My Ambivalent Romance

It seems that the marketing machine is in hight gear for My Chemical Romance, a band I’d never heard of until last week because I don’t listen to radio, and…well, because I’m getting old and just not down with the kids anymore. MCR were the live act on Saturday Night Live a week ago, and yesterday I saw them plastered all over iTunes. The thing is, I kinda liked the SNL performances. In a day and age when we usually fast-forward though the musical live acts (except for the occasional inspired performance, like Beck this weekend), I took the time to listen to both MCR songs. They seemed a bit too concerned with their image (what were those outfits and the hairdo about?), but still, they were a good live act and made me listen. Fallout Boy didn’t manage that, and the much touted Killers certainly didn’t manage to do that (just to pull two examples out of my hat).

Being the good consumer whore that I am, I bought the MCR album on iTunes yesterday (after some complications, documented a few posts below). First impressions are mixed. It’s good, solid punk rock, but the only song that stands out in any memorable way is Welcome To The Black Parade. Which, coincidently enough, is also the SNL performace that I remembered. The rest kinda goes through the motions. As I said: good, solid punk rock. But not inspired in any way. Maybe the other tracks will grow on me after a few more listening sessions. If not the album will go into the depths of the iPod shuffle to randomly reappear every few weeks as a pleasant, but forgettable reminder. Like Finger Eleven a couple years ago. Back when I still listened to radio…