Review Summary: "Everybody wants to change the world, but no one wants to die." After less than a month, MCR returns with an EP that non-conformists can comfortably boogie to while blogging on their Macs about hating their parents.
With only one
Conventional Weapons release left after
Number Four, the My Chemical Romance community has begun to grasp at every release with a tad bit more desperation. Scrolling through YouTube comments for the videos of
Kiss the Ring and
Make Room!!!!, every comment seemed to be positive and approving of the songs. Not a single negative comment could be found. Let's change that.
Okay, now that I have your attention, I don't hate these songs. I don't even dislike them, to be frank. Heh. Frank Iero. I just think that there's a problem with the fanbase and wanted to bring it to light.
Number Four does a great job at revisiting the
Danger Days sound, while managing to still sound like an in-between song with Gerard Way's vocal slurs that are reminiscent of
Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge. The lyrics are powerful, the instruments and musicians are clearly having fun with the tracks. I'm getting a little ahead of myself, though, so let's take a step back and tune in to Number Four.
To start off, I'd like to talk about the lyrics. Gerard seemed to have these songs in mind for a majority of
Danger Days: The True Lives of The Fabulous Killjoys, and that may put some fans off. I can't say I have a problem with the songs, though. The lyrics in
Kiss the Ring are comparable to something off of
Three Cheers or
The Black Parade, being metaphorical and witty, often tending to be as sharp as a blade that their fans would use to cut themselves circa 2005. I kid, I kid. Seriously, though, the lyrics are brilliant but still stay fun enough to allow the listener to throw themselves around the room with reckless abandon. I think
Kiss the Ring is definitely a "punkier" song of My Chemical Romance's, while
Make Room!!!! feels like a predecessor (at least lyrically) to
Party Poison and
Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na etc.). Take a look:
"Everybody wants to change the world, everybody wants to change the world, but no one, no one wants to die."
You could also hear that line if you listened to
Na Na Na, and the part right before has Gerard saying something like "Alriiii-yiiight," that was later used in
Party Poison. It's the little things that make it enjoyable for the My Chemical Romance fans.
The band is having one hell of a time playing these songs. Mikey has a great bass groove that keeps up throughout the entirety of
Kiss the Ring, and Ray and Frank sound like they're dueling with guitar riffs throughout both tracks. When I first heard
Number Four, I imagined the band performing the songs live with Frank going insane on top of guitar amps with Gerard strutting across the stage. The songs may not be My Chemical Romance's best work but it the EP can certainly be argued to be one of their most fun.
One thing I really found different was the singing in
Make Room!!!!. The banshee-screams that sound off in the first lines of the song are great, and Gerard just wails throughout the entirety of the song with various moans, groans, and various other things to make the female fans drop their panties. I also like the backing vocal done by who I assume to be Ray. The entire vocal part on
Make Room!!! is unique to the My Chemical Romance library, and is pure fun to listen to.
As more and more
Conventional Weapons releases become available, I don't think any of the songs will be able to top
Boy Division off of
Number One. The songs on
Number Four certainly match the sass level present in
Boy Division, though, so I'm not arguing. With less than a month until the final installment of
Conventional Weapons is released, I'm excited to see how it finishes off. I also think every song will flow well when listened to consecutively in album form.
Number Four kisses my ring and gets 3.5/5 stars. Definitely worth a listen, and this will hopefully remind the people on the fence that My Chemical Romance is far from a run-of-the-mill pop band.
