After seeing My Chemical Romance last night on the last date of their tour with Piebald, Minus the Bear and Noise Ratchet (as of this writing, Jan 31) here in Las Vegas, NV, I was in awe of their live performance, and I wanted to hear what the songs sounded like on the recording. So off to the merch booth I went to pick up one of their t-shirt's and this CD.

Although I have only had it for a day, I can already safely say that I am IN LOVE with this CD. I can not understand at all why anyone would call MCR formulatic, generic, and I certainly don't agree that these songs are not catchy. After listening to this CD, I'm always left wanting to hear it again. And again. Well, anyways... All I can say is this. Download "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" and/or "This is the Best Day Ever". If you find that this isn't your particular cup of tea, then don't buy it; but I think that if you had enough interest in this band to be reading any of these reviews, I can almost gurantee you'll enjoy it.

OH, and by the way, if you haven't been to one of their shows already, go see them next time they go to your town. They're cool guys, and put on a helluva show. :)

Did you ever listen to a band for the first time and have them totally take your breath away? This is what listening to My Chemical Romance could do for first time listeners. Hailing from Belleville, New Jersey this five piece band is a refreshing and unique entry into the Hardcore genre. Mixing brilliant lyrics and powerful vocals this band goes above and beyond any hardcore or emo band of late. Some stand out tunes on this cd are "Cubicles", 'Vampires Will Never Hurt You", and "This is the Best Day Ever". The band has already gained recognition by opening for Thursday and this cd is produced by Geoff Rickely the lead singer for Thursday. Certainly not a bad start for a first time effort. To get the full My Chemical Romance experience you have to see them live because the energy this band displays is almost magical. Without a doubt this is a stunning debut for a band that could very well be very big one day.

I am going to admit it: I discovered this band through "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)". I'm not even going to pretend that I like this album more.

But if you could only buy of My Chemical Romance's albums, I would still say to buy this one.

While "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge" holds vivid imagery, energetic melodies and the like, in the end, nothing like that can compete with the amazing lyrics, symbolism, and placement of "I Brought You My Bullets, You Brough Me Your Love". "Revenge" is a story. "Bullets" is art.

It begins with a short instrumental, which sets the slightly darker mood of this album. Afterwards comes "Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us", from the very first lines making references to antidepressants and alchoholism (The amount of pills I'm taking/Counteracts the booze I'm drinking). There is even a spoken echo that can be heard, which makes a very nice touch. This album holds nothing back, and stops at nothing to get its message across.

After that is the song "Vampires Will Never Hurt You". My Chemical Romance is not a simple, easy-to-understand band. This song is not about vampires. It is about how society sucks the life out of you, and how it drags you in. Much of it is screamed, but even the screaming is done in an artistic way. The vampire metaphors are prevelant, but there are other metaphors present as well, such as a whisper at the end of the track.

The album isn't all morbid and dark; two tracks in particular stand out from the rest of the album for their brighter melodies: "Early Sunsets Over Monroeville" and "Headfirst for Halos".

"Early Sunsets Over Monroeville" is very, very well done. It starts off with a happy, slow melody, and talks about a romantic night, using imagery that rivaled even "Revenge". This song relies less on explosive instrument work or screaming to show its emotion, and more on Gerard's singing voice. It is a little bit on the long side, but if you like the song, you won't even care.

"Headfirst for Halos" is one of my favorite tracks. This track makes early references to suicide (I think I'll blow my brains against the ceiling), but it is ultimately against it, telling the listener to "think happy thoughts".

"Demolition Lovers" is arguably My Chemical Romance's best song, and it easy to see why. At six minutes, this song is to music as "The Odyssey" is to poetry; long, but beautiful. The vocals at the beginning are absolutely haunting, which is sadly something that isn't said often for male singers. The lyrics are also the most powerful on the album, speaking of dying for love "in a hail of bullets". It speeds up, slows down, and shows what My Chemical Romance is really capable of.

There are a few tracks that I like a bit less than others ("This Is The Best Day Ever", for example), but that is a matter of personal taste. This album shows My Chemical Romance as artists, not entertainers, and makes a worthy addition to any collection.

