Music Review: My Chemical Romance complicates "The Black Parade"

10/27/2006 1:57 PM, AP
Ron Harris

My Chemical Romance, "The Black Parade" (Reprise)

Bright musicianship attempts to save My Chemical Romance's new album "The Black Parade" from becoming mired in trite experimentalism. The guys have serious chops on their instruments in this alt-emo-rock release, though it appears aloof at times.

"The Black Parade" is big and bombastic from all angles. Soaring guitar leads and top-of-the-lung vocals race along well enough on some tracks, but the arrangements can be convoluted at times. The college radio wonks may eat up this weird sub-sub-genre of rock, but the casual ear will find it confusing.

Morbid themes abound, and songs like "This Is How I Disappear" do it right. Having lost love, our protagonist must trod forward alone. Lead singer Gerard Way and his support crew are dramatic in their obsession with themes of death. This is a rock opera of morbidity, to be sure.

But tracks like "House of Wolves," with its drum-driven cadence, are all over the map. It's like four songs in one, with haphazard pacing. Perhaps the boys in My Chemical Romance are too talented for their own good, because it seems like they want to throw every trick at every song.

The result takes too much effort to comprehend and enjoy.