My Chemical Romance
Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

I believe many of you know the famous My Chemical Romance, who rose to fame with the not-bad-but-not-excellent "Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge" after a debut that went rather unnoticed ("I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love"). The band experienced a stroke of bad luck: many immediately considered them the classic Emo-Pop band for depressed and screaming girls with loads of eyeliner and mascara, who self-identify as Emo. This, combined with their growing popularity, led many people to have prejudices against this band, which is often judged as incapable and sold-out.

I, too, had prejudices against them, but I was proven wrong by a true masterpiece like "The Black Parade", their third album, released in 2006. Even now, after so much time, I still listen to it with pleasure.

After this great work, the band took a break. A full four years passed during which the band revealed nothing about themselves. Then, suddenly, rumors began circulating about a possible reunion and a mysterious new album. Well, is it true?

Indeed, yes. To the delight of fans and the despair of those who hate the group, My Chemical Romance released their fourth studio album, titled "Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys", on December 22, 2010. I must admit I was intrigued: I certainly didn't expect a masterful work, but after listening to "The Black Parade", the expectations were set. Expectations that, alas, were immediately disproven by the first single: Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na), a cheerful song, perfect for a little disco party. An alarm bell rang immediately: have My Chemical Romance ever been seen in a cheerful version? No. And this change of style disoriented me quite a bit.

Well, despite the not-so-great previews, I decided to give this band a chance nonetheless. I was definitely wrong, because "Danger Days" is nothing more than a Pop Punk disc that is decidedly poorly done and even worse played. Bob Bryar is missing on the drums, and unfortunately, his absence severely penalizes the group because, although he wasn't a virtuoso, he managed to "color" the pieces of "The Black Parade" in some way.

This is also a concept album, much simpler than the previous one: the Killjoys, who are the four remaining members of the band, battle against the Better Living Industries and its leader Korse. The whole thing is set in a post-apocalyptic scenario in California, in 2019.

The album opens, after the Intro, with the overall sufficient Na Na Na, and continues quite well with Bulletproof Heart, which has a decidedly catchy chorus. The quality, however, drops immediately after: it moves from the terrible SING to the electronic, party-style Planetary (GO!), a song that any boy-band could copy and paste ten times to create an album. Let's skip the comments on the noisy and clichéd The Only Hope For Me Is You, an inappropriate ballad on a record that, rather than slowing down, needs to take off, and overlook the interlude Jet-Star And The Kobra Kid: Traffic Report. At this point, we reach two somewhat decent songs compared to the rest of the album: the cheerful Party Poison, more upbeat and adrenaline-pumping, which at times slightly resembles Na Na Na, and Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back, which sporadically recalls the band's dark past, with a chorus similar to that of the old Famous Last Words from "The Black Parade". From here on, the album plunges back into the mire, with songs that, taken individually, might be enjoyable, but if you listen to the album in sequence, you feel like ditching them all of a sudden. I'm talking about S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W, Summertime, and The Kids From Yesterday. The darker DESTROYA makes a slight exception to this rule, finally bringing back the old sounds, or at least trying to. The last interlude, Goodnite Dr. Death, narrates the end of the story.

At the end, we find the concluding Vampire Money, a parody of Twilight, a film that must not have pleased the band too much, given the acidity of the lyrics. A song that is not too exciting, certainly, but surely above the average of this album.

In conclusion, "Danger Days" is an album that doesn’t reach adequacy, fifty times inferior to "The Black Parade" and ten times inferior to the other two albums. The songs I like are just 6 out of 15, and none of them is commendable for technique or particularly memorable. Subjectively, perhaps the album might evoke a 5 and a half out of 10 from me, but objectively, giving it a 3 is already generous. Final rating, 4 out of 10.