Best Tracks:
"Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us"
"Demolition Lovers"
"Our Lady of Sorrows"
"Early Sunsets of Monroeville"
"Headfirst for Halos"

So people are talking and obsessing about Gerard's supposed infatuation with vampires - and now they're being called like satanic and 'creepy' and whatnot. There is one song, "Vampires will never hurt you", and it's not referring to REAL VAMPIRES, people, it's a metaphor for people who try to take everything from you. If you do a bit of research, or even listened a bit harder, you MIGHT realize that. geez. It's not satanic or creepy or anything else dumb, he just thinks of lyrics that go over most people's heads.

It IS pretty dark and brooding, but it's definitely worth a listen. If you've heard the new cd and want to listen to the old music, it's quite a bit different. I wouldn't say Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge is better because they're way too different to compare them, but the new cd probably appeals to a larger fanbase.

Track 1 (Romance) is the intro. Nothing really special, it is interesting, no vocals.

Track 2 (Honey, this mirror isn't big enough for the two of us) is a really good song with awesome lyrics. pretty screamy. 13/10

Track 3 (Vampires will never hurt you) isn't really one of my favorites, it seems to be pretty popular with other people though. Not the best lyrics, in my opinion, but not as terribly bad as other people make it sound. 7/10

Track 4 (Drowning lessons) isn't one of my favorites but it's not horrible. 8/10

Track 5 (Our lady of sorrows) is my favorite song by MCR, it's amazing. He drops the f-bomb quite a bit more than neccessary but this song rocks and if you get past all the cussing, the lyrics are really good. 15/10

Track 6 (Headfirst for halos) is also an awesome song, but i think it'll need clarification for all the people out there that refuse to think on a deeper level. The song's talking about 'i think i'll blow my brains against the ceiling'.. and it gets even more graphic than that. Well, before anyone thinks he's a suicidal maniac, in an interview he explained it like this: it's supposed to be ironic, the poppiest, most upbeat song being about killing yourself. Creative. 10/10

Track 7 (Skylines and turnstiles) isn't one of my favorites, but it's not too horrible. 9/10

Track 8 (Early Sunsets over Monroeville) is an awesome song. It's more emo than most of the cd, quieter and softer (to me, kind of bright eyes sounding). Amazing. it could be interpreted as a bit weird though. 10/10

Track 9 (This is the best day ever) is okay. Not one of my favorites but like the others, it's not HORRIBLE. Pretty fast and upbeat. Easy to listen to. 8/10

Track 10 (Cubicles) is another one i'm not a particular fan of. It's decent. Gets on my nerves a little bit. 8/10

Track 11 (Demolition Lovers) IS AMAZING! One of the only 6 minute songs i am completely into. Has a bit of a drawn out guitar solo, but it's got awesome lyrics and the final minute is mind-blowing. This is one of my favorite songs by them, definitely. 13/10

Overall an awesome cd, every couple of weeks it goes back into cd player in my car because it's just THAT good. Definitely a cd to give a listen to. Pick up the new one, while you're at it!

So here's my little MCR story: The first time I ever heard of them, I mistakenly ignored them. When they released their second album "Three Cheers..." I read the lyrics to the first single "I'm Not Okay"; loved the lyrics, downloaded the song, hated it for some reason.
THEN one day in Urban Outfitters (I know, I know, *gag*) the heavens parted and I heard "You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison" and I LOVED IT because it is brilliant. So my friend lent me the album and I just fell in love. I decided to get the first one since I loved Three Cheers so much.

"Bullets" is much different from their major-label release. I didn't really like it at first, I think for one thing because it has poor sound quality and at times it's hard to hear what Gerard is singing. But once you get past that (and look up the lyrics - Gerard, honey, you need to enunciate...and stop screaming so much, you're gonna ruin your pretty vocal chords, and you have such a beautiful voice!) it really grows on you, just like it did on me. The more I listened to it, the more I loved it. This album really needs to be given a second chance...and sometimes a third, fourth, and fifth, to really appreciate it. I only gave it four stars because there are one or two songs that are just kind of, erm, bad (but that's okay). And I don't usually go through song-by-song reviews (cuz most people have short attention spans) but this one really needs to be broken down, all the songs are so different.

