Personally, I've never been much of a My Chemical Romance fan. However considering just how much I've been hearing about this album, and the fact that Gerard Way described it as "MCR's Mellon Collie" (referring to Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness by the Smashing Pumpkins, one of my all-time favourite albums), I thought I'd give them a second chance.

Since I'm trying something new, I thought I'd go the extra mile and try and make an actual review of the album. For any fans of the band, I apologize in advance if I don't like it. This is my first review and I intend to sound as much like I know what I'm going on about as possible.


The Black Parade
My Chemical Romance
Reprise Records 2006


01 The End
While the heart monitor is definitely a nice touch, I can't help but feel I've been dropped into the middle of a song. Don't get me wrong, the intro is a fair length, features nice layering and the song follows a good dynamic, but somehow it just doesn't feel like the start of a story-telling album to me. Still, a good song.


02 Dead!
Hmmm, there seems to be a pattern forming here quite quickly. The song picks up where The End left off, but has a very pronounced Pop-Punk feel. This is an obvious live show sing-a-long number that unfortunately just doesn't seem to work as well at home.
The piano comes back past the halfway point, but from there on, considering Gerard's tone of voice and the trumpets, the song just starts to feel sarcastic.


03 This Is How I Disappear
Here we go, the album starts to pick up. Gerard's voice sounds a lot more comfortable here, launching through most of the song and showing some real vocal control, espcially on the longer notes. The guitar work is restrained but effective, despite being pushed to one side while Gerard sings.


04 The Sharpest Lives
Pounding techno-esque intro, good song structure and a very interesting vocal performance. Kudos. The instrument players make their first stand-out performances of the album with some great drum work and screeching guitars, but once again the bass just seems drowned. I couldn't hear it at all. Come to think of it I don't remember hearing it whatsoever so far.


05 Welcome to the Black Parade
Well here we are - the title track and first single (which I've somehow managed to avoid hearing so far). High expectations for this track....
Well my first impression is that you finally get the feeling that this actually is a concept album. The band fill up behind the piano nicely, without drawing your attention from the singing, before launching into more straight forward rock. Again, the guitars keep the mood and let Gerard get on with it while the bass is nowhere to be seen.
The chorus combines the two themes for a steadily rising guitar, including a slight touch of showboating from the lead, before bringing the marching band theme back for the outro. Excellent stuff.


06 I Don't Love You
Nice keyboady-sounding guitar build-up for the intro, and is that?.....YES! The bass! I can hear it....and it's gone again.....
But the guitars quickly pick up the slack, following Gerard's vocal melody during the chorus and supporting the mood through the verses.
The chorus is definitely a highlight of this song for me, but while this features the first "proper" guitar solo, it feels slightly forced. It's a nice tune but didn't gel well with the rest of the song. Overall a very good song.


07 House of Wolves
For some reason I'm reminded of The Police's King of Pain, but I can't place it.
Very funky drumwork layered by backing guitar and high-powered vocals. Another good one for the live shows, except this one works great here too. One of the high points of the album.


08 Cancer
Tipped by Gerard as "The saddest song ever".
Well, he was part right....it's the saddest song on the album so far, and with most of the band excluded Gerard has a chance to really show off........which he doesn't take (at least by his standards). It's hard to know if this is a missed oppurtunity on his part, or whether he chose to let the lyrics speak for themselves.


09 Mama
I can honestly say I didn't expect that. Polka music and Liza Minelli......wow. The band's parents even chip in to sing along. This definitely has the biggest contrast between verse and chorus on the album, but they work. The track comes into it's own when the guitars pick up the polka beat and give it an industrial tinge.
As with the title track, you really start to get a feel for the story behind the album, though this track feels slightly more conspicious.


10 Sleep
Helium filled radio snippets followed by the full-up guitars. Gerard shows some real talent here, yet while the song has no real faults, it doesn't really have any stand out moments. It finds it's niche then stays there. Still, said niche gets steadily louder and the outro is a nice touch. Solid rock track.


11 Teenagers
Like Dead!, this has a very poppy feel, and again also feels irrelevant to the story. On the plus, the guitar solos have definitely improved, it's got sing-along written all over it and it's a nice break from the sadder songs.


12 Disenchanted
Folky guitar intro followed by sudden guitars and voilins. It should sound like all the other rock tracks on the album before it, but it doesn't. The violins add a whole new dimension to Gerard's lyrics, especially towards the end of the song, before the folk guitar comes back to see us off.


13 Famous Last Words
The forthcoming single, so I'm expecting loud guitars and screaming, in it's most radio-friendly form.
.....Which I almost get. Pounding drums, 80s style rock guitar and catchy chorus. Fast guitar solos, still in the 80s vein pop-up about halfway through before the flat-out outro. Great ending.




Overall:
Definitely a pleasant surprise, though I'm not sure how accurate a portrayal it is of the band's earlier work.
Considering the influence's the band cited for this album, including Queen, Pink Floyd and The Beatles, it's not what I was expecting. While it definitely has it's highlights, a lot of the tracks, especially the first few, feel like filler. The story also feels very sporadic, with some songs, again especially near the beginning, seeming to skip it altogether.
All in all though, a good solid effort displaying a genuine attempt to pump some life into the genre.