My Chemical Romance
TBC
Warner Bros
Spring 2010

What they’re saying
Over the last few months, MCR frontman Gerard Way has had a few words with Rock Sound magazine about how the band plans to follow-up to the almost absurd success of The Black Parade:

“With this record we tried to ignore all the cosmetic nonsense and focus on becoming a truly great rock band. We felt that the world needed a really straight and pure rock band, you’re hard pressed to find a lot of those these days. It was less about the theatricality and more about how we become the greatest young American rock band musically.

“But there will have to be a point where we make the conscious decision to stop. One of my addictive things is that I always think there is another song around the corner, there is always one more song. After we get that song then I think there is one more after that, and another after that, I think if I ever stopped feeling that way we would be in trouble. I’m always chasing that next great song.

“It is pretty safe to say that fans will not only enjoy this new record more than any of our previous albums but I think they will also get a clear picture from it, one that they will like. It is more raw and honest and a better snapshot of the band.”

Watch the video to My Chemical Romance’s cover of ‘Desolation Row’

Thrash Hits verdict
Look at your calender – it’s 2010. The Black Parade was three years ago. When your fanbase is principally made up of teenagers, three years is a fucking aeon. Not to mention the fickle winds of fair-weather fandom – when MCR return in 2010, anything less than a repeat performance of the previous success will be seized upon by their critics as a sign that emo’s poster boys day is over. Even more so than with The Black Parade, the new MCR album is a make-or-break release. There’s every indication that it’ll be the record that either solidifies them in the teenage firmament forever, or the one that relegates them to a 30 second segment on those ‘Who Remembers The Noughties?’ talking-head yawn-off documentaries you see cluttering up the schedules on BBC3.

Recruiting uber-producer Brendan O’Brien could turn out to be the master-stroke, or it could end up exposing MCR’s musical weaknesses – if you can’t produce a great record under the eye of the man who oversaw the creation of Crack The Skye, then it’s because your songs just ain’t good enough. If Frank Iero has exorcised his gutter-punk urges with LeATHERMOUTH, and the rest of the band has finally gotten over their pseudo-Queen pomp-rock obsession, then the record could end up being a depressingly MOR affair. Which would make the suits hoping to capitalise marketable misery pretty happy, we guess.

Look – it’s some photos of MCR in the studio:

[Show as slideshow]