Danger Days... One Hell of a Pop Record

As I write this, I can barely speak. No, it’s not because of the album I’ve just heard, the album that’s on repeat as I think, and write, and walk around this room, and write, and get a drink, and write. I have no voice because, like many concert-goers, I returned from a good show with not much of a voice to show for it. I can sum up the small city’s music festival in a croaky voice and in a single word, ‘amazing’, to those that want to know. Those that ask, they don’t want to know the details. So I don’t give them it. I give them the review in a single word, with a smile plastered on my face and disbelief in my eyes.

But I wrote the rest of that review, the music festival’s for those that wanted to know about it. And now, I write a review for a newly-outfitted, newly-four-piece My Chemical Romance’s latest album offering since 2006’s The Black Parade.

And as for the album in one word for those that simply just want to know? Well, that word is just going to have to be ‘different.’

It’s different.

And in the four years since The Black Parade, My Chemical Romance have picked up a few new habits, most notably colour and a flare for reinventing pop music. But there’s still a lot of the old habits that we know and love about them – the themes, the big mouths and the collective stare from a band serious about their music, and serious about themselves. Just... not serious enough that their singer and rhythm guitarist won’t kiss each other onstage when they do feel it’s needed (for whatever reason).

And My Chemical Romance are back. And they’re serious too. They’re serious about their message and the sound in their latest album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. A record the band says is a ‘party record’, collectively Gerard and brother and bassist to the band, Mikey Way told BLUNT magazine that "pop... is not a dirty word." They went on to point out that at one point, The Beatles and Pink Floyd were pop, that it’s not pop itself that’s the problem, it’s what people are making it right now.

And right now, the band that brought the music airwaves the heavy sounds of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and The Black Parade present Danger Days..., a record that’s talked about along with pop music, a record they seemingly aim to change pop music its very self with.

Because, as they’ve said, there’s nothing wrong with pop itself. After all, it’s just a genre of music, right? And it’s the music itself that changes what pop is. And it could be their own music that changes it next.

First and foremost, don’t be scared. And if you don’t want to listen to me, listen to Gerard Way when he says, “Pop is not a dirty word.” Listen. And don’t worry; My Chemical Romance haven’t gone and recorded a pop album that’ll be stored next to Kesha, and they haven’t made music that will fit in with the same playlist as Rihanna. The new music doesn’t sound like Mika, or Westlife, or anyone, their latest creation just so happens to no longer be afraid of the popularity the band have acclaimed in their relatively short career (they formed in 2001, with their first record I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought me Your Love out by 2002). The band have embraced what being in pop music is all about – it’s the exposure, and it’s about using that audience to get their message out.

And their message from their latest offering, as ‘pop’ as it might be, is about accepting your own identity. Something that you yourself as well as the people around you can change, Gerard Way has said, “A lot of the record is about self-actualisation, and realising what you are and who you are.”

As well as the message of self-identity in Danger Days..., the other main ideal is that of running. Gerard confirms it with the words: “Running is a big theme, definitely, but not running from something at all. You’re running to stay free, running towards something. Change is running. And sometimes to stay free, you have to run.”

And that’s the message. Cut down and simplified, that’s it.

So if change is running and the new album is definitely a change, does that mean the album is running? The lyrics of the record suggest yes, with track thirteen of fifteen ‘The Kids from Yesterday’ featuring the lyrics, ‘And now this could be the last of all the rides we take/So hold on tight and don't look back.’

And if to stay free, you have to run, then with their new album My Chemical Romance are definitely free. They’re a band, together – ‘My Chemical Romance is the four of us’ Gerard says after drummer Bob Bryar’s departure earlier this year – but together they’re free. Free to make a new record and as free as ever to experiment and to make a different-sounding record as well. (They’re free to change their hair colour, too – Gerard Way sports a newly fire-engine red ‘do. ‘If not when you’re young, then when?’ is perhaps the reasoning behind it.)

