« Tonight: Circle Jerks | An Open Letter to Hip-Hop »
I’m Going to Regret Saying This
Give me a minute, this isn’t easy.
Okay…
Deep breath….
The new My Chemical Romance single doesn’t suck.
Now wait just a mall-punk minute! Before you fill that envelope with anthrax and address it to me, let me explain myself…
Yes, they come off as a completely contrived and vapid “rock” band suckling the teat of all that is trendy, but MCR really aren't the worst offenders in the sea of iniquity that pollutes the airwaves today (that’d be Panic! at the Disco). There are a lot of reasons to hate them: they wear tons of ridiculous make-up (the red eye shadow thing is their fault), sport over-stylized outfits, and sometimes even don bulletproof vests onstage (who are you, Gerard Way, 2Pac?). And it's true that their record Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, is packed with dramatic and pathetically emotional drivel like “I’m not o-fucking-kaaaaayyy!” but that’s what makes them almost great. They’re as much an act as they are a band, and they fucking know it. That’s their whole mission—to be completely and absolutely and 100% over the top.
Dave Grohl wasn't too far off when he claimed in an interview some time last year that My Chemical Romance is this generation’s Queen (the direct quote escapes me, but it was genius). Just like Queen, the band is fueled by dramatics. You couldn’t tell so much from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, but as they’ve continued to exist, it has become more and more evident.
Which brings us to now: The new My Chemical Romance single, “Welcome to the Black Parade,” doesn’t suck. The band has finally and fully embraced the fact that they don’t write rock songs, they write epics. They’ve accepted that they’re not a band at all. This time around they’ve even gone so far as to make up an alter-ego for themselves—they ditched the My Chemical Romance moniker and called themselves the Black Parade. No joke. They’re still MCR, and the new album, The Black Parade, is an MCR record, but while they recorded it, they were the Black Parade.
Boys. They can be so silly.
Anyways, I’ve only heard one song from the album, which is the single called “Welcome to the Black Parade,” and dude, it sounds like a fucking Queen song! (Until they hit you with a minute or two of the watered-down mall-punk shit, but it’s minimal and forgivable, as they’re still learning). There’s a delicate piano introduction and this whole marching band element comes into play with this huge chorus of voices over a wailing guitar solo and... well here, just listen to it:
See? Right?
So there. I said it.
Maybe My Chemical Romance isn't the devil I always thought they were.
They’re gonna revoke my rock writer license for this, aren’t they...
Comments
I'm gonna pass.
But I'm wondering who the kid in the hospital gown is. I've seen him in movies and stuff and it's right there on the tip of my brain and just... can't... place him. Someone tell me please. thank you.
That is a big pile of doody, albet a funny one. And the big rock-out part makes me think that the Queen-like epic bits are just their teaser segue to get the teens all worked for the "real" rock.
Also, Guy Maddin should be getting royalties on that. What a ripoff!
They want you to think Queen Megan, don't fall for it. I'm sticking to the opinion that MCR sucks. And to further disagree, the suckiest band of the current crop is 30 Seconds to Mars and Jared Leto's fingerless gloves. PATD are extremely objectionable but not as completely useless as the Martians.
And I think the bullet-proof vest serves a similar function as a girdle. Homeboy has had a few too many Triscuits and deli trays on his rider.
you're spending way too much time down at The End
At best, this is my take on MCR:
I think a bunch of smartass kids decided, "Hey, if the Darkness can be a parody of shitty 70s cockrock and be successful, why should we have to wait twenty years to be a parody of shitty 00s pseudo emo-goth-metal-core. Let's just do it now!"
I wouldn't ever put them on par with Queen, but I think the Journey / Styx / Foreigner comparison would be right on the nose: The ultimate over the top guilty pleasure band of our age. The first time I heard them I totally thought they sounded like Journey put through a mall punk filter. Personally, I found that absolutely hilarious and "Helena" became my "joke" track for mix CDs for the last two years. For people who were around for Journey the first time though, I can see how that might now be quite so funny.
That video made me kind of need to take an itchy pee though. Just sayin.
MCR does not suck. I can't really listen to their music by itself, but their videos (the dancing in church one, the d-day one, and the new Black Parade one) offer a suprising context to the, I admit, otherwise kind of teenage pop-punk. Everybody, haters too, can tell as soon as their videos come on tv: somebody here has real vision. Campy high-drama pop-punk has weirdly become en vogue, but MCR is the only clever representative. Panic! At The Disco is the worst band ever and only excel at making mall kids believe they have a vocabulary.
Did I hear a Flaming Lips-esque element to the intro?! At least it's nice to hear them wearing their influences on their sleeve - nothing wrong with that in this dark age of bands that have spawned atrocious bands like Panic At The Disco & Yellowcard that cannot write a melody to save their lives.
Are you kidding me? Who paid you for that review?
that song is a bit much. i love "three cheers.." tho, styx and, especially journey. i'm actually getting a journey influenced tattoo (no irony intended).
So Megan . . . are you regretting saying this yet?
The Killers is THE worst, most overrated band in the history of music - hands down. While MCR has its dubious qualities, at least they're not trying to emit the kind of insipid aural feces The Killers are excreting.
Disagree?!
While I still am not going to purchase an MCR album or attend an MCR show, I admire what they're trying to do. The new song is definitely the best thing I've heard by them, and I dig any band that tries to do it "big" like they're doing.
Is it just me, or is Gerard Way turning into Billy Corgan?
Oh, and this band still blows.
Megan...I'm with you. If this band wasn't so darn easy to poke fun at (and at some level we ALL want to...even me), we might just accidentally have to admit that they are pretty darn good at what they do. Not liking what they do and saying this isn't a talented band are two VERY different things.
Comments Closed
In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 45 days old).
Muse may be this generation's Queen. MCR can be this generation's Styx or Journey - a guilty pleasure that you enjoy at some level but know really sucks at its core.
This general rule may prove helpful to you - when in doubt, just about everything on The End sucks - once in awhile something (like Knights of Cydonia) slips through - and then it's back to Gorillaz (payola much?).