Exposure
The first song I heard off of this album (and from My Chemical Romance as a whole) was the title track, "Welcome to the Black Parade," right after waking up in the hospital after my appendectomy in 3rd grade. My grandmother had left MTV on and stepped out to smoke, leaving me to wake up completely alone and staring down a man on the screen dying in his hospital bed. I was absolutely entranced by all of it - the music, the lyrics, the music video, it really did rock my world in the most literal sense of the phrase.
I wasn't able to find it again for years, but I happened to come across it again at the end of 5th grade and was actually on a computer where I could look up the song and the band. After that, I was obsessed with their music. I completely wiped my iPod Shuffle just so that I could load one song on it - the aforementioned title track - and listen to it on repeat at cheerleading practice. I even bought some of their merch and would wear it at the most inappropriate times (who needs thick, fingerless gloves in 113°F heat?) and just generally became a little emo kid at the perfect, angsty time.
Overall Thoughts
It's no secret that I love this album - it's one of the only albums that I've truly obsessed over and I've probably listened to it thousands of times through. It's such a beautiful, desperate, emotional narrative album, but the songs are also completely solid out of context on their own.
Much smarter and more eloquent people than I have written plenty about the story woven throughout the album, but personally, I feel like this album at its core explores death, our reactions to it and our fight against it, what keeps us going even in the darkest and loneliest times. It's about how death is a journey we all take, but we still have to do it alone. How life is so fleeting and strange and difficult that we simply have to keep going and fighting, because we'll get to the other option eventually. How love can push us towards death and pull us away from it.
When I was 11, it was a collection of anti-suicide anthems and a testament to the fact that other people's lives were painful and horrible too, but that you can still make it through. Over a decade later, it feels like giving my younger self a hug through time, trying to send my love back in time through sheer willpower and sound waves, trying to send myself that same acceptance listening the first time.
While this album doesn't have all of my favorite MCR songs on it, it's full to the brim with absolute bangers and classics - there's a reason that they're touring this specific album for like the fourth time this year. Although listening to this album does start to bring up some of those "Oh, they're a nostalgia band now" feelings, it's also just so damn good that I can't be mad. They told their story, they did it amazingly, and they just haven't managed to capture that energy quite the same for me (Danger Days was fun, but let's be real, it was a huge departure stylistically).
Overall, this is one of my favorite albums of all time, if not my #1 outright. It was the album that got me into real music and kept me alive through a lot of bullshit. I'm always hoping for new MCR music, but my poor teenage heart will be thinking about this album for decades. It's an empathetic, soft side of the 2000s pop punk that asked, "Yes, we will die. But what if we loved anyway? What if we fought for that love?" to which fans echoed back, "We'll carry on."
Favorite Track(s)
I know that I've highlighted "Dead!" over there in the sidebar as my favorite from the album, but that's only because I can't highlight the entire album. There isn't a single song on this album that I didn't absolutely adore the first time listening to it, which is something that I've never been able to say about any other album, even from MCR!
Despite that, I do think that "Dead!" has to take the spot as my all time favorite, since it's never grown old to me. It's one of those songs that I have never skipped and, as rare as it is, makes me want to dance and sing along every time. The way that it transitions from "The End." opening the album with a self-given eulogy, slow and somber, then hitting you with some of the sickest guitar riffs ever to tell you that you're dead and (in my opinion) essentially in a hell/purgatory situation now, "did you get what you deserve?"
More than anything, Gerard's vocals are what really send this song (and every song) over the edge for me. I've listened to a million covers of all of their songs, but none of them hit like Gerard does. Their mocking tone during the breakdown and the way they linger and almost bounce/fall on their vowels is so incredibly entrancing to me.
However, it would be incredibly unfair to not mention "Welcome to the Black Parade" here, considering how influential it was on me. It introduced me to the band and "emo" culture - whether that's a good thing or not - and I have an entire half-sleeve tattoo originally inspired by that one song. It just feels so teenage-angst at times that I can't listen to it, hahaha.
Music Video(s)
"Welcome to the Black Parade"
God, what a joy it is to watch this video again after so many years. I'm not a big music video guy in general, but watching this brings all those feelings of middle school back again full force.
The video opens on The Patient, the protagonist of our narrative album, dying in a small, sterile hospital. Once his heart finally stops, The Black Parade itself marches towards him down streets reminiscent of a scene out of Saving Private Ryan. The parade's confetti, when the camera is not directly on the parade, turns into the scattered ashes of the environment that has been totally obliterated around them, which is just such a perfect touch that it feels like the video couldn't be made any other way.
I also love the monotone + red color scheme. I know it's a classic emo/goth/alternative color palette, but I truly believe this video and the album art for both Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge (MCR) and American Idiot (Green Day) really altered my brain chemistry.
