parade left MCR fans waiting four years for their next album, and when the band announced that they had scrapped an album's worth of material to start all over again, there was a lot of concern. In late 2010, the incredibly obnoxious and technicolour/post-apocalyptic 'Na na na (na na na na na na na na na)' was released, and fans were divided. The band had been dogged by accusations of "selling out" throughout their career (them and every other band that gets even remotely associated with anything but bubblegum pop or classical music), and this new song surprised/frightened/aroused a lot of people. When the album dropped, the critics (almost uniformly) loved it, it made it to number one on the Billboard charts in the US and it was listed as one of Rolling Stone's top 30 albums of 2010. Many (most) of the fans came around, but the devotion was not so great as for their last two releases. Regardless of what everyone else thought, I loved it – it's glam rock mixed with 1980s synth and served with healthy doses of anger, fiction and a party atmosphere. Lyrically, it's a fight for freedom and creativity, for the beauty that we can all find in fighting for our own happiness (so summarised in one of the album's radio broadcasts "Keep your boots tight, keep your gun close and die with your mask on if you’ve got to!”). As their parting effort (not counting the five Conventional weapons EPs recorded before Danger Days and released in 2012-13), this album is a damn fine note to go out on. Key tracks include 'Look alive, sunshine/Na na na (na na na na na na na na na)', 'Bulletproof heart', 'Summertime', 'The kids from yesterday' and 'Vampire money'.
There you have it. Four albums, a lot of make up and multiple costume changes. They may not have saved my life, but they showed me that the arena of theatrical albums and performance is not solely occupied by acts from the golden age of rock.
As an added bonus, here is my very own personal key-tracks-best-of-MCR playlist. Enjoy!
SCHNITZEL (a fan, but not a fanboy).
Key-tracks-best-of-MCR playlist
Look alive, sunshine/Na na na (na na na na na na na na na)
Dead!
Headfirst for halos
Skylines and turnstiles
It’s not a fashion statement, it’s a fucking deathwish
Bulletproof heart
Cemetery Drive
Our lady of sorrows
Teenagers
Honey, this mirror isn’t big enough for the two of us
Vampires will never hurt you
I’m not OK (I promise)
Vampire money
Summertime
Cancer
Welcome to the Black Parade
The kids from yesterday
The sharpest lives
You know what they do to guys like us in prison
Helena
No comments:
Post a Comment