My Chemical Romance

Track Listing:
1. The End
2. Dead!
3. This Is How I Disappear
4. Sharpest Lives
5. Welcome To The Black Parade
6. I Don’t Love You
7. House Of Wolves
8. Cancer
9. Mama
10. Sleep
11. Teenagers
12. Disenchanted
13. Famous Last Words

My Chemical Romance
The Black Parade (Album)

Although My Chemical Romance hate the term, they have been placed under the banner of EMO for many years, their second album “Three Cheers” almost pushed them out of that genre, but “The Black Parade” has obliterated the boundaries for “MCR”, and they have a real shot at commercial fame with this one, with it having a further reaching appeal than just black clad teenagers, with “The Black Parade” Gerrard Way and the rest of MCR have really created an amazing piece of work.

The album is apparently focused around a character called the patient, and how death comes to him, and his journey to that end, The patients strongest memory of his life is that of a parade with his father, so when death comes for him, it is in the form of “The Black Parade”

The album begins with “The End” with the bleeping of an ICU unit coming out of the silence, then Way’s voice breaks the silence followed by some melodic piano work working its way to a crescendo of drums and guitar for the chorus. “Dead” is a more upbeat track featuring a nice blend of rock and comedic lyrics bringing you into the heart of the album. One of the finest tracks on the album is the title track “Welcome To The Black Parade” which I’m sure most of you will have heard on the radio at some stage, even though you might not have been aware that it was “MCR” (The video for this is excellent also). Personally my favourite track on the album is “Sleep” which starts with a strange interview style tape recorder playing various voices being fast forwarded and rewound at speed, which then steps up to a heartfelt song which kind of lifts your spirit.

Overall having listened to this album quite a few times I am still to find any criticism to be leveled at MCR, they have really outdone themselves, and I really hope they make it big with this album, “Three Cheers” deserved much more, and this one is on a par if not better than Green Day’s American Idiot album which is not surprising when you realise that Rob Cavallo who produced this album, also produced Green day’s efforts.

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