I was never a fan of Gerard with white hair - it always reminded me of Draco Malfoy. But it also helps them look more like a skeleton, so it's cool to me in the context of the music video. Shaggy black hair Gerard is supreme.
It's hilarious seeing Bob in this video now that he's dead. Hope saying that slur was worth immediately keeling over, you dumb bigot.
"I Don't Love You"
Monochrome!! There is no other way this video could have or should have been. I love it.
Wanting to know and connect and touch another person but they're so different and untouchable even though they're right there in front of you and then when you do finally touch, you stain them/they stain you, and you're changed forever and broken
This song got me through so many breakups, I love the explosion of raw energy at the end of the song. The couple crumbles while the instruments/amps explode, (what I'm assuming is) blood splatters down onto the woman, and Gerard screams into the mic. Beautiful.
Gerard's chipped nail polish makes me want to scream and cry and throw up, A+.
"Teenagers"
Obligatory "You could never make this today!" for the school shooting reference as well as the imagery being about 3 feet to the left of a Nazi rally (about 1:10 into the music video). Not that I think it means anything, it's just interesting 20 years later.
We're back to monochrome + red! This one is different though - they haven't employed a full B&W filter with red accents like in "WttBP" and you can actually see skin color and shades of brown. I think it's partially because in "WttBP" everyone is dead, but also that "Teenagers" is a much more aggressive song with a music video that reflects that aggression perfectly in how it emphasizes the color red.
Cheerleaders with gas masks will never not be cool.
Things are constantly being torn apart in these videos - the city is destroyed in "WttBP," the people and instruments end up shattered in "I Don't Love You," and at the end of this video, the entire band is being ripped apart by their teenage audience. I would say they're heavy-handed with the "broken" imagery, but this is the first time I'm really catching it myself as I watch these videos back to back.
"Famous Last Words"
The filming for this video was insane - there should really be a disclaimer on it reading, "Everyone was hurt in the making of this video." Gerard tore all the ligaments in their foot, Bob was set on fire and hospitalized, and the rest of them had cuts and bruises. It really is a testament to how far these guys were willing to go for their art - the same intense desperation that's carried throughout the album.
Gerard pulling at their face/mouth and rolling their eyes back in their head really drives the "desperation" thing home. It being hot is just a cool bonus.
Speaking of hot, the set is on fire! We never see much beyond the shadow, flaming piles, but it's a cool sister-set to the eradicated city from "WttBP," swirling with ash.
I think it's interesting that the band is wearing the black make-up like The Patient in this video, but not in "WttBP." Also, I don't think Ray is wearing it at all, which he only gets a pass for because he put in overtime on that solo.
"Blood (Hidden Track)"
Baby-faced Gerard, my angel!!
I love that they're obviously in the same high school as "Teenagers," but this locker room wasn't shown in that video at all. I wonder if they were in the video at one point or if this is more of a call back to the locker room scenes in the music video for "I'm Not Okay." The callback angle is interesting because in this video, the cheerleaders waltz in and dance around flirtatiously, putting their hands all over Gerard and the guys while Gerard seemingly doesn't even notice the cheerleaders exist. Meanwhile, the "I'm Not Okay" locker room scenes were both overwhelmingly queer-coded, with one guy checking out another in the locker room (wearing nothing but a towel) and Frank staring into a girl's eyes just to tell her she had an eyelash, rejecting her advances and walking away.
That was a lot of words to say "haha being emo is gay," but I am unfortunately no testament against that statement.
Other Notes of Interest
I completely missed that MCR had announced the return of The Black Parade tour when choosing to review this album - I literally only knew because I went back to their channel to watch the music videos. I really hope that this isn't another normal tour (since they're creating much more of a narrative than the past few times that they've dropped these teaser videos), but I'm not going to hold my breath on new music either. I'm secretly an MCR5 truther, but I'm not hanging my enjoyment of the band on it, haha.
There's a lot of behind the scenes footage for the filming of the music videos, as well as outtake versions for each of them. I haven't watched much of either, but I love that it's there if I did ever want to deep dive obsess over it.
It's very funny to me that I was openly listening to this music 24/7 and playing it on the car stereo for my mom when I was 13, then she seemed surprised when I said I desperately needed therapy a couple years later. I truly don't know how I could have cried out more, but at least I wasn't accused of being a satan-worshipper I guess.
When to Listen
This is absolutely perfect for when you're a teenager, angry at the world, and hate yourself a good dose (but wish you didn't). I'd imagine it's great for anyone with righteous anger and self-hate, but my judgement is clouded by heavy nostalgia.
It was written during the Dubya era, so it was playing right along "American Idiot" and the other "Christ on a bike, America is so stupid and evil" pop punk songs, so I'm sure you (and I!) could get some mileage off of it for the next few years.