Review Summary: From black parades to biker gangs, MCR deliver a fully-realised violent pop opus.
When you've made the biggest album of your career, it's understandable if you're a little lost as to where to go from there – especially if that album is
The Black Parade. Proving you didn't need goatees and a vocalist sounding like Scott Stapp in heat to sell rock music in the 2000s,
The Black Parade was truly something else upon its arrival – it's probably safe to say it was one of the more important rock records of the 2000s in retrospect. With that, My Chemical Romance have taken roughly four years to follow the act of
The Black Parade – and it seems they have made the executive decision that they enjoy the panoramic view from the top. In turn,
Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys is a very different album to
The Black Parade, but is by no means any less ambitious – or any less exciting, for that matter.
It's a peculiar thing to draw further contrast between that album and this – whereas
The Black Parade revolved around the concept of death and accepting the fate of mortality,
Danger Days is an album about life on the very edge, living fearlessly in an anarchic future where “the future is bulletproof” and “the aftermath is secondary.” The titular Fabulous Killjoys are a gang, outlaws attempting to bring down Better Living Industries (BL/ind. - geddit?) and stopping at nothing to take over Battery City, California, with a pirate radio host as their guide. Confused? Thought so. Nevermind – it's not too crucial. What matters is the songs themselves – and on this set, MCR have concocted big guitars, bigger beats and possibly their biggest choruses yet; resulting in an extravagant, devilishly fun adrenalin rush of a rock record that not only demands repeated listens but all the money in the cash register as well.
The band are having a world of fun on
Danger Days, evident from the get-go in the form of dynamite single “Na Na Na.” If you hadn't picked up from the title, it's a one-word chorus, thrown in with ricocheting guitar and the pacing of a Hollywood chase scene. Add in “Bulletproof Heart” - with vocal layering that's more Freddie Mercury than anything on
The Black Parade – as well as “Planetary (GO!)” in its shameless roller-disco groove and the thudding, electronic rhythms of obvious single choice “The Kids From Yesterday” and one simply can't help but note the band's full embrace of their pop side. The most intriguing thing about this, however, is the band's uncanny ability to marry said pop sensibilities with an undercurrent of darkness and confronting imagery. It's still guns, death and destruction on
Danger Days; no matter how easy it is to sing along to.
Take standout cut “Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back” for instance. Kicking out the jams with one of Ray Toro's finest licks and a barnstorming four-on-the-floor, the explosive rocker sees vocalist Gerard Way – in character as gang leader Party Poison, naturally – spitting lyrics like “The good guys die and the bad guys win” and “the Devil's got your number” atop of the affair in his quintessential OTT style. Who knew stadium rock could get so sour? Closer “Vampire Money” continues this with a nod to “Ballroom Blitz” in its introduction and probably the closest thing you'll get to punk-rock out of these gentlemen nowadays: buzzsaw guitars here, splashy, tom-heavy drums there and vintage rock chaos everywhere. The energy is consistently huge on
Danger Days – even the shift into ballad territory keeps the pace up – and as a whole, it's an astoundingly confident and enjoyable record.
Perhaps the most likeable thing about the album, with everything said, is how much effort the band have gone to in order to develop a sound quite unlike anything they've tried before. Although
The Black Parade remains the band's finest hour, let it be known that
Danger Days is still amongst the best material My Chem have put forward. Not all of the MCRmy will be willing to get behind this – particularly those hoping for some kind of rehash of 2004's
Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. For the faithful, however, My Chemical Romance are very much back on top of the pile. Let's hope it's not another four years until it all starts up again.
