The Black Parade
The Black Parade Album ∙ Alternative ∙ 2006 My Chemical Romance The concept behind My Chemical Romance’s third album is simple: A young man on the edge of death passes into the afterlife. They’d done drama before—2004’s Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge , “Helena” especially—but this time they wanted to go big. The Wall big, Queen-in-the-’70s big, Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness big: soundtracks teenagers could pin their hearts on. It’s a tricky proposition: How do you dramatize something so grave without sounding slightly ridiculous? But the New Jersey punk outfit’s sense of humor and presentation serves them well here. Yes, they sing about being “soggy from the chemo” (“Cancer”) and how they deserve to be kicked like stray dogs (“House of Wolves”). But they also say that hell is mostly fine except for the smell (“Mama”) and bring in a horn section to jazz things up (“Dead!”). That death arrives in the form of a parade makes sense: I...