When I first watched the video for My Chemical Romance's new song, from their upcoming album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na) I was blown away. Similar to Lady Gaga's music video for Telephone, My Chemical Romances video is packed full of pop culture references, from The Warriors to Star Wars. What I thoroughly enjoyed was that these artists have paid homage to many other pieces of art that has helped create their own music. Art influences art, and My Chemical Romance has taken themes of late 60's to mid 70's pop culture and created their own modern rendition. The video takes place in a desert, like those in California, where the "killjoys" a fantastical group of superhero's, battle monster-like creatures. This artistic brainchild of lead singer Gerard Way, has his band in tight leather costumes and masks riding around in vandalized cars. Everything about the visuals of the video shout out mid 70's. It is weird, it has been done before, but oddly it feels original enough to become utterly fantastic. It is a rapid paced, ADHD prone video, which is perfect for the current generation. With "The Black Parade" also in their belts, this new video places My Chemical Romance as one of the top visual bands of their time.
Lets say I was a child born in 1963 and I was watching Saturday morning cartoons and I heard the opening to this song come on. The immediacy and simple melodic group vocals of " Na Na Na " would hit me and I would think that I had just found my new favourite show. I would then be filled with sorrow finding out that it was just a song. My Chemical Romance , is a band that has created a large almost cult-like following. After the creation of their first two albums, which focused on darker topics such as vampires and other Halloween themes. With the release of their third album "the Black Parade", My Chemical Romance went supersonic with the hit singles "Welcome to the Black Parade" and "Teenagers", selling over a million copies of the record. This was just the start of what is looking more and more like an arena geared sound. With the return of the band, their first single is so immediate and powerful that it will have teenagers everywhere singing.
-
The song starts with an opening guitar riff that is so immediate and expressed perfectly that you forget it's the only instrument playing. The drums roll in with the bass and you start hearing the catchy group vocals that will remind most people over 40 of classic shows such as Speed Racer. The verse is the building part of this song, but at the same time it is so quick that you almost think it could be a chorus. It features witty one liner lyrics that are thrown question-answer like in your face. When Gerard screams " lets blow an artery" he means it, as every vocal is given with such passion. The verse builds even quicker to the chorus where the group vocals fight back and forth as Gerard bellows in his one liners it sounds as though this is a call to arms. Gerard is beckoning for us join his killjoys to take on the world, and you can feel it. As the song burns to the bridge, the organ keeps us going along, with a muddied guitar piece in the background. The song almost becomes empty after the bridge with the group vocals standing for once on their own. This leads into the final stretch of the song where the fury of guitars, drums and the strain in Gerards voice leads almost to an explosion. Just like any good show the song then fizzles out into the end, with the guitar holding frantically onto its last note.
This song is typical of My Chemical Romance, while at the same time adding a new piece to the bands canon. The guitars are very familiar, but what is different is the feel to the song. Normally you get the feeling of isolation in the band's songs. That you are alone in the world, just struggling to survive. This song adds the feeling of being together, ready to take the world on. The group vocals give justice to this theory as they create a certain warmth to the song. What is also atypical to a My Chemical Song is the small use of synthesizer, and sound effects. They can be found subtly in the song and emphasize the tv-show feel of the piece.
As a well rounded music listener, I find that this song is one that should be listened to, just because it is so interesting, even if you don't enjoy this certain genre. It is a strong powerful song backed by a culturally important video. It is always nice to see when a band that goes big after one album does not shrink into obscurity after their follow-up one. My Chemical Romance has not just met their past work, but raised the bar even higher, and I invite anyone who wants to come along for the ride to do so. Even if you don't like the song, watch the video because it is one that will stay in your mind for a long time.
No comments:
Post a Comment