Music review: The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance
The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance is the album of the decade. No other album is even close for me. Gerard Way and the rest of MCR have taken many of my favorite bands, songs, styles, and elements of rock from over the past 40 years and combined them all into The Black Parade. They have made Pink Floyd’s The Wall for the 21st century. From the opening song “The End” echoing The Wall’s “In The Flesh”, to lines in “Mama” sounding straight out of the “The Trial”, to the concept of the album about a man on his deathbed reflecting upon his life, the influence of The Wall is obvious. Mix in the musical styles of Green Day, Smashing Pumpkins, and a little bit of Queen and you get The Black Parade.
As is the nature of most concept albums, The Black Parade is one of those albums that demands to be listened to from start to finish, rather than picking out a few singles to listen to. Having said that, the song “Welcome to the Black Parade” stands out as such a great track that it deserves its own commentary (which I have previously written).
What separates albums such as The Wall or The Black Parade is the raw emotion that pours through the music. Most of the music that Roger Waters wrote between 1977 and 1992 (either solo or with Pink Floyd) resonates with such a range of emotions that I can’t help but be moved by it. The Black Parade succeeds in capturing that emotion in such a way that no other album has since 1992’s Amused To Death by Roger Waters.
So if The Black Parade is the album of the decade, why only give it a 9.5 rating instead of a 10? The only minor point I can make with The Black Parade is that it never seems to step out of the shadow of its influences. While all music is influenced by what has come before it, most times when listening to music I hear its influences during the first couple of listens. After listening to music more than one or two times, the best music becomes something all its own and you forget that the riff from “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is straight from “More Than a Feeling” by Boston. Even after repeated listens, I can’t help but think that Brian May himself from Queen is playing a guitar part in “Welcome to the Black Parade” or that the way the lyrics “You should have raised a baby girl/I should have been a better son” from “Mama” are sung sound like they were lifted straight from “The Trial” on The Wall. But the truth is that this quibble doesn’t distract from The Black Parade being a truly great album – the album of the decade.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10.
Smoltz, Maddux, Glavine and the Hall of Fame
The baseball historian in me would have liked to have seen John Smoltz, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine all enter the Hall of Fame together in the same class. This would most likely have been the case if Smoltz hadn’t attempted to give it one more try when he pitched for the Red Sox this year. Maddux retired last year, Glavine was released before he ever pitched an inning this year, so both are eligible to be inducted in 2014. Now Smoltz has to wait another year, assuming he doesn’t pitch again next year.
Maybe some baseball writers will not vote for Maddux and Glavine on the first ballot with the intent to vote for them on the second ballot along with Smoltz.
Stock Market Prediction
We’ve seen the stock market hit its high for the year already. I’m predicting that last week’s 9,424 on August 12 will be the high for all of 2009.
Music review: Weasels Ripped My Flesh by Frank Zappa
Weasels Ripped My Flesh is a highly inconsistent album where the avant-garde experimental moments distract from the music. The album really only has about 15 minutes of actual music on it, whereas the rest is just noise. The first minute each of “Toads of the Short Forest” and “Dwarf Nebula Processional March and Dwarf Nebula” contains some nice tunes that are fun to listen to, but aside from a Little Richard cover of “Directly From My Heart to You,” the music really doesn’t start until “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mamma” which is the standout single on the album with its Hendrix-like riff.
“Oh No” and “The Orange County Lumber Truck” are Zappa classics that he would use throughout his career in various forms and concerts, and are worth hearing in what could be considered their definitive versions on this album. But the fact remains that the last three aforementioned songs are really the only ones worth listening to on Weasels Ripped My Flesh.
Rating: 5.5 out of 10.
Motorhead is overrated
The band Motorhead gets a lot of credit these days as being pioneers of heavy metal. The band is regularly sited as influencing many of the most popular metal bands of the past 25 years. But for me, Motorhead is overrated.
Yes, Lemmy is cool. He’s an uncompromising personality who’s still going strong after 30 plus years. He’d be a great guy to have a few beers and hang out with. But if you put aside the fact that Lemmy is cool, the music of Motorhead just doesn’t hold up. Granted, they’ve released tons of albums and I haven’t heard all of the stuff they’ve done in the last 20 years, but their legacy and influence was made longer than 20 years ago (which is the music of theirs that I have heard).
Other than the fact that Lemmy is cool, nothing I’ve heard convinces me that Motorhead is anything other than overrated.
