Gerard Way knows what the hell he’s doing. Leave your prejudices at the doorstep and make your way through the crowds to be awe in of The Black Parade, the latest album conjured up by the punk rock quintet from New Jersey known as My Chemical Romance.
This dark and telling album revolves around the idea that impending death manifests itself as a person’s strongest memory – in this case, a black parade. Ironically the first song of the album is entitled ‘The End’, cutting the suspense and setting the scene.
But what is this scene? Through the course of the album, at least once we are likely to realize we are marionettes tugged at the heart strings in several different directions. Thus, we see the true essence of the highly regarded concept album: the ability to portray a single idea through many perspectives and facets.
Let’s face it: an album chock full of depressing ballads and sob stories of death and despair is well within the bounds of MCR’s songwriting talent – but instead they deliver Queen timbre, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy drums and maybe just a hint of Brit-Pop favourite Oasis’s chorus repetition to write a true rock album.
This album rivals and probably surpasses this decade’s other concept great, Green Day’s American Idiot, which (surprise surprise) the famed Rob Cavallo also produced. And while it’s safe to say the production quality of Black Parade easily surpasses its predecessors, the songwriting and performance accompanied by the 72 pages of original artwork in the Limited Edition speak for themselves.
As for inspiration, Way has cited Pink Floyd, the Beatles and Queen, and while whole Behind The Musics could be devoted drawing lines from Black Parade to these legends, we’ll leave the heavy number-crunching to you out there.
-JP
http://www.mychemicalromance.com/
Recent and Upcoming:
October 24, 2006 – The Black Parade
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