Review Summary: A ludicrous concept paired with the sound of a band losing heart in what they do, keeps "Danger Days" from being truly "fabulous."
There has always been something strangely endearing about My Chemical Romance. The band has always had a flair for the dramatic, and a sense of character that has made them stand above those grouped in the “scene” conglomerate. Led by the ever eccentric Gerard Way, My Chemical Romance exploded onto the scene with their 2004 effort,
Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, sporting a pop-infused post-hardcore aesthetic, and an unparalleled sense of teenage exuberance. Two years later, the band released
The Black Parade, a bombastic and melodramatic pseudo-concept album, featuring Queen-esque anthems and a dark pop-punk veneer. A peculiar direction, but for the most part, it worked. The creativity was clearly there, and the personality and eccentricities of the band were very much prevalent, but the shallowness of the affair brought down the experience.
It’s been a significant amount of time since
The Black Parade, and with the “faux-emo” craze of the mid 2000’s behind them, many are left to wonder where My Chemical Romance are headed. Previously sporting the tentative title of
Love Letter to Rock and Roll, the equally ridiculously named
Danger Days: True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys retains the bombast and drama found on their previous effort, whilst picking up some new influences along the way.
Unfortunately, the minor amounts of freshness and ingenuity found on
Danger Days get lost in a mess of recycled and regurgitated ideas. It’s disorganized beyond belief, which is surprising considering the predictability of each song. The amiable angst is gone, with a regretful amount of glam-rock thrown in the mix. The sound is gilded in a sense that there is a bright and glamorous coating draped over a very shallow version of
Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge and
The Black Parade, making even the most likeable parts sound contrived.
Yet it’s the concept behind
Danger Days that really stands out, and in a way that a bad haircut stands out. Conceptually, the album is absolutely ludicrous. Taking place in the year 2019,
Danger Days follows the eponymous “Fabulous Killjoys,” whose members include Party Poison, Fun Ghoul, Kobra Kid,and Jet Star. This cast leads a rebellion against the evil Better Living Industries, with the tale being narrated by a man named DJ Dr. Death Defying. Yes, this is actually the concept, and it translates about as well as one would think. As clever and curiously odd as it all sounds, the story doesn’t come through the music aside from a few hip-hop interludes courtesy of the good Doctor himself. It’s neither musically, nor lyrically conceptual, and it hurts the overall product.
The failure of the concept is due in part to the lyrical deficiency of Gerard Way. While his angst ridden prose has never been something to be expressly loved, the tongue in cheek cleverness of his writing has always been something to be admired. Whether it was his juvenile linguistics interlocked with the adult themes of lust and murder, or the manner of which he employed the lyrics, Way has always managed to convey a lot of personality through his writing. Yet on
Danger Days we find Way lacking nearly everything that has made him such a distinguishable lyricist, as well as vocalist. The cheeky themes and scenarios he’s been known for are replaced by phony and impersonal passages that only accentuate his less desirable qualities. Vocally, Way is all over the place. He has always been incredibly interesting to listen to, as his passion and dramatic delivery typically make for a varied and wholly interesting experience. Yet on
Danger Days we find him struggling to find his voice. Lacking the variation and charisma found on My Chemical Romance’s previous releases, Way fails to capture the listener with the energy and vocal fervor he is known for.
Yet aside from the downhill quality of Gerard Way’s performance, the rest of the band sounds pretty good. Everyone has improved a bit on
Danger Days, boosting the overall technical proficiency to a respectable level. That isn’t to say that My Chemical Romance have suddenly evolved into masters of their craft, but for what the music demands, the members do a fine job. While not straying too deathly far away from a simple chord based guitar sound, Ray Toro and Frank Iero still manage to fit the overall tone of the music. Toro has some surprisingly great moments, especially with the very fun and infectious solo found on “Bulletproof Heart.” The percussion featured is rather interesting, as things are continually moving at a satisfying pace. Even Gerard’s brother, Mikey Way, does an admirable job with some groovy bass lines that fit well with the music.
While the band is on their game for the most part, this doesn’t stop the songs from being fairly uninteresting. It pains this reviewer to say this, but My Chemical Romance are epically, and gloriously harmless on
Danger Days. Sadly, the fun and energetic singles such as “I’m Not Okay” and “Teenagers” are replaced by incredibly weak and dull tracks such as “Sing” and “Summertime.” It’s peculiar because many of these songs, most notably “Party Poison,” really do have some energy behind them, but it simply doesn’t translate well. It sounds incredibly forced, as if these songs are trying to emulate the My Chemical Romance of the past. And when they try to do something new and interesting, as is the case with “Sing,” it just falls flat. While it sort of stands out as unique, “Sing” is a vapid and poor attempt at an eighties-esque anthem, and it goes down as one of the worst songs on the album. Yet not every selection is a failure. “Na na na” is actually a wonderful choice for a single, as it successfully encompasses the sound that the band was attempting on this record. It’s catchy as hell, and the chorus is rather infectious. While lacking the heart found on other ballads such as “Ghost of You,” “The Only Hope For Me Is You” is still an enjoyable piece and manages to be a bit more evocative than the rest of the album. Yet selections such as these are few and far between, as they get lost in the incredible inconsistency and blandness.
My Chemical Romance have more than a few missteps on
Danger Days. It doesn’t come off as the product of four years of labor, but rather, it sounds like a hastily thrown together rehash, with a few bells and whistles added on. However, to be quite honest, as a whole, it’s hard to fully criticize
Danger Days, as it really isn’t clear as to what the band is attempting here. It’s almost as if the band is parodying themselves for the sake of being ironic. As preposterous as this sentiment may be, it goes a long way in describing the album. It’s feels like the band being reflected by a “funhouse mirror” of sorts. Everything is disproportionate and egregiously malformed, but the basic shape is still there. And that’s precisely what
Danger Days amounts to, a mere caricature, and one performed by a band who has lost all heart in what they do.
