The Aftermath is Secondary...
Nov. 22nd, 2010 05:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xerinmichellexEek! November 22! November 22! It's Christmas for us MCR fans.
So, money in hand, gas in the car, Revenge hoodie on (what, what), I made the pilgrimage to the local Best Buy, praying the new music would be out at 10:30 am. I've gone a few times to find the new music section in the process of being stocked, and hovering isn't my thing. No doubt it isn't the employee's thing either. I haven't been in Best Buy for a while, so naturally they would rearrange the store on me. So, after running around the aisle, I found the music section--seriously how the hell am I suppose to find it when it's behind all the big displays?! Huh? Tell me, Best Buy! No, correction, I found the music section and gave myself palpitations when the MCR slot only had The Black Parade. Luckily, behind that was the new music shelf...in the process of being stocked. Doubly luckily, Danger Days was already on the shelf, washing away my worst fear.
(Actually my worst fear was driving to Best Buy, only to find out they weren't stocking Danger Days in the new music display case. I would then go and ask an employee and he'd be all, "Oh, we didn't have room for all the new CD's coming out today" --(Did anyone see how many came out today?)--"so Corporate decided to stock the acoustic Justin Beiber CD instead of MCR. At which point shit would go down and I would probably be posting this from a hospital bed in Highland Park's psych ward. But I digress...)
Anyway, I retrieved my prize, paid for it (the side-eye I got from the, let's say, older female cashier, when she saw my hoodie, complete with "Murder Scene" and pistols on the back, was free of charge), and brought it home--and then I sat on the CD for a couple hours. Usually, the CD gets popped in to the stereo and played from track one to the end. In this case, I mentally prepared for Danger Days (but more on that in another post).
I don't think I could write a critical review, mostly because it would be something like this: "This part was kinda lame...but then they did this and it made up for that crappy part...then this happened, and I was, like, ooookay...but then they recovered and got awesome...etc." I will say this: Danger Days, in my opinion, takes all the best parts of My Chemical Romance's past as they explore their musical future. I do like the literal lyrics, as there's little doubt in what they mean by saying this. Now, I am a metaphor slut; but metaphors tend to bury the "message" when you try to be too clever. And while using literal lyrics strips the "figure out what this means for you" vibe on the other CD's, it's replaced by "here's what we're saying...now it's your turn to do something with it." There is also a variety of musical styles like on The Black Parade--undoubtedly my favorite thing about The Black Parade--without the album sounding schizophrenic. Is Danger Days love at first listen? Somewhat...but even Revenge took until the last song before I went, "Wait, what the hell am I listening to?" and replayed the CD again. And again. And again.
On the music itself: I'm obsessed with "Sing" and "Vampire Money." I totally desk danced to "Planetary (Go!)." "Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back" gave me flashbacks of listening to Led Zeppelin and The Who with my dad, so points there. And maybe listening to Emilie Autumn, who uses some electronics, prepared me for the funky beat in the beginning of "The Only Hope For Me Is You." "Bulletproof Heart" was a bit slow to begin with and probably needs to grow on me a bit. The Dr. Death bits are take 'em or leave 'em. (I'm on the leave 'em team; but there is a handy skip button on the stereo/iPod so no love loss there.) "S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W" shocked me the most--in a pleasant way. Definitely not what I was expecting when I saw the title, which I think sums up the album rather well. It's full of surprises that keep you listening. And that's really the whole point, isn't it?
I'm so thrilled that MCR evolved. I'm so thrilled that Danger Days is not at all what I was expecting, yet is everything I wanted it to be: It's loud (literally--I turned my stereo down because it was too loud at first, but then I said, "Fuck it," and blasted it as loud as I could), different, and yet, it's still My Chemical Romance. Now I really wish I had some place far away to go and a cool car to blast this CD out of. Guess the drive to my uncle's house on Thanksgiving will have to do. (Sorry, Mom!)
So, money in hand, gas in the car, Revenge hoodie on (what, what), I made the pilgrimage to the local Best Buy, praying the new music would be out at 10:30 am. I've gone a few times to find the new music section in the process of being stocked, and hovering isn't my thing. No doubt it isn't the employee's thing either. I haven't been in Best Buy for a while, so naturally they would rearrange the store on me. So, after running around the aisle, I found the music section--seriously how the hell am I suppose to find it when it's behind all the big displays?! Huh? Tell me, Best Buy! No, correction, I found the music section and gave myself palpitations when the MCR slot only had The Black Parade. Luckily, behind that was the new music shelf...in the process of being stocked. Doubly luckily, Danger Days was already on the shelf, washing away my worst fear.
