By My Chemical Romances’ latest album “Black Parade” is catchy, but not necessarily worth the wait.
“The End” concludes in such a way that is generally unfitting and transfers abruptly into the next song, “Dead.” The music in each song is certainly similar enough to have some kind of cohesive sound making the transition a little more acceptable, but listeners are then left with two songs that are too similar and therefore redundant and unnecessary.
The album’s title song, “Welcome to the Black Parade,” should have been placed as the first track or the last track instead of the fifth, introducing or completing the album with the force that it was missing.
The first track didn’t get me excited about listening to the rest of the album, and the last track did not leave me wanting to hear more either. Energized vocals from Gerard Way work well with the music in “Welcome to the Black Parade,” but he could have use a more rounded vocal sound, veering away from the nasal tinge used in most of their songs.
“House of Wolves” has such a vocal bite it almost doesn’t work for the band at all, sounding generally too whiney instead of sharp.
The band seems to be becoming too pop-sounding because of Way’s voice and the consistent whiney sound instead of sticking with the alternative sounds the band seems to want to aim for, especially with its overall style as a group, the album art, and the music videos. Way’s focus should be on sounding stronger instead, aiming for a harsher sound overall, which is more fitting for My Chemical Romance’s genre.
Several songs on this album have definitive similar sounds to other artists’ songs, such as “I Don’t Love You” and its intro sounding painfully close to Coldplay’s “Yellow.”
Parade and carnival sounds and musical patterns traipse through the album, including a more traditional, and possibly international type sound in track nine’s “Mama” in both the music and in how Way pronounces the lyrics.
The chorus in “Famous Last Words” is probably my favorite part of any song on this album. Way’s pipes finally fit the song. He’s singing better than any other track, and lyrics such as, “I am not afraid to keep on living – I am not afraid to walk this world alone,” give the group more depth than other rock bands.
I originally thought My Chemical Romance should have stuck with the sounds of its last album “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge,” but found that the album grew to be more enjoyable the more I listened to it, and so it seemed to be for others who have heard the album in its entirety as well.
My Chemical Romance does have a knack for creating songs with titles, lyrics and music that, for the most part, stay within their own individual themes. However, as the vocalist for an entire album, Way needs more work on changing his sound to better fit the songs and stick with each song’s specific theme along with the other band mates.
Touring the country, My Chemical Romance may be a better bet and more entertaining to see live. They will be at the 91X Nightmare Before Xmas concert on Dec. 10 at the San Diego Sports Arena.
