I’ll never quite understand young Gerard Way, the My Chemical Romance emo superstar who recorded the sine qua non, indispensable, greatest moment by a million miles of emo: The Black Parade. I saw MCR perform it at MSG, on the last night