Different hair, different outfits, a slightly different band line-up and Danger Days... is exactly reflected as its own difference, too. Pop or not, rock or not, it’s different to its predecessors and although there may be poppier aspects to some of the tracks, and although you might at first question ‘Is that even Gerard singing?’ in a few lines of a few songs, it is. His distinct, slightly pleading voice is recognisable and instantly My Chemical Romance fans will feel at home in their new world of pop that the band have brought them to. They’ll be surrounded by new music, but they’ll also be surrounded by the same, calming voice just because it’s Gerard, and the work of guitar genius of the band, Ray Toro. Mikey’s bass work doesn’t disappoint and Frank Iero is as committed to the band as he ever was.

The only real difference?

My Chemical Romance’s new record is a whole new version of ‘pop’. It’s fast, got enough guitar to please most and enough classical Gerard Way vocals – in the forms of singing and moans, too – to please all the fans that have been waiting for this new record for a while (for too long, even).

The record also features the voice over of the interesting character of Dr. Death, a strange man in their new record’s world, and just before the album is almost through, you’ll very oddly hear the American national anthem toot out its familiar tune – and it almost reaches its end when a whole lot of My Chemical Romance static interrupts the transmission and the album rolls on in to its final track – with a drum roll and a singer-to-band call out instantly akin to The Sweet’s (heavily covered) hit ‘Ballroom Blitz’, ‘Vampire Money’ is the rock ‘n’ roll party song of the record that demands a celebration with those that don’t care as the world hurtles towards its send. A song that has not much to do with vampires at all, the song wraps up the album and until you play the album again, you’ll feel like something’s just not finished.

The reason? More or less, you have to make up the ending yourself. My Chemical Romance haven’t (yet) destroyed the whole new world they’ve created in Danger Days... like they did with The Black Parade. Instead, they’ve left us all there, staring out into the newly-coloured, comic-book illustrated world that they’ve spent the last few years working on.

And with four familiar faces standing there, with motorcycle jackets on, and laser guns in their hand, there’s no doubt that the MCRmy will be standing there with the band, in their new world, in their new ‘pop’ world, with their own laser guns in hand, ready for action, ready for a fight, and if they’ll run with Gerard and co., ready to run too.

An album that leaves listeners in a whole new My Chemical Romance-created world, Danger Days… is a different sound, but it’s also, quite simply, if you listen close enough, just a modern pop twist on My Chemical Romance as a sound of its own.

It’s a new direction for the band, running into pop head-first (or rather, laser guns first), but their sound hasn’t been warped like you might’ve been made to believed. You can still hear them, it’s still them, it’s instantly recognisable as My Chemical Romance. They, just like a lot of bands, have found a new way they can go about their music, their message, and their direction in getting to what they need to: an audience and, to put it in even more clichéd words, their future.

As Gerard puts it, "We are really excited about this record, but we’re more excited about the next 10 years of this band."

And My Chemical Romance’s latest record is a pathway into getting to that future.

There’s no doubt that their future is laying there, waiting for them. But along with the future are their loyal fans, who no doubt already have their own laser guns raised in the air ready to head out with the band at a moment’s notice.

In the next few months as the band (presumably) announce near-future touring plans, there will be many hoarse, scratchy and raspy voices just like mine right now. Because, ladies and gentlemen, My Chemical Romance are back. And they’re back with (laser) guns blaring.

As for the new MCR album reviewed in a word? Well, that’s not much of a review at all, that’s just a word. The words that can, however, describe Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, the only words that can, are quite simply: My Chemical Romance.

So, don’t be scared. Head out there, buy the record and listen to it. Listen to it again after the odd first time. The third and fourth times will be the best ‘versions’ and then, you can make up your very own mind on what you think of the band’s new sound.

And maybe, just maybe, with a lot of airplay, My Chemical Romance’s apparent quest to change what pop is will happen with Danger Days…. They mightn’t do it single-handedly, but definitely at the forefront of the change, if not leading the way, the band will see that this next decade in music will see a change in pop music. And with a late-November release date, they’ve only just made it in the first year of the 10’s decade.

And maybe, just maybe they’re already the first rock ‘n’ roll band to change pop as we know it today – a change that will happen due to the influence of more guitar-driven music sound, a new sound welcomed in new-age of pop, a sound welcomed because of them.