Many people often dismiss My Chemical Romance as a crappy, mainstream, emo band, and often comment on the band members' appearances. What they fail to understand, is that behind the hype, and behind the Gerard Way fangirls, this is truly a great album with many fantastic songs. (This is my first review, so if it kinda sucks, sorry.)
Helena, the album opener, is one of MCR's most well-known songs. That's for a good reason, because it's a great song. This song was written about Gerard Way's late grandmother. The lyrics are great, and the guitar is really well played as well. The intro is a little weird to me but it doesn't detract from the song as a whole. A great album opener and example of MCR.
Following Helena is
Give 'em Hell, Kid. This song has nifty guitar work, especially at the beginning. The song, from what I can tell, is a bit more cheerful than the other ones (it seems like an "I miss you so much" kind of song but there are a few lines that make me think it's a breakup song or something). I hardly ever listened to this song when I first got the album but it's sort of grown on me.
To The End falls into both the weird ("Let's go down! This elevator only goes up to ten") and morbid ("And say goodnight to the heart you break
And all the cyanide you drank") categories of MCR songs. I like this song, the tune is very catchy and the lyrics are pretty interesting. This song, like Helena, is a good "first MCR song" for new fans.
The next song,
You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison, is probably my favourite song on the album right above Thank You For The Venom. This song has insane guitar all the way through, and mixes humour ("I miss my mom!") with an underlying anti-homophobia message ("How we're just two men as God had made us ... Pain in my heart for your dying wish, I'll kiss your lips again"). Additional vocals from Bert McCracken from The Used help this song stand out as one of MCR's best.
I'm Not Okay (I Promise) is often cited as a generic emo song. Although the theme does seem rather emo, that doesn't mean the song sucks. The chorus is pretty repetitive (it's basically "I'm not okaaaaaaaaay" over and over) but the guitar (especially in the intro) and vocals are superb. This song was supposedly written based on Gerard Way's actual life experiences. Despite the flaws this is still a very nice song and it's one of the MCR songs that's better to listen to when you're in a bad mood.
The Ghost of You isn't a bad song, but it doesn't really fit in with the rest of the album. The song is slower than most, and I find the vocals aren't as good as other songs (I had the same complaint with Hang 'em High). This is one of the sadder songs on the album. I honestly don't listen to it that much... it's not that it's terrible, it just doesn't fit in with the album's mood that well.
The ending of The Ghost of You holds and speeds up into
The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You. This song follows the mood (and vocal quality) of The Ghost of You but the instrumentals are better and fit in better with MCR's style. Again, it's a song that I don't listen to all that much, but it isn't BAD, it's just... averagey.
Interlude is probably one of my least favourite songs on the album. The instrumentals and vocals are both too quiet, and I find even when I turn the volume up it's hard to tell what he's saying. The instrumentals aren't much to write home about either. The title most likely comes from the fact that it's an "interlude" between the first and second halves of the album. This song isn't much but it does make a decent intro to Thank You For The Venom (similar in nature but not as well executed as the pairing of "The Hellion" and "Electric Eye" from the Judas Priest album "Screaming for Vengeance").
Blending right into the ending of Interlude,
Thank You For The Venom begins. This is my other favourite song on this album, just under You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison. I love the drumming in this song and the lyrics are also very well done. This is a song I like to listen to when I'm a bit sad, but it's just as good to listen to when I'm in a good mood.
Hang 'em High "is a song about suicide. Don't do it." -Gerard Way
This song starts out with a whistle-like intro and then proceeds into the style known in MCR's "harder" songs. Again, this song has amazing instrumentals with the drumming, although Gerard seems like he's trying to be too loud at some points so I don't think the vocals are quite as top-notch as other songs like Helena. This however only detracts a little from the overall quality of the song.
It's Not A Fashion Statement, It's a ***ing Deathwish is yet another song that's good and everything, I just hardly ever listen to it because I don't find it exceptionally fantastic. The lyrics are good, the drumming is great, the vocals are alright, it's just... too average. It's a good MCR song, just nothing to write home about.
Cemetary Drive, like The Ghost of You, is a lot slower than most of MCR's songs. However, the vocals and lyrics are better than The Ghost of You's, so this makes it a better song in the end. The constant drumming beat throughout the beginning of the song and the bridges is pretty nifty, and it heats up for the chorus which is accompanied by guitar which is almost hard to hear under the drumming. Overall, this is definitely MCR's better "slower" song.
The album then ends with
I Never Told You What I Do For A Living. From what I can understand it's basically a song about a murderer, who obviously never told you what he does for a living until now. This song fits the "Murder scene" mentioned in Give 'em Hell Kid. The instrumentals in this song are pretty good and the vocals are pretty good, about at the level of You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison. This is a good song and ends the album pretty well.
Overall, Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge is an excellent album buried under the hype, the fangirls, and the "emo" lyrics and themes. I would definitely recommend this album to anyone who likes heavier music and doesn't mind lyrics with occasional morbid/death-related themes.
