| BEST 2010 ALBUMS: #1. MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE - 'Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys' |
| Written by Shahlin Graves | |||
| Friday, 31 December 2010 19:40 | |||
#1. MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE - Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys  I know that some of you are screwing your noses up in distaste while reading this, but in 2010 no album meant more to me than MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE's triumphant resurfacing with 'Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys'. Despite the album's high-concept California 2019 imaginings, its social commentary on our generation rings more relevant and true than any other of the hundreds of albums I've listened to all year. This isn't preachy propaganda though - a deeper meaning is there for those who listen out for it, but drive-by listeners are also sure to enjoy the unabashed pop sensibilities of all the album's tracks. Once again under the tutelage of Rob Cavallo (Green Day's in-house producer and current Chairman of Warner Bros. Records), My Chemical Romance demonstrate manic attention to detail in the production of 'Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys'. The band experiment with layered synth-refrains, handclaps and layered vocals, in an outpouring of reinvention that can only be described as next-level. This isn't just an album, it's an art-form built from projections of the band's own inner-most musings - utilising synthesizers as musical punctuation not unlike what one would imagine in the speech bubbles of a graphic novel. The album is captained by the Pirate-radio DJ character Dr. Death Defying, whose vocal sketches paint the scene of a dystopian existence manhandled by Better Living Industries - a world in which the 'Fabulous Killjoys' (Party Poison, Fun Ghoul, Kobra Kid, and Jet Star) chew up the desert in their Trans-Am car, only stopping to shoot up draculoids in a determined stand against corporate clean-up. The album's main theme is a call to (ray gun) arms - calling upon listeners to realise and act upon their full potential - that we are the Killjoys, that we are the resistance... and as frontman Gerard Way so eloquently requests in lead-single 'Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)'... "Shut up and sing it with me!" MUST-LISTEN: 'Bulletproof Heart', 'Vampire Money', 'Planetary (GO!)', 'The Only Hope For Me Is You', 'The Kids From Yesterday', 'Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)'. YOU WILL LIKE, IF YOU LIKE: Neon Trees, Thirty Seconds To Mars, Mindless Self Indulgence, Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Jimmy Eat World... and old-school high action science-fiction films. MUST-WATCH: My Chemical Romance's 'Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)' and 'SING' music videos...  |
