Welcome to the land of vibrant colors and amazing tunes.
This is the place I’ve been revisiting ever since My Chemical Romance’s new album, “Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys,” came out. I won’t lie when I say that I miss the My Chemical Romance that had the makeup, the uniforms and the doom, always the antidote to any teenage riot. But the wait for the bands fourth album seemed like a long desert trek and when I found the oasis I couldn’t care less about their latest changes.
With the new glam rock flavor in the recent album shows off the band’s versatility. I find it so uplifting to hear a genuine rock n’ roll album in today’s’ musical age of standard electronic auto-tuned pop music.
But one thing is for certain, this album is a huge statement that the band still isn’t anywhere near packing up, despite rumor. When they parted ways with their drummer, Bob Bryar,( neither the band nor Bryar has gone public yet about why he’s left the group) I really thought they would split like Panic at the Disco or pronounce they were on “temporary hiatus” like Fall Out Boy, but I thank my lucky stars the band has stuck together.
I must admire that though they’ve lost a member they have kept trudging along. The colorful songs in the album may stray from MCR’s norm, but even there music videos, usually revolving around death, have changed as well. In the video for song ‘Na Na Na’ MCR has introduced to the music world The Killjoys.
Members of the band take on their alter egos throughout the video as Party Poison, Jet Star, Fun Ghoul and Kobra Kid, all donning tight dusty jeans and ray guns, and are accompanied by a young boy with big curly hair.
Their inspiration for the video is vintage ‘80s motocross, and pop art. They’ve also been influenced by “Blade Runner,” Andy Warhol, The Who and “Mad Max.”
What really drew me to the video was not only the Killjoy alters, but the cartoon colors, the laser guns and the boy with the big curly hair. Both album and video are proof of the positive attitude the band has adopted.
If you have watched ‘Na Na Na,’ you may notice there’s a jacket from their video ‘The Black Parade’.
Sure, they have a new style, and the doom and gloom is not present, but seeing the jacket is proof that MCR still keeps true to who they are and who they have been.
