Album Anniversaries: 10 Years of Confronting Conformity With My Chemical Romance's 'Danger Days'
Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys still exudes MCR's rock and roll authenticity with a glam punk twist a decade after its release.
In Album Anniversaries, writers honor their favorite aging albums and their subsequent legacies, revealing which projects have stood the test of time.
Written by Kriss Conklin
Photo courtesy of NME
In 2010, American rock band My Chemical Romance released Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, a sci-fantasy concept album about rebelling against society's expectations. After the grinding success of their previous work, The Black Parade, MCR wanted to avoid fading into the mainstream they watched other rock bands enter. With the help of Parade producer Rob Cavallo, MCR refused to succumb to the modern rock culture of "corporate cleanup” with Danger Days, foreshadowing how the band would age in the industry. In an interview with Warner Music Germany, frontman Gerard Way said the rebellious elements of the album stem from the members of My Chemical Romance defying the pressure to get neat haircuts and "look respectable" in their 30s.
Although the record was monumental in defining MCR’s anti-emo sound, the band stayed true to its rock and roll roots by combining New Jersey punk with the glam and psychedelic influences of the '60s, '70s, and '80s. MCR trades the doom and gloom of earlier albums for dusty leathers, shiny ray guns, and genre experimentation while preserving its high-concept streak to give way to the colorful, glam punk soundtrack of four outcasts trying to survive in the California deserts of dystopian America in 2019.
Danger Days doesn't have a cohesive storyline — instead, each song serves as a technicolor snapshot of the record's overarching goal to stray from MCR's signature rock opera sound that brought the band into the spotlight. The album is narrated by a pirate radio DJ named Dr. Death Defying, whose obscure transmissions immerse listeners into the post-apocalyptic world of My Chemical Romance's California 2019.
Fueled by punk aggression and glam flare, opening track "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)" is a straightforward, fast-paced introduction to MCRs post-apocalyptic future. Backed by revving guitars and the "na na na"‘s of a shrill chorus, this track sets the stage for the wild ride listeners are about to embark upon. On par with Danger Days' anti-industry theme, "Na Na Na”'s lyrics perfectly frame the band's do-or-die attitude toward rock and roll ("Make no apology / It's death or victory / On my authority / Crash and burn, young and loaded"). The music video is just as explosive. Behind colorful, sepia-filtered visuals, the band's glamorous alter egos, the 'Killjoys,' blow shit up in the desert and fight off the conformist henchmen of a corporation called Better Living Industries.
After tracing back to its punk roots, My Chemical Romance's experimentation with '80s synth-pop appears on "Bulletproof Heart," a runaway daydream filled with sparkling synthesizers and punchy electric guitar riffs. Way belts the opening verse with gusto, detailing how nothing will hold the band back from reinventing themselves musically: "Gravity don't mean too much to me / I'm who I've got to be"). During the bridge, whistling synths and wailing guitars bleed together in perfect disarray to highlight MCR’s transition from theatrical to experimental rock.
In the album's defining track, "SING," the signature dueling riffs of guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero are nearly nonexistent. Instead, Way's hopeful vocals and the steady rhythm of a drum-tambourine combo lead the song in its lyrical crusade against industry conformity. Most of the verses and chorus are static-y echoes of a call to action for listeners to stick to their guns and stand up for what they believe in, but "SING"'s obscure lyrics in the bridge are what drive its point home:
Nothing! Nothing but a dead scene, product of a
White dream, I am not the singer that you wanted, but a
Dancer, I refuse to answer, talk about the
Past, sir, wrote it for the ones who want to get away
Keep running!
Although the bridge comes across as cryptic rambling on first listen, it's yet another metaphorical rejection of the 'rock star to rock dad' pipeline. With a bluesy vocal twang, Way finalizes the band's non-conformist legacy once more by imploring listeners to do the same by singing for the world and "(being) what tomorrow needs" before the track fades to distorted static and faint piano notes.
Photo courtesy of Planet Radio
Up next, the adrenaline-filled compositions of "Planetary (GO!)" and "Party Poison" complement Danger Days' bright sound, but remain the outliers of the My Chemical Romance discography — in the best way possible. In "Planetary," Gerard Way's brother and My Chemical Romance bassist, Mikey Way, trades the sixteenth note staples of rock for the upbeat octave chords of disco. With help from the fuzziest of pedals, the "Planetary" bassline gives the song a racing heartbeat as Mikey's bass notes pulse against the mechanical sounds of Toro's and Iero's guitars.
Taking the previous track's high-energy feel to exponential levels, "Party Poison" opens with crashing cymbals, face-shredding guitar riffs, and a woman speaking frantically in Japanese. In an interview with NME, Gerard called the track an "anti-party song that you can party to." During the final chorus, he taunts, "This ain't a party / Get off the dance floor / You want to get down / Here comes the encore," before the guitars swell to thrashing levels and make the listener want to bounce off the walls. Although the rock genre rarely spits out party bangers, "Party Poison" serves as MCR's dazzling club anthem for abandoning the rigid structure of the industry in favor of colorful, genre-defying experimentation.
Image courtesy of Reprise Records
My Chemical Romance's final act of experimentation on Danger Days lies in the fuzzy, nostalgic melodies of "The Kids From Yesterday." Accompanied by harmonizing "ooh’s", a looping four-note bassline, and yet another synthesizer, the track demonstrates the band's slow acceptance of their growth and maturity since their days of literally touring in a van. The bittersweet reality of growing up is celebrated in the chorus, a prose-like immortalization of My Chemical Romance making peace with their aging selves:
And you only live forever in the lights you make
When we were young, we used to say
That you only hear the music when your heart begins to break
Now we are the kids from yesterday
In true My Chemical Romance fashion, Danger Days closes with the punk end credit, "Vampire Money," a song about refusing to do what you're told and, you guessed it, vampires. Backed by a snappy drum beat, a wicked piano, and blaring guitar riffs, "Vampire Money" peels away the layers of the album's experimental, dystopian daydream and brings listeners back to reality with references of Edward Cullen's Volvo, David Bowie's sparkle, and Los Angeles' infamous parking tickets. The track serves as a defiant reminder that the members of My Chem won't change who they are, not even for all the money the "Twilight" soundtrack is worth; and at the end of the day, they're "just the four guys in the band" — a fitting conclusion to an album about rejecting conformity and embracing authenticity.
Since the release of Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, the record was transformed into a comic series, My Chemical Romance broke up, and the individual members went solo. The final albums of bands who break up are often considered their poetic downfalls, but for My Chemical Romance, Danger Days was the dawning of a new era. Back then, the glam punk record served as a time capsule for My Chemical Romance's gutsy departure from their past works and reputation. Ten years later, the album holds a different significance: a glimpse into the future.
After various solo projects and the universal notion that MCR was gone for good, the band returned to the music scene last year and performed in a tiny California venue. (California 2019 ring a bell?) With My Chemical Romance reunited, the free-form spirit of Danger Days lives on. The album showcases the best of rock and roll by blurring genre lines and shattering modern industry standards. In its essence, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys is a love letter to making music and a middle finger to anyone who tells you what to do. This was the record where MCR made clear their sound is a delicate art that nobody can control, and if anybody's calling the shots, it's definitely not the guy in the sound booth.