I’ve been listening to this album for the last few days, and man, do I love it. I don’t know exactly how to describe it, but I just love em. Their last album was pretty descent but I really like this. I hope this isn’t too far after its release to be talking about it. Anyone else out there seem to be obsessed with this?
I believe the term is “emo” punk.
I meant, describe how much I like it 
I just picked this up, by dint of my sister insisting on listening to a pop station and her identifying three new pop-punk bands, and I’m floored by it’s excellence as well. it shouldn’t be this good, really: when I saw the reviews I thought “yeah, right, will it REALLY sound like warmed-over Pink Flord (for the first track,) and Smashing Pumpkins? Or is it just critic wanking?”
But it does. It totally rips off the Floyd, as well as the Pumpkins, Coheed and Cambria, and a bit of Modest Mouse as well.
But it works. It’s all I’ve been listening to for nearly the last month. It doesn’t sound as fake as most of the new pop punk stuff, even if I won’t elevate it to the status of a classic theme album.
I’m a big music snob; you’ve never heard of my favorite bands, I knew about your favorite bands years before you did. I’m supposed to hate stuff like My Chemical Romance.
But The Black Parade is one hell of a record! I think that MCR are quickly becoming the “Smashing Pumpkins” of the current generation of rockers, in that they’re the mainstreamo band that aims a little higher, tries to be a little more consciously epic and artsy, and looks a little further to the past than their contemporaries.
I wasn’t impressed. I’ll give them credit for being the only emo band I’ve heard that seem to be putting any effort into their music, and while it’s something I would have probably loved when I was back in 10th grade, it just doesn’t do anything for me.
Sadly I found it to be a pretty frustrating album. It seemed like everytime they had a really great musical idea going, instead of letting it develop they would just say “we’re bored with this” and fall back on the same old power chord chugging and emo whining.
I kinda wanted to like it too.
I liked a few of the songs on the album (#1, 2, 5, 11, 12), but for some odd reason I still prefer their last album. Ask me in a year and chances are I will have changed my mind though.
The first notes I actually heard from MCR were ripped off* from Wang Chung’s To Live and Die in LA soundtrack, so I can never like them, no matter how innovative or talented they may (or may not) be.
Irrational? Yes. Crotchety? Yes. But it’s my CD hi-fi.
(No offense intended to fans and supporters. Just my $.02)
*actually I think they call it “sampling” nowadays
I was skeptical about them due to the fact that they’re always lumped in with unoriginal “mall-punk” bands like Fall Out Boy and Panic! At the Disco; bands marketed directly to Hot Topic-shopping teens who wear their fathers’ neckties and their mothers’ eyeliner in an attempt to be different… just like all their peers. I think Blink 182 started the trend of pop punk sans balls, where mediocre playing of instruments was the one thing separating them from the boy bands. Yes, this is what I expected My Chemical Romance to be.
But I heard the single “The Black Parade” which is currently in rotation on the top 40 radio station, and I LOVE IT! I’m a sucker for melodramatic, anthemic rock, and that’s exactly what it is. The guitar part is inspiring and sounds just like Brian May from Queen – in fact, the slow opening of the song is rather Queen-influenced – and the pop-punk part reminds me of a band I rather liked in the late '90s that seems to have faded away, Goldfinger.
Is the rest of the album like that single? If it’s even close, I might have to check it out.
I don’t listen to the radio and avoid any music TV so I’ve missed most of the MCR hype. After reading this thread, I decided to check out Welcome To The Black Parade and it was alright but I think I would have liked it more when I was 13.
The beginning was the best part, much like everyone else, it reminded me of Queen.
yeah, they list alot of their main influences as classic rock bands like Queen. You can definitely hear it in their music. I’m still listening to this on a daily basis. I just love it. And yes, I think the rest of the album mirrors the single. But I think its a little better. But that’s just me.
“Cancer” is the best song on the record.
I didn’t even know I wasn’t supposed to like MCR; I’d never heard of them. But then a friend was playing them at work, and they just absolutely sucked. Like as bad as a band with a number in their name. Then I saw them on SNL, and was surprised to learn that from just hearing their album I had actually gotten the wrong impression; live, they sucked even harder. The balance of suckage in the universe has become tilted and awry; their next album may open up a singularity of suckage and suck all of existence into the darkness of nonexistence. So I hope they’re done.
Most of the songs pretty much stay at the same pace and so don’t have an epic, anthemic feel by themselves, but there are a few that do. But in addition, overall, the changes in pace on the album makes the feel of the album as a whole a lot like “Black Parade,” the single.
Damn. I was going to come in and say exactly this about their last album, and see if this one was any better. They do have interesting ideas, and I’d like to hear them developed. Oh well.
I like what I’ve heard and appreciate their ambition - no different, in its own way, than what Green Day aspired to with American Idiot - maybe MCR didn’t go “full concept” - although given that they are position “The Black Parade” as the band’s alter ego - a la the Beatles and Sgt. Pepper - maybe concept is just fine as a way to describe them.
As a complete and utter hijack, I do think there are bands out there doing decent stuff. I am sure I will be flamed out there, but the **All-American Rejects’ ** album Move Along as some great power-pop confections on it - Dirty Little Secret, the title song, and a few others. Are they creating a new genre or pushing out boundaries? 'course not - but is Dirty Little Secret kinda like a “today’s example” of a song like Photograph by Def Leppard? To me, yes - and from a songcraft, production and catchiness standpoint, they are great examples of commercial rock done right. My$.02 and sorry for the hijack…
I’ve only put the CD on once, and I couldn’t stand it.
I’m sure I’ll go back and give it another listen, but I can’t get past the feeling that it should be playing in the background of a Freddie Prinze Jr. movie.
For the credit they’re getting, I would at least expect them to sound original. Some of the musicianship was good (solid drummer with some twists), but I think the lead singer’s voice and particularly the songwriting are wanting.