My Chemical Romance expands the repertoire, and blows past the critics
By Chris Nixon
For The Union-Tribune
December 7, 2006
From the opening beeps of a heart monitor on “The Black Parade's” opening track “The End,” My Chemical Romance's third studio album marks a creative pinnacle for the five guys from Jersey.
With a tip of the cap to epic albums like Pink Floyd's “The Wall” and Queen's most orchestral masterpieces, MCR tackles the rock opera with its emotive rock. Call it an “emopera.”
“This is without a doubt that record for this band,” said lead singer Gerard Way via phone after a sound check during a tour stop in North Carolina. “It's that one record by a dark-horse band that created a knee-jerk reaction, and having it causes a big cultural thing among a younger audience. There has been some skepticism toward the band largely on a critical level. That's common when you have a group that's speaking to the youth.”
Emerging from the area of New Jersey just outside of New York City (traditionally the territory of Bruce Spingsteen, Bon Jovi and Southside Johnny), Way – along with bassist and brother Mikey Way, drummer Bob Bryar and guitarists Frank Iero and Ray Toro – faced an uphill battle when they started in 2001.
“We never wanted to be trapped in a local band, local hero type of thing,” recalled Way on the band's early years. “There were some very big fish in a very small pond in Jersey. We just got in a van and left. We had ambitions that were much larger than conquering a county. We did what's really risky and really hard to do. We got in a van with no money, a van that doesn't really even work, and just start driving places you've never been to play, sometimes for eight kids.”
Traveling the country led them to release 2002's “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love,” which subsequently led them to sign with Reprise (a division of Warner Music Group). “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge” followed in 2004, a solid set of emo tunes mixing pop balladry and biting guitar riffage. The album went platinum and connected with mostly younger audiences.
By adding flourishes of classic rock orchestration, “The Black Parade,” critically praised and commercially a hot seller, seems to be changing all of that now: “This is the record that pushes us through (to the public). I meet people now who are in their 40s and 50s who are fans. Not because of their kids, but because they heard a song on the radio and they remember what it was like listening to Queen.”
Most rock operas follow a storyline. But My Chemical Romance chose to follow a theme, a theme that could be misconstrued, according to Way.
“I think the theme for me is 'life,' ” he said. “I know it seems like a dark record. That's what people try to dwell on. To me, the record is about triumph, victory and the strong desire to live. The record is really about survival and truth.”
While lyrically strong, the album's orchestral elements stand out as an achievement among emo-pop bands.
“Even though there are sometimes hundreds of layers happening, not one of those layers is arbitrary,” said Way of the record's thick production. “None of those layers is just us trying to be cool or trying to confuse people. It's all very thought out. It's the result of leaving no stone unturned.”
Standout tracks like the demented Gypsy music of “Mama” (Mama we're all going to hell) and the ballad “Cancer” really show a band finding new expression in the tired confines of emo and modern rock.
“That's basically the way we approached this record: Nothing was taboo,” said Way. “Nothing was uncool. There was nothing to be ashamed of. It was about pulling your skin off and getting really naked with it.
“It doesn't necessarily mean it was going to be stripped-down raw. Getting naked with this material meant exposing yourself in a very large way.”
Chris Nixon is a San Diego music writer.
