Welcome to the Black Parade

Let me start this off by stating that I have pride in my (sometimes) picky and selective musical taste.  I tend towards stuff that is a little more understated, with notable exceptions like Arcade Fire and, ahem, Muse.  But those bands are still cool, right… whatever, my inner hipster and inner partier are waging a war in my head right now, but I will just spit it out.

I love My Chemical Romance.

I have since I was twelve, when I “discovered” them on YouTube.  At the time, it was interesting and exotic, strange compared to the typical Avril Lavigne/Simple Plan diet that I had been on for the past two years.  And to be fair to myself, it was their first album that I got into really hardcore, and the transition from teen-pop to that quasi-screamo type thing was pretty drastic.  Let’s just say my mom hated it.

So I got into them really hardcore.  I listened to their music all the time (or at least their first two albums.)  I tried to wear all black for about a month before I realized that it was July and that is hard to pull off in sweltering heat.  I crushed endlessly on Gerard and Frank, and will admit that I spent a couple of days reading all the Frerard fanfic that I could find online.  The thing is that I had – and still have – grown up in conservative small towns, and they seemed dangerous and bad, yet at the same time ultimately loving and accepting.  My Chemical Romance (I refuse to use acronyms) is a band made up of misfits, for misfits, and for a while, I felt like they were my haven from all the kids (and my parents) who thought that I was an antisocial, overly sensitive weirdo.  I was devoted to them for a glorious year and a half, and my devotion reached its zenith with my discovery of The Black Parade.

This was My Chemical Romance at their most over-dramatic, campy, self-indulgent best.  I had spent weeks before I bought it reading about the album online, and as soon as I got home from the music store I ran to my bedroom and stuck the CD in.  (Just remember, I didn’t listen to “real” music before this.  Teen pop was all.  I had never even heard of concept albums, I had never heard songs longer than 3 or 4 minutes, and I was basically just sadly unaware of this shit.)

The first seconds of “The End” were such a revelation.  It was like what they had done before, but at the same time, it wasn’t.  With their other songs, it was like a story within a song, but this was just an introduction to the story of a messed up, tortured man.  I sat there, in stunned silence, listening as they howled “So throw on the black dress/mix in with the lot/you might wake up and notice you’re someone you’re not.”  Although I didn’t realize it at the time, it’s a very clever reference to many of the kids who were in their fan base, and how easy it is to lose yourself in the culture of, hate to use this word but, emo, a subculture based on non-conformity that somehow ended up becoming one of the most conformist of all.

And then of course, there is “Dead!”, that exhilaratingly childish romp that culminates in a chorus of, guess what, la la las.  Maybe I am making this up and reading too far into the lines, but the more times you listen to this album the more you realize how well many of the lines and much of the musical context shows elements of self-parody, and a little bit of humorous self-awareness that was slightly lacking in their earlier, still very good, work.

“This Is How I Disappear” is more in line with their earlier work.  (How I disappear, conformity, more self-parody?  Whoa… the more I look, the more I see.  My English teacher would be proud.)  Anyway, there is not much that I can say about it, except that it exemplifies the quintessential My Chemical Romance song: lyrics that can be applied to a number of situations, usually involving love and loss, and of course, that raging chorus.  It just makes me want to thrash my head now, but when I first heard it, I was scared.  “The Sharpest Lives” is another chorus typical of them, but is a bit creepier because of the hushed, semi-singing at the beginning.  This has always been one of my favourites off the album, and in my opinion it should have been one of the singles, maybe in place of “Famous Last Words.”

If the other parts of the album were unlike stuff I had heard before, then “Welcome to the Black Parade” was completely alien – a three part, semi rock-opera song with a dramatic message and desolate cast of characters.  I didn’t get the Queen references back then, but now I am shocked at the similarities.  The Pink Floyd comparisons always seemed a bit weak to me, but Queen is definitely an enormous influence, and perhaps one of the sole ones, on this album.  When they launch into the third section, it brings such exhilaration… one of those moments that makes you want to stand with the wind in your hair and shout this at the top of your lungs.  This is what they’re good at; fuck coolness, they write anthems.

Since it is getting late, I am not going to delve so deep into the second half of the album, but I’ll give some highlights.  “I Don’t Love You” is the first (and perhaps last) power ballad that they have ever done, but it is a successful experiment, if not one of their better songs.  “House of Wolves” is one of the highlights of the album, a completely raucous, blues tinged howler that has one of their most exhilarating sing-a-long choruses (and I think I’ve touched on their skill with sing-a-long choruses): “Tell me I’m a bad man, kick me like a stray, tell me I’m an angel, take this to your grave… s-i-n I s-i-n.”  “Cancer” is a touching, but sometimes obnoxious tale of loss to… guess what, cancer?  Only Gerard Way could come close to pulling off a line like “Baby, I’m just soggy from the chemo”.  Even with him, it sounds a bit much, but imagine with someone else…

“Mama” was another one of my listening revelations, with its slightly cabaret tinged rocking whatever the hell that is, and its enormously overblown chorus.  That Liza Minelli cameo too, honestly, sheer genius.  “Sleep” feels a bit boring following it, but is a good song in its own right; I’ve just never much cared for it, compared to the other songs on the album.  “Teenagers” is just sheer fun, an uncomplicated song to sing along to, and one of the more throwback rock s0ngs on the album, featuring a beautifully integrated guitar solo.  “Famous Last Words”, while I loved it initially, is one of those songs that I have grown to care for less and less over the years… yes, it does sum up their concept perfectly, but it feels like it was written specifically for that purpose, and so comes off a bit pretentious.  Just one of those songs that screams “This wants to be an anthem” and then doesn’t work as well as some of the songs that just don’t try as hard.  Still a good song, but I have my issues with it.

If there is any doubt of the element of self-parody within this album, it cannot be denied when it comes to the hidden track at the end of the album, where a piano and Gerard warble about blood (“Gallons of the stuff”) and basically makes light of everything they did within the album.  This was for all the haters who laughed at My Chemical Romance, called them try-hards with no senses of humor.  The haters were proved wrong, and this catchy ditty was born.

So, anyway, it is late at night.  As you can tell, my energy levels fell apart towards the end, and there is much homework that went undone because of this post, but I hope any My Chemical Romance fans out there enjoyed it, because I thoroughly love this album.  Outcasts unite!

Peace and love, Gillian