Black Parade, The (Parental Advisory) [PA] - My Chemical Romance > Reviews > MCR VG

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Good
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Much better than expected
Disadvantages:	A few weaker moments

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I was badgered into listening to this by my teenage daughter, but I'm glad I did because I thoroughly enjoyed it as the New Jersey rockers turned out to have a lot more depth than I had previously imagined.

This is almost a concept album and starts with The End (oh the irony) which offers us "front row seats to the penitent's ball" which switches effectively from quiet to loud and back again.

Best tracks are Dead (even though it resorts to "la-la-la"-ing), The Serpent Lives (which has got a good beat as they say), Welcome To The Black Parade (a real builder), House Of Wolves (drum-led and heavy), Cancer (unpleasantly-titled and a desperately sad song - "the hardest part of this is leaving you"), Mama (a stereotypical gothy number full of violins and lines like "We're all gonna die" and "They're building a coffin your size", the whole thing reminding me of Alex Harvey would you believe), Sleep ("Three cheers for tyranny"), and Teenagers (Nicola's favourite, a jaunty little number)

With thirteen tracks (and a hidden secret extra called er, Secret which is just a bit of fun vamping) there are a few weaker ones but overall this is a very strong release.

Nicely packaged too apart from my usual gripe of style over substance with impossible to read lyriocs. Why oh why do bands do this when they place so much emphasis on their song-writing?