My Chemical Romance - Danger Days Review

Story by Jacob Fricke 

| Published Nov 23, 2010

Perhaps it is telling that I felt the exact same things when listening to the new My Chemical Romance album as I did when their last album came out — nothing.

However, this is a vastly different emotion from the “nothing” I felt when first hearing their previous album, “The Black Parade.” When I was 15, that album simply assured my own existence and reminded me I was right: everyone around me was shit, and no one understood me. In this context, “nothing” meant everything.

Listening to “Danger Days” for the first time, I was in no way affected. It was just there.

On “The Black Parade,” MCR streamlined their sound. They knew their own sound, cut out all the garbage and released the best parts of what was left. “Danger Days” takes the band into uncharted territory. However, they apparently didn’t do much research before jumping headfirst in. With all traces of “emo” erased, MCR has ostracized themselves in their own genre. The band is now purely pop-punk, with heavy emphasis placed on the pop aspect. They no longer sound like themselves.

I felt nothing, ultimately, because there was nothing to feel. Gone is the dramatic concept, fully realized lyrics and dramatic play between guitars. Gone too is the sense of enjoyment their previous album brought.

Instead listeners are presented with spoken word introductions, dramatically reduced percussion and bass and an album that ultimately never really takes off.

I was always told that if I didn’t have anything nice to say, I shouldn’t say it at all. So I suppose, in the end, my initial feeling of absolute nothing was right.