After My Chemical Romance’s initial single from The Black Parade many will be under the impression that MCR have attempted a departure from their monotonous drudgery of uniform pop punk only to have landed in the land of demented embarrassing one-hit wonders. You must have liked ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’ (a number one selling single no less) but for those who didn’t o in for that silliness, and the previous dullness of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, The Black Parade is actually quite startling in the sense that it’s actually half good.

Comparisons to Green Day’s American Idiot may be an obvious starting point but not particularly accurate. First of all, having a change of costume (from scruffy black clothes to not so scruffy black clothes) and band name (MCR become The Black Parade for this album) does not constitute a concept album. If there is a concept in The Black Parade, it is “Let’s not carry on the uninspiring drivel that constitutes our last three albums”.

Secondly, unlike American Idiot, The Black Parade is not consistently great; as mentioned previously it is only half good. To their credit MCR have successfully diverted from their previous efforts, but this has given polarised results. ‘This is How I Disappear’ and ‘The Sharpest Lives’ are the most prominent highlights of The Black Parade – both are rock behemoths that contain the spite and anger MCR have on their previous albums without the old three-power-chord dullness. The most significant change is that MCR have developed a certain groove, which is most evident on ‘House of Wolves’ and ‘Teenagers’.

However, the album goes dreadfully wrong on ‘Cancer’ where heartfelt lyrics are not matched by the gaudy Elton John style piano and the puzzling ‘I Don’t Love You’ where MCR do their best Snow Patrol impression. With the addition of the cringe-worthy ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’ and a couple of fillers (‘Sleep’ and ‘Disenchanted’), The Black Parade quickly loses its faultless sheen. When it comes to tracks of the mid-tempo variety it seems that MCR don’t even get close to the cigar.

So sceptics can be content that MCR haven’t written the best album of 2006, and also enjoy the surprisingly brilliant half of The Black Parade (obviously without letting on to their muso friends) while fans of MCR can rejoice in the fact that their favourite band have created an album with, more imagination and flair than previously thought possible.
(3/5)