(Actually my worst fear was driving to Best Buy, only to find out they weren't stocking Danger Days in the new music display case. I would then go and ask an employee and he'd be all, "Oh, we didn't have room for all the new CD's coming out today" --(Did anyone see how many came out today?)--"so Corporate decided to stock the acoustic Justin Beiber CD instead of MCR. At which point shit would go down and I would probably be posting this from a hospital bed in Highland Park's psych ward. But I digress...)
Anyway, I retrieved my prize, paid for it (the side-eye I got from the, let's say, older female cashier, when she saw my hoodie, complete with "Murder Scene" and pistols on the back, was free of charge), and brought it home--and then I sat on the CD for a couple hours. Usually, the CD gets popped in to the stereo and played from track one to the end. In this case, I mentally prepared for Danger Days (but more on that in another post).
I don't think I could write a critical review, mostly because it would be something like this: "This part was kinda lame...but then they did this and it made up for that crappy part...then this happened, and I was, like, ooookay...but then they recovered and got awesome...etc." I will say this: Danger Days, in my opinion, takes all the best parts of My Chemical Romance's past as they explore their musical future. I do like the literal lyrics, as there's little doubt in what they mean by saying this. Now, I am a metaphor slut; but metaphors tend to bury the "message" when you try to be too clever. And while using literal lyrics strips the "figure out what this means for you" vibe on the other CD's, it's replaced by "here's what we're saying...now it's your turn to do something with it." There is also a variety of musical styles like on The Black Parade--undoubtedly my favorite thing about The Black Parade--without the album sounding schizophrenic. Is Danger Days love at first listen? Somewhat...but even Revenge took until the last song before I went, "Wait, what the hell am I listening to?" and replayed the CD again. And again. And again.
On the music itself: I'm obsessed with "Sing" and "Vampire Money." I totally desk danced to "Planetary (Go!)." "Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back" gave me flashbacks of listening to Led Zeppelin and The Who with my dad, so points there. And maybe listening to Emilie Autumn, who uses some electronics, prepared me for the funky beat in the beginning of "The Only Hope For Me Is You." "Bulletproof Heart" was a bit slow to begin with and probably needs to grow on me a bit. The Dr. Death bits are take 'em or leave 'em. (I'm on the leave 'em team; but there is a handy skip button on the stereo/iPod so no love loss there.) "S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W" shocked me the most--in a pleasant way. Definitely not what I was expecting when I saw the title, which I think sums up the album rather well. It's full of surprises that keep you listening. And that's really the whole point, isn't it?
I'm so thrilled that MCR evolved. I'm so thrilled that Danger Days is not at all what I was expecting, yet is everything I wanted it to be: It's loud (literally--I turned my stereo down because it was too loud at first, but then I said, "Fuck it," and blasted it as loud as I could), different, and yet, it's still My Chemical Romance. Now I really wish I had some place far away to go and a cool car to blast this CD out of. Guess the drive to my uncle's house on Thanksgiving will have to do. (Sorry, Mom!)
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no subject
Date: 2010-12-28 05:44 pm (UTC)And THEN it's all awesome.
(Still don't have my copy yet. Two more weeks...)
no subject
Date: 2010-12-28 08:13 pm (UTC)Y'know what it is (at least for me) it's the expectation. Nothing has ever met my expectation (and nothing ever will), so during the first listen I have to let all the expectation I built up go, then I start enjoying it the second go-around.
In general, it's so hard for me to rank MCR's cds. I *love* Black Parade and Danger Days, and Bullets has its moments, but I skip more songs on that cd compared to the others. And Revenge will always hold a special place in my heart because it was the first and subsequently led me to the other artists I listen to.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-28 11:25 pm (UTC)Y'know, one thing that continually bugs me about the fandom--and most of them are pretty groovy, but you get the odd ones every so often--is the assertion that they've changed for the worse. It happens with every album, it's not true, and it always aggravates me. For one, yes, the sound and packaging and costumes have "evolved" as you said, but they're still the same guys. There are still songs on every album that seem chipper and upbeat until you listen to the lyrics; there are still epic storylines told half-serious and half tongue-in-cheek; there are still cinematic music videos; and Gerard still comes out with some quote or other that the entire fandom either laughs at, loses its shit over, or completely ignores because, well, it's Gerard and we know he's insane and talks out of his ass half the time.
NONE of that has changed from one album to the next.
no subject
Date: 2010-12-29 01:05 am (UTC)I love Gerard for his insanity. Long live insanity!
no subject
Date: 2010-12-29 01:17 pm (UTC)Amen.