It’s one of the most pleasant surprises of 2014, and it’s a nice reminder to never give up on people.
#Gerard way hesitant alien album cover how to#
Way has always had a knack for musical showmanship and an understanding of how to leverage grandiosity in work, but this album has him taking what used to be influences or diversions in My Chemical Romance songs and fleshing them out into fully-formed, passionately-delivered rock (but not emo) songs.Īlbum opener “The Bureau” could pass for Jack White, “No Shows” is a perfectly constructed pop-rock song, “Million” should be hand-delivered to every ‘garage rock band out of Queens’ that boutique record labels love to shop around these days, “Juarez” absolutely shreds, “Get The Gang Together” could have been on Spoon’s new album, and even “Zero Zero” is the harmless anthemic rock song that U2 would have been much better off sticking on every iPhone 6. It’s ambitious, it’s creative, and it delivers. I’ve listened to it a few times now and it’s true. Gerard Way’s new solo album, Hesitant Alien, is really good. And while he could have blamelessly kept those brands intertwined a bit as he moved on into his new solo career, it appears he has a different narrative in mind, thus bringing me to the reason why I have spent the first hundred words of this week’s column talking about emo music sort of popular 10 years ago…
My Chemical Romance, like most romances that began in 2001, has ended. Until now…īecause Gerard Way isn’t My Chemical Romance anymore. Even when he dyed his hair blonde and went all militant and even during My Chemical Romance’s bright festive Dark Days curtain call, that was true. By the transitive property, we can conclude Gerard Way is emo. Gerard Way is My Chemical Romance and My Chemical Romance is emo. – Taking Back Sunday/ Brand New/ New Found Glory/ Motion City Soundtrack: some of the more talented bands in the genre, but they’re basically stuck in a time capsule.Īnd last but most assuredly not least, My Chemical Romance.Īt a time when Hot Topic was rivaling Abercrombie and Fitch in terms of sales revenue and it was conformist to non-conform, Gerard Way, the camera-loved frontman of My Chemical Romance had gone from a comic book-loving pudgy nerd into a cult leader whose albums were gospel to an entire genre. – Blink 182: The “veterans” who hate each other but still tour arenas (side note: who would have thought Blink 182 would be our generations’ Rolling Stones?). Exclamation point or not, they’re still ca$hing them checks. – Panic At The Disco: They turned one album that was better than Fall Out Boy into a 10-year long career. – Fall Out Boy: They are somehow still pop stars.
Second-wave emo, which is what a majority of the population thinks of when they think of the term of “emo” (if they think of anything at all), was won by a handful of artists: – follow me on Twitter so I can charge more when doing freelancing gigs/you can learn about hot new tunes in real time – follow the Tunes You Should Know In 2014 playlist on Spotify that chronicles all the songs I’ve written about this year so far You can send all hatemail to and tweet vitriol at him follow him of words and music this week, so let’s just knock out the shameless self-promotion quick: Bryce Rudow is a freelance political/pop-culture journalist and he likes music.
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