Review Summary: This is what happens when the art of a previous record is perfected to the point the end result changes alternative music permanently.
If there was ever a moment where pop punk and the remains of emo exploded, this was it. My Chemical Romance returned from their raw debut with an equally raw follow-up-- but in a totally different way.
2004 was, in an a word, pivotal. Numerous alternative bands were releasing records, many of which would go on to become iconic in a sense. The blend between emo and pop punk-- and those two camps blending with countless other aspects of alternative music-- became inevitable, with Green Day's American Idiot taking their punk in a much more brooding and eclectic direction, and acts like Brand New and Fall Out Boy breaking the surface of the mainstream's radar.
What many would pinpoint as the epitome of what would become the "emo" aesthetic in later years would be none other than Jersey's MCR, however. They dressed like vampires, played like maniacs, and something about the highly distinct sound of Gerard Way's voice set the far apart from a large number of the scene's inhabitants. Their lyrics and attitude were incredibly distinct, too; while the rest of the scene was busy with breakups and the confusion of hetero suburban love in general, MCR was singing about dead grandmothers and vampire apocalypses, gay sex and wearing drag-- bucking gender roles and expectations in general-- as well as plenty of guns and blood and corpses. Needless to say, they were wildly different from the beginning, but 2004's Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge is what made that internationally known (and well deservedly so.)
There's numerous layers to the magnitude of how impressive a record this really is. For one, it's physically talented, with raging guitar solos and incredible complexity to each song as a whole. There's also the emotion, the attachment that this music creates; every single song on this album is numbing in how good it is, each one unique and adding something completely unexpected and overwhelming to the table. The chorus of Helena haunts you for days, the opening cries of Give Em Hell, Kid feel like they're ripping the air apart-- and by the time you make it through the dizzying and morbid intensity of You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison, and the soul-crushing emotion of The Ghost of You (along with the anthemic I'm Not Okay in between), the last of final song on side A turns to a strange interlude that tastes of fallen angels and macabre memories.
Side B is, somehow, even more beautifully catastrophic than its counterpart. Thank You For The Venom remains one of the band's greatest works, aggressive and achingly catchy at the same time. Hang 'Em High is sorely underrated but cathartic in its ferocity, as well. However, the grand finale of this album is a three-song affair that pushes beyond the brink of all their predecessors; in fact, It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Deathwish is so powerful that it leaves you wondering why it was not the closing track-- until the end actually does come, and comes with a nuclear bang. Cemetery Drive is the remorseful midpoint of this trilogy of songs, and it leaves the listener somewhat shocked by the aggression of the final track. I Never Told You What I Do For A Living is a merciless, no-hold-barred roller coaster of murder, filth, shock and finality; it's the bloody ending to the overarching concept story that stretches between My Chemical Romance's first two record, a conclusion that sweeps away the listener's comprehension, leaving them in awe when it all finally stops.
Three Cheers is, in my opinion at least, the greatest pop punk album ever written-- even if it's far more eclectic and far more heavy than just that one genre. It's emo, it's punk, it's even a little metal; there's something about this LP that resonates beyond the confines of genre. It's exhausting, it's merciless, it's an experience more than just a collection of music, and no wonder this was the moment that MCR spilled over the brink and into rock music forever. It defined the look, the attitude of what was defined as emo throughout the decade, yet wasn't even trying to-- this was the result of pure originality just flowing from a few young musicians with a message, and that message has stuck firmly ever since.
