The Ever-Changing Sound of My Chemical Romance

     My Chemical Romance was active from 2001-2013 then broke up. They got back together in 2019 and are still together now. Across their career, they released four studio albums. Each one has a change in sound, so I think they're one of the clearest examples of a band changing sound over time. And I thought that would be a nice topic for a blog episode.

   Their first album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, is easily their darkest and edgiest. Even the title screams edge. The lyrics are dark, and there's quite a bit of screaming and otherwise rough vocals. This is my least favorite album of theirs just because it's a little too edgy for my liking. But there are still some winners here. I like the songs "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" and "Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us".

   Their second album, Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, is still pretty edgy but a lot less than the first one. Some of the tracks here are even radio-friendly, or at least alternative-radio-friendly. This was the album that saw their breakthrough, with hits like "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" and "Helena". You've probably heard one or both of those. I love this album. It's a much more manageable level of edge, and the screamo aspect is gone.

   Oh boy, their third album. Their third album! My second favorite album of all time! You know me. You know I don't shut up about The Black Parade. Each song is cinematic and epic and they all come together in a dark and traumatic story, making this one of the best concept albums ever. One of the best albums ever, period. This time, the edginess is moreso in the lyrics than the sound. In some ways, it's basically an alternative rock album. The sound is still kinda edgy in places, but it still continues the path of decreasing the edge.

   Their fourth and final (so far) album is Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys. But me and most other people just shorten it to Danger Days. Now that I think of it, I hear a lot of people call the first one simply Bullets. This album took the concept album idea even further. There were even comic book tie-ins for the universe they created with this one. The sound here is the least edge they've ever had. It's basically pop-punk, pop-rock, power pop. It's definitely the one I'd recommend to someone who's into poppier stuff. But it's just as great as the previous two! (Sorry, Bullets, I like you more than I used to, but I'm still not a big fan).

   After Danger Days, they released a series of EP's called Conventional Weapons that when put together kind of make a bonus fifth album. I'm not very familiar with this one, but from what I do know, it carries on the sound from Danger Days. I hope we get a true fifth album someday, but for now I greatly enjoy what we have and I thought it would be fun to talk about the changes in their sound.

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