Review Summary: Gerard Way channels Freddy Mercury to his highest potential and the band follows suit making for one intense atmospheric rock opera and certainly the best album of it's year.
There are some bands that get better and better as they go along and I think that mostly has to do with the experience that they pick up along the way, as well as a desire to change. As good as Sweet Revenge is, after two albums of scary goth post hardcore, MCR had to change it up a little bit if they were going to stay relevent to the public and to fans in general. And change they did. MCR managed to take the anthem qualities of old classic rock bands like Queen and mesh it with their own unique style to create one of the most fun and versatile albums of the decade. Gerard Way channels Freddy Mercury to his highest potential and the band follows suit making for one intense atmospheric rock opera and certainly the best album of it's year.
The album starts off with a down beat acoustic track called The End, an ironic title signifying what's to come and then as it escalates into a full on dissent noise, DEAD! kicks in and really starts the show with a really cool guitar solo and some bouncy vocals. There is even a section of la la las (possbily foreshadowing the song Na Na Na which would come years later) and a catchy as hell bridge. From here on out the album gets a little darker with The Sharpest Lives and How I Disappear but the catchiness factor never lets up until the end of the album. The lyrics on this are something to truly be commended; Gerard Way is at the top of his game lyrically as well as vocally. His voice has never been beautiful like Freddy's but his delivery is truly haunting on some songs and his great lyrics only multiply the fact. The lyrics of Cancer are both moving and heartbreaking and I don't think they've ever written a song that more elegantly describes death. After writing about it for several years, they finally mastered it with this song.
Another great thing about this song is that it has virtual no duds, even though its all across the map as far as genre goes. If there is a weak song, its probably Sleep although the song itself isn't to blame: it's the over long intro that really gets this one started off on the wrong foot; other than that it's a great song, like the rest. I disagree with the song Teenagers as a single because it's a little too bouncy to be, I would have made the touching ballad Cancer a single, but then again, I'm not MCR. But what I do know is that they truly have created a masterpiece with this one, and will likely never match the great heights, vocals, and lyricisms that this album provides.
