The Black Parade Review

I don't really do reviews, but for my favorites, I'll bend a little on my rule.

This album is fantastic and trust me, if it sucked, I would say so. I play favorites for no one. Except maybe Synyster...kidding, kidding. I digress....

Ok, the album DOES NOT SOUND LIKE THE FIRST TWO. It's hard to give a general synopsis of the album since really every song sounds different from the next.

The End is a great song. I don't like the cute irony of it being at the beginning of the album, but you can't win them all I guess. This song reminds me of Queen for some reason. It's passionate, arena rock-esque, anthem-type of stuff. Dead! however, isn't really doing it for me. It's not a bad song, but the first time I heard it, I kind of didn't realize it was on until it ended. The Sharpest Lives is the best track on the album. I'm actually surprised this wasn't the opening single. It sounds a little "Killers" but it's a prime example of how far they have come as a band. House of Wolves is your typical song in the middle that fans will love but people who are unfamiliar with the band "don't get." I like the lyrics on Mama, but I don't like the song, but as with most non-single MCR songs, you find one thing about it and decide that you love the entire song, even if you didn't like it the first few times you heard it so I am sure my opinion about this will change. Teenagers is well written - even if I don't really understand it. I think of it as a song showing both sides of the story, teenagers to adults and adults to teenagers. Maybe it's a metaphor for something else...who knows. Disenchanted is fair. It's a typical end-of-album song. I don't love it, but I don't hate it. For the past two albums, the last songs on the albums were the first ones to kind of strike me. Famous Last Words is epic, almost as epic as Welcome to The Black Parade and sure to become a favorite the more I listen to it.

Like I said, the album is fantastic and considering it's only $9.98 this week at Target, you really have no excuse for not buying it. The album artwork is cool too, not original, Smashing Pumpkins has already used this schtick with ...Infinite Sadness, but cool just the same. It is obvious that the band have grown as musicians and Gerard as a lyricist and singer, even if at times it sounds over-produced, there is nothing wrong with a great rock and roll album, and that's exactly what this is.