Album Review: My Chemical Romance—Danger Days: The True Lives of Fabulous Kill Joys.

This is technically a little behind the time, but the album is new to me (November 23d was the release date) I hadn’t heard hide nor hair of My Chemical Romance since about 2005, when their most mainstream album Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge hit the stores, debuting the single “I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” a bouncy, goofy, slightly bitter number that is still sometimes on the radio. I was never terribly impressed, they were a decent band, but not worth really investing in. Gerard Way sounded a bit like Robby Takac but lower pitched. He looked like a gremlin with pink eyeliner and stringy black hair, which was appealing to me at the time. It seems the gremlin has cleaned up quite a bit and the band’s s sound has coalesced quiet a bit. This revamp started with Black Parade in 2006, from what I’ve seen and heard but black parade was still on the darker side, like their older stuff. Honing into a punk-pop sound, without the immaturity of some of the others in that scene, My Chemical Romance has found a sound that is catchy, deliberately cacophonous, and all around fun; leaving behind their darker roots, while keeping hold of some of their cynicism. This is one of the few albums I’ve seen in this decade that sounds like one cohesive piece and hearkens back to concept albums, but there is not story that I can discern. Way has referred to it as an “anti-concept” album. Fun to listen to but no tracks that really grabbed me With the interspersed radio-like tracks, Danger Days: The True Lives of Fabulous Kill Joys gives the feel of something of a last broadcast—a party at the end of the world. The downside of this cohesiveness is many of the songs sound similar, other than the single “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)” and the radio tracks, none of the songs sick out particularly from the others, while listening I’ve had to check repeatedly which song was which. Fun to listen to but no tracks that really grabbed me. There is almost no distinction track to track, both in its cord progressions, and in the vocal style as well as the tempo of the songs—always upbeat, fast-paced numbers. However, I would almost argue that the indistinct nature of the tracks worked to the album’s benefit. While there are no “single” songs, it also doesn’t sound per se redundant, rather, it plays like one track. Its also a very honest album I don’t hear any tracks that are trying to be radio numbers. Overall a fun, catchy album.
(3.5/5 for technical skill, 4/5 for genuine entertainment)