Tocky on 22/12/2007 at 04:25
He sings better for someone without a true singing voice than most true voices ever will. He makes it work so well that nobody could follow him. His songs are his alone.
Fingernail on 22/12/2007 at 10:49
Quote Posted by fett
For all their faults, My Chemical Romance is a great pretentious band, though I would recommend ONLY the 'Black Parade' album, and even then, you have to listen to the whole thing to get the context. There's some nice little tidbits of the Beatles, Queen, and even Iron Maiden in there. I hate emo/post-punk/wtf is this -type music, but it's my been my guilty pleasure this last year or so.
This. I'm with you. It's such a well produced album in that radio-friendly-rock way that you almost can't help but enjoy it. It's absurdly cinematic.
But most of all, it's just fun. It's not particularly emo or depressing, and thankfully it doesn't take itself
too seriously (just don't listen to whatever Gerard Way has to say in interviews). Yeah, it features total ripoffs (uhm....homages) to Queen (to the point of an almost note-for-note phrase in the solo of "I don't love you" taken from Bohemian Rhapsody) and Bowie and the others you mentioned (basically as one reviewer put it, it's the best mid-70s rock album of the year).
Fingernail on 23/12/2007 at 09:54
Well that's an interesting and original interpretation but since it's lyrically a song about someone dying of cancer (ie. real, not "emo" pain), since it's musically fairly close to classic rock, and since the overwhelming message of the song is a resounding "your memory will carry on" in triumphant style as opposed to "HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN TO ME???" I'd go so far as to say it's actually a bombastic celebration of life.
As far as taking itself seriously goes, it's a difficult one. I think partly the problem here is that the band take themselves seriously as giving new hope and new life to their fans, but since I'm not really a "fan" of the band all I can say is that musically (and there's a "joke" hidden track too), it's not the most po-faced record ever. But then, this is the more minor point anyway since everybody loves Muse and nobody is really sure to what extent they "take themselves seriously". Who cares? It's the end result that matters after all.
Maybe that's because I'm hearing all the styles and references to older rock, but the majority of critics agree that it's just
fun to listen to, not depressing, and also that it's time to stop dismissing the band for being "emo" because they really aren't especially. It's just an unfortunate label.
the one true thief on 23/12/2007 at 10:20
My girlfriend dragged me along to one of their concerts in March, without me really listening to them. They put on quite a good performance if not slightly over dramatic, but overall fun to listen to and watch Live.
Made me buy the album. :joke:
Tocky on 23/12/2007 at 14:56
You want true emo? Blue October. They take themselves seriously too. I don't like serious. Okay, PRN is good. That one song they used to play on the radio wasn't bad either.
And thanks for vindicating me on MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE. I will live to see THE HIVES yet placed on the pedestal of kickass rockdom. MARK ME EVIL MINDBENDERS OF TTLG.
Aerothorn on 24/12/2007 at 05:32
I appreciate rock, but haven't really been able to latch on to anything other than R.E.M., and even they frequently do stuff that most would not call rock.
Also, I'm really lyrically focused - if a song had bad lyrics I find it so distracting that I can't really listen to it.
fett on 24/12/2007 at 19:06
The Black Parade hit me in the gut probably because I have a so-called 'terminal' disease (heart problem). There's a lot of comically morbid contemplation about death on the album that expresses exactly how I felt when I was diagnosed. Everyone else was taking it so seriously, and I was making jokes. Almost every song on the CD captures what I was going through during that snapshot of my life, and to some extent, I still identify with most of it. It is both a celebration of life and death, with a lot of snarling irony directed at those who are afraid to celebrate either. As far as a concept album goes, I think it's brilliant. Everything from the artwork to the track order was methodically planned out. I don't listen to music remotely related to MCR's style, but Black Parade had such a mish-mash of sounds, it was really like watching a train wreck at first. Brilliant.
On another note, a friend just lent me Ozzy's new Black Rain. I wrote him off somewhere in the middle of puberty (mine, not his), but for balls out, cock rock it's pretty great. Zakk Wylde is just an amazing guitar player though I don't care for much of his work. Taken for what it is though, it's a nice little headbanging affair.
Gray on 28/12/2007 at 03:11
Quote Posted by fett
My Chemical Romance
I'm not much into Emo, but I've found I almost like them enough to pay actual money for it. At least the occasional song. The way I see it, it's pretty much just the same whiney crap I've been listening to for ages, only with younger prettier people. I quite like whiney crap, sometimes. Even if they're young and pretty.
