I had never gotten into My Chemical Romance really, no particular reason. But now everybody is talking about this Black Parade and throwing around epitaphs like “The Best Album of the Year”. I concede the point that Black Parade is certainly an ambitious work; a concept album created in the image of Pink Floyd’s A Night at the Opera and the Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band about the death and afterlife of a young man named “The Patient”. Black Parade was produced by Rob Cavallo, who also guided Green Day to the stratosphere with their heavily thematic album American Idiot, so obviously MCR is playing to win this round. But the question lingers as I’m about to press play, will My Chemical Romance fulfill the promise of their ambition?



We start off, naturally, with “The End”, which I found clever enough as it played a kind of punk pop riff on Gus the Chimney Sweep with a “Hear Ye” note of a pitch to it. Followed by the inexplicably jovial nature of “Dead”, I was beginning to think that The Black Parade was going to deliver on its promise. It should be said at this point though, that MCR isn’t really giving us anything new or anything I haven’t heard before. As the disc carries on into “This is How I Disappear”, I’m left with that lingering feeling; the band was thinking big, but their music was still small. MCR is extremely proficient and seemingly embraced by a new energy, but comparisons to Gilmour and McCartney are still far off.



As the opening chords of “Welcome to the Black Parade” began, my ears started to perk up and all in the sudden I was seeing the genius and feeling it. There’s a wonderful melodic quality to the opening. Gerard Way throws a lot of soul into his delivery and the musical accompaniment is reserved and tampered in a way that lets the music breath and develop. Too soon though the band falls back on old habits, but they keep up harmony and juxtaposition of sounds enough to finish out the song with a great flourish and a rock anthem nod in the closing chords.



A bizarre left turn into screeching emo with “I Don’t Love You” comes after “Black Parade” and a dalliance with A-typical pop punk with “House of the Wolves”. If were to persist the notion that Sgt Pepper’s was a primary influence than “Cancer” is meant to be Black Parade’s “When I’m Sixty-Four” and “Mama” is…”Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”? Actually, I think MCR was trying to channel Melancholy and Infinite Sadness with that last one, but without Billy Corrigan’s deep throated vocalization, “Mama” is just whine and its operatic finish can’t make up for the fact that I’ve heard this song several different ways before. Although they do get props for throwing Liza Minelli some work with this one.



The track “Teenagers” was when I finally started to nod off; an unintentional turning point as its “Being a teenage is awful and adults are cruel” thematic through line is sorely out of place. The song is fairly well produced, but I though MCR was past this easy pickin’s stuff. Any one of a number of half-assed pop punk outfits have told me the same thing – I thought the band was trying to be different. In the context of the rest of the album, “Teenagers” was a misstep.



For those in doubt of My Chemical Romance and their skills, I doubt that this is going to make a believer out of you. I must say though, that in considering The Black Parade with similar albums of the genre that came out in 2006, this is certainly one of the better ones. The band doesn’t bring it all the way home for me, but they show enough promise that leaves me little doubt that they’ll develop further. Certainly, there ambition is in the right place.



The End

Dead!

This Is How I Disappear

The Sharpest Lives

Welcome to the Black Parade

I Don't Love You

House of Wolves

Cancer

Mama

Sleep

Teenagers

Disenchanted

Famous Last Words

Blood