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My Chemical Romance

Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

Just when it looked like My Chemical Romance couldn’t top 2006’s The Black Parade—a flamboyant, over-the-top rock opera influenced by goth, prog, glam and ’70s arena rock—here comes Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys. Far more diverse (but less glossy) than Parade, it is MCR’s most straight-up rock-’n’-roll release. The rubberband-taut “Party Poison” sounds like The Hives, The Stooges and The Who at a rumble, while the riffs on “Bulletproof Heart” are yanked from Pat Benatar’s fakebook. Days’ detours are hit or miss: Although the techno-tweaked whirl “Planetary (GO!)” and John Hughes flick shoulda-been “Summertime” succeed, the Killers-lite “The Kids from Yesterday” and falsetto-driven ballad “S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W” flounder. In fact, Days starts to lose steam right around the middle, mainly because as the tempos decrease, MCR starts to sound like a generic radio-rock band. (See: the Chili Peppers-esque guitar chug “Destroya.”) In the end, the album never quite jells; it feels like a bunch of songs thrown together instead of a cohesive whole.