As much as My Chemical Romance supplied the pop-punk\/Hot Topic soundtrack for the past decade, there was a bit of pomp and throwback to the Jersey boys rooted in the late 1970s and early \u201980s. Glammed-up excess, concept albums and power ballads run through the MCR\u2019s first three albums, but more as an undercurrent than an overt statement.<\/p>\n
Not anymore. With its fourth full-length album, \u201cDanger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys\u201d, MCR has created a cartoonish yet epic collection of songs paying homage to David Bowie and Iggy Pop with utter glee. Cast as outlaws in a post-apocalyptic future, the gang (paced by the lead-singing stylings of Gerard Way) fights Big Brother the only way it knows how \u2014 with expansive anthems fueled with hook after hook.<\/p>\n
Doctor Death-Defying provides a running commentary throughout, imploring you to \u201clisten up\u201d before cranking into \u201cNa Na Na\u201d, the album\u2019s first of many sing-a-long singles.<\/p>\n
More follow, quickly, as \u201cBulletproof Heart, Sing \u201dand \u201cThe Only Hope For Me is You\u201d share this quiet\/loud\/quiet\/IMUSTSINGALONG theme. It becomes a bit comical even as you\u2019re unable to resist it. Perhaps sensing this, Doctor Death-Defying tells the audience it\u2019s \u201ctime to hit the red line,\u201d and what follows pushes this album to the border of greatness.<\/p>\n
\u201cParty Poison\u201d has MCR at its rocking best, showcasing a Judas Priest riff and expert guitar work by Ray Toro. \u201cS\/C\/A\/R\/E\/C\/R\/O\/W\u201d takes all the best elements of a \u201980s hair bands (they do exist), turning gentle arpeggio moments and cheesy guitar solos into a stirring celebration. Then there\u2019s \u201cSummertime\u201d, a top 40 hit if there ever was one, which comes across easy and natural, exceptional since it\u2019s surrounded by songs that sound nothing like it. The band is showing off \u2014 clicking off genre after genre with scary confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cVampire Money\u201d \u2014 with its obvious Stooges influence \u2014 takes the album home with a glowing flourish. It\u2019s true My Chemical Romance is borrowing at will, but there\u2019s never a time during \u201cDanger Days\u201d you aren\u2019t aware it\u2019s MCR coming out the speakers. It\u2019s distinct and definitive, and has the band primed to dominate another decade.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As much as My Chemical Romance supplied the pop-punk\/Hot Topic soundtrack for the past decade, there was a bit of pomp and throwback to the Jersey boys rooted in the late 1970s and early \u201980s. Glammed-up excess, concept albums and power ballads run through the MCR\u2019s first three albums, but more as an undercurrent than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[243],"class_list":["post-1152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-my-chemical-romance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1152"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1155,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1152\/revisions\/1155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}