1- Romance:
Romance is actually the first song on the album (damn you, amazon!) It's just a short but beautiful intrumental recorded by guitarist Ray Toro. He did it with his computer. Ray is awesome, btw.

2- Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us
Oh lusty song titles of joy. Anyway, the song. Catchy, great guitar work (because Ray is awesome, of course, that needs to be restated). Gerard sings about pills and gets pissy. Unfortunately you really can't understand what he's saying most of the time, so look up the lyrics. It's pretty dark. But still one of the better songs on the album.

3- Vampires Will Never Hurt You:
Awesome song! It seems to tell a story about vampires, and what happens when one is captured by the vampires - will they kill him as he requests, or will love conquer all? Or something. Well, heck, vampires are verrah cool :) Just an all-around great song, it starts off slow and then it really rocks. Best lines:
"Someone get me to the doctor, and someone call the nurse
And someone buy me roses, and someone burned the church
We're hanging out with corpses, and driving in this hearse
And someone save my soul tonight, please save my soul"
AND
"We'll throw back holy water like cheap whiskey."

4- Drowning Lessons:
I usually skip this one, it's not really anything special. But the guitar is awesome. Because it's RAY. So talented.


A QUICK NOTE ON THE OTHER BOYS: Okay the old sucky drummer (Matt) recorded on this album. Feh to him. BUT bassist Mikey (so cute!) and other guitarist Frank (hee) are AMAZING. They're both very good musicians, the way they can play is just crazy (especially live).

Okay, moving on.

5- Our Lady of Sorrows
Pretty good. Gerard says f*ck a lot.

6- Headfirst for Halos
AHHHHHHHHHHKNMDMSQFGHJVFYRTDYE$W#!!!!!!!!! I think it's the best song on the album ^_^ It's very upbeat and fast (which of course means amazing playing by the boys). The lyrics are very cool, it's all about going insane over someone, basically, but kind of told in a flashback format.
"Well let's go back to the middle of the day that starts it all
I can't begin to let you know just what I'm feeling
And now the red ones make me fly
And the blue ones help me fall
And I think I'll blow my brains against the ceiling
And as the fragments of my skull begin to fall
Fall on your tongue like pixie dust just think happy thoughts"
It sounds violent....but dammit it's such a great song. Plus no one under the age of 18 should be listening to MCR anyway, they tend to deal with some pretty heavy stuff that stupid 11 year olds and teenagers alike just can't really understand.

7- Skylines and Turnstiles
.....................*sigh* Alright, it sucks, I think, but it's the first song Gerard ever wrote. Thank God he got a billion times better.

8-Early Sunsets Over Monroeville
Very lovely! And very mellow. One of my early favorites. It's a beautiful song, just very calm (a welcome contrast from the rest of the album). Still dark lyrics, but you can't even understand what poor Gerard is singing half the time anyway.

9-This Is the Best Day Ever
For some reason I like this song a lot. It's about romance in a hospital! (Or torture chamber, who knows). Oh Gerard, you sure do know how to show a girl a good time.

10- Cubicles
Catchy. Not lyrically deep or impressive, just catchy :) A good song for anyone who had an office romance go very, very bad.

11- Demolition Lovers
Oh. My. God. Easily one of the best songs MCR has EVER done. It gives me chills. It starts off very slow. It's dark and beautiful and reaches depths of emotion and want and lyric mastery that is beyond anything else on the album. Everyone needs to hear this song even if you don't like MCR or anything else on the album.
"Hand in mine, into your icy blues
And then I'd say to you we could take to the highway
With this trunk of ammunition too
I'd end my days with you in a hail of bullets

I'm trying, I'm trying
To let you know just how much you mean to me
And after all the things we put each other through and

I would drive on to the end with you
A liquor store or two keeps the gas tank full
And I feel like there's nothing left to do
But prove myself to you and we'll keep it running"

It's another song that tells a story, but it's much more in-depth. Incidentally, it inspired the storyline for "Three Cheers" - it's on that level of greatness.

So there you have it. Hope you enjoy the album. :)