My Chemical Romance

Simply because I'm a contrary bastard and want to give a big fuck you all very much to the anonymous hordes who have been complaining about MY blog featuring My Chemical Romance here's some more.
You didn't ask for it, but you're getting it.

I brought you bullets, You brought me your love. (2002)
As a début “I brought you bullets” certainly managed to raise the New Jersey boys profile to a fairly acceptable level even if it's sonically mired in the time of its release.
It's an album that swims in rather safe musical waters and mirrors the sound of many alt acts that were doing the rounds in that year. Nothing too special at first listen and more an album that would attract some casual interest rather than set pulses racing.
Yet any real criticism has to be juxtaposed with the understanding that it was recorded a mere three months after the band formed. It's the sound of a band finding their feet and when that's taken into consideration the finished product is more impressive than initially thought.
It would also be fair to say that while the arrangements are verging on the bland that lyrically it hints at better things to come in one form or another.
The introspective aspect and delivery is blistering honest at times and smacks more of a real emotional struggle than many of their peers could manage.
The main difference seems to be that MCR were managing to express themselves a little more eloquently than most, even if the music still needed to pay a bit of catch up.
It may be a trip into darkness, but it's a recognisable one and rarely if ever sounds contrived.
As angst ridden pop punk goes it's a decent enough dip into the scene of the time and manages to at the very least maintain enough interest that a follow up would be on the cards.

Three cheers for sweet revenge (2004)
A couple of years later, and with a wealth of touring experience under their belts, their second studio album hits the streets and lends credence to the cliché about being in the right place at the right time.
Tracks like the singles “Helena” and “I'm not okay, I promise” key right into what disenfranchised kids all over the globe are wanting to hear, and sound accessible enough to court mainstream attention that gives the band a real shot in the arm.
It doesn't do them any harm that they then tour with Green Day on the American Idiot tour before doing Warped and then co-headline dates with Alkaline Trio to promote it either.
Everything simply clicks into place with this album.
The musicianship has jumped light years ahead and manages to catch up and embrace the lyrics warmly, while the addition of a cinematic quality shows that they aren't afraid to experiment and expand on their vision of what MCR should be.
This is also where the newly introduced classic rock foundation to their music works wonders with guitars that soar and loop over everything without ever dipping into the worst excesses of fretboard masturbation.
The band from the début are still there, but while that was them learning their craft this is a fully accomplished outing for them where they can stretch their musical muscles.
In hindsight it is easy to see that this is where MCR really begin and it's breathtaking to consider that this is a band who have only been together for around three years.
With this, their sophomore release, they set the self imposed benchmark high and while there are those who doubt that they can emulate the success again, the jump from their début to this in musical terms provides ample proof that as long as they keep reaching for something more then there is the possibility that they can still pull something out of the bag.

The Black Parade (2006)
The past and present collide with the concept album that redefines the term and drags it screaming and kicking into the present. The sounds of Pink Floyd and Queen battle Sgt. Peppers post punk army and the aftermath is a joy to behold.
The Black Parade is the everyman rock album that manages through its strong sense of melodic narrative to jettison the band beyond the confines of the rigid emo/punk template that bound them.
From start to finish it has classic album stamped through it and that it deals with the depressing reflective story of someone dying of cancer makes it all the more alluring in a perverse sense.
The romanticised demise of the lead character in the tale runs parallel to a joyous noise that encapsulates all the cock sure swagger of the seventies rock bands with a modern take on it that allows it to straddle decades of music and therein lies the genius of this.
Here is a band who can meld music to their own vision and create something that is familiar sounding, but also new and vibrant. A balancing act that a high wire artist would maybe shy away from attempting.
The ensuing success of the album verges on hysteria among fans old and new alike, but unfortunately, and undeservedly, the fan base while becoming larger doesn't widen and the take up of acclaim from those out-with the young punk/emo demographic doesn't emerge.
The success is a double edged sword it seems and with every young Kohl eyed prepubescent child of the night that jumped aboard to pledge allegiance to the cause a music fan somewhere decided not to simply because they had, and the preconceived idea of MCR as lightweight rockers was adopted.
Meanwhile the band would go on from one success to another gaining critical acclaim and plaudits from fans and the music press alike with an album that even to this day sounds faultless in its execution.

Danger Days – The true lives of the fabulous killjoys (2010)
After a four year gap MCR came back and in a sideways move went for the jugular as glam trash terrorists proclaiming the end is nigh to a party beat with a punk rock attitude.
Adrenaline and excitement come at you in equal measure while the ghost of an amphetamine fuelled Bowie looms large over proceedings.
The preceding video for Na Na Na is visually stunning with an unintentional nod of the head to Gaye Bikers On Acid populating an intentional Mad Max post apocalyptic future.
A perfect introduction to the album.
Once again it is melodically solid throughout and flirts with the boundaries while maintaining a degree of accessibility that will attract more fans than it turns off.
More in your face than Black Parade and certainly more urgent it still maintains a common thread that is unmistakeably MCR.
This is a band attempting successfully to bring the sound of a pop art counter culture graphic novel to life and it's as thrilling as that may sound.
I'm at the point that I'm not sure what this band has to do to jump from the success they have to the global and cross generational appreciation that they so richly deserve.
Future rock legends in the making is what they are.

Comments that have a degree of worth are welcome. If you like the band or dislike them that's fine, but if anyone thinks that a comment like "fuck that shit" is going to be upped is kidding themselves on.