Review Summary: "I Think I'll Blow My Brains Against The Ceiling"
2 of 2 thought this review was well written
Mention My Chemical Romance to a passerby and your liable to receive a lazy eye and a middle finger – unless of course you’re talking to one of the millions of world-wide fans of the band. The Black Parade – an overproduced rock opera that fits more in the 70s, under Queen and the like, than in today OR the record that saved your life and helped you realize that Gerard Way is the messiah. Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge – the pinnacle of teen angst and whiny slit-your-wrist vampire insanity that you can’t bare to hear OR the record that gave you hope in despair. Do you see the pattern? Most people are on one side of the fence or the other when it comes to MCR. They are hated and equally loved due to their flare for theatrics, their insistence on not wanting to be accepted (which, in turn, guarantees them acceptance), and their declaration to never be “cool”. Take them for what you will but MCR is a spectacle and their flame lit up back in 2002 with their release of I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought You Me Your Love.
Bullets had a purpose. It was a record born out of the tragedy of 9-11 – Gerard Way was said to have been on a train in New York as the attacks were taking place, on his way to interview to be a comic artist. He saw a need to reach out to the generation which he himself described as being unsure of what the future will hold in a post 9-11 world. You see, from the beginning the band planned to be big. It’s easy to see how The Black Parade, over-produced grandeur and all, came from MCR.
Gerard Way had an alcohol problem – most fans knows this. “Bullets” made this fact blatantly apparent with lyrics like “The amount of pills I’m taking counteracts the booze I’m drinking”, taken from the opener Honey This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough For The Two Of Us which, yes, refers to lines of coke on those little whitened mirrors. The intro "Romance" has the sound of a radio fading out as an acoustic guitar strums. "Honey This Mirror..." is a good indication of what most of the record is like musically, but the few songs that differ from the fast punk hammering manage to be beautiful in their own right. "Early Sunsets Over Monroeville" contains the lines “But does anyone notice? But does anyone care? And if I had the guts to put this to your head... But would anything matter if you're already dead? And should I be shocked now by the last thing you said? Before I pull this trigger, Your eyes vacant and stained...” This song alone is somewhat of the precursor to MCR’s 2004 release Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge in that it is ridiculously emotional and ceaselessly violent. Listen to Cemetery Drive and I Never Told You What I Do For a Living (from the 2004 release) and you’ll see the connection.
Bullets does suffer from inconsistent vocals. Gerard is in his prime with songs like "Our Lady Of Sorrows" but sounds messy on the final track "Demolition Lovers". Despite that, "Demolition Lovers" is one of the best My Chemical Romance songs. In this case, it’s not the musical quality that counts – it’s the inescapable emotion that pulls the listeners in. Of course, a listener who isn’t necessarily MCR’s biggest fan will definitely see through the emotion and see the song for what it really is – a disheveled ballad. Back to "Our Lady Of Sorrows;" this song is crazy. The initial chugging is your typical punk swing but then Way begins singing “We could be perfect one last night, And die like star-crossed lovers when we fight, And we can settle this affair, If you would shed your yellow take my hand, And then we'll solve the mystery of laceration gravity, This riddle of revenge please understand it has to be this way and…” The chorus is even funnier and it leads up to a bizarre climax which goes “Just because my hand’s around your throat!” – quintessential MCR.
More proof to Gerard Way’s substance abuse problem, "Headfirst For Halos" is a fun sing-along where Way shouts “Well let's go back to the middle of the day that starts it all, I can't begin to let you know just what I'm feelin, And now the red ones make me fly, And the blue ones help me fall, And I think I'll blow my brains against the ceiling, And as the fragments of my skull begin to fall, Fall on your tongue like pixie dust, just think happy thoughts.” The song has that sense of hilarity but you can’t help but wonder just how screwed up Gerard really was. The closing of the song has him repeatedly shouting “Think happy thoughts”, and, in all of its joking, actually contains a sense of realism - who the hell has never found themselves in that dark place where the only conceivable way out is to think happy thoughts? Of course, some people will debate that you’d have to apply that same formula to the record as a whole – thinking happy thoughts is all that can get them from the first track to the last.
Understand this: MCR is too much or not enough for people. The fans crave more of their lascivious angst and overdramatics and the ones who hate them have more than enough firepower to prove WHY they hate them. They’ve always seemed to be more than just a band with a message. In any interview, they do their best to prove just how little they care about what people think and how being obsessive of zombies and vampires is just alright. Gerard Way said in a recent popeater.com interview the next album will be "full of hate" and "Over the years that we've been hearing ourselves live and hearing us on records, we kind of prefer the live. There's more of a garage feel and more energy. I'd like to capture some of that, finally. That's the goal for the next one.” Half of you just sighed “Riiiiiiight” while the other half declares “OMG! MCR F***ING SAVED MY F***ING LIFE!!”.
Eh, I can see that. I've had sort of a love-hate relationship with this band. I was introduced to the band through Revenge, loved the record, and then picked up Bullets, which I hated at the time. I got The Black Parade on the day it came out and listened to it non-stop for months. For me, the poor quality of Bullets was too much for me to handle, but The Black Parade was right up my alley. I liked the concept and the production. Since then though, I've come to care less about production and more about the raw material. I feel the Bullets is MCR's best record followed by Revenge with jut an iota of difference. The Black Parade is too "let's be unabashed freaks and act like we don't care, all the while making us heroes" for me.
I have a love-hate relationship with MCR too, I like the band just depends on the album. This one stands as my favourite, apparently they'll have a new one soon, can't wait to hear what that sounds like...
Yeah, I think many fans of the band love one album and consequently hate another.
They say their next album will be less about theatrics and more about rock. It will prove to be interesting but at this
point, MCR is a joke to a lot of people. Of course, if the new music is good, their recent work won't matter. People will
always listen to good music, regardless of a band's history.
Edit this in the review if you can, because I'm quite sure Revenge came out in '04
Decent review, you gave a lot of background info on the band, too much or just enough, I'm not sure which.
I have a love hate relationship with the band as well.
I usually buy their records, listen to them for a few months and then sell/destroy them.
Their peak so far was Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, IMO.
Ha Ha, when I was younger I thought the lyrics were really violent.
The Black Parade was ok at first, but it became a bit bloated and overblown, and making Teenagers a single ruined the song for me
There u go, some more comments ;)
and welcome to the site
ok how about I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought me mcr who arent as good as every1 says coz i listened and thought they werent as good as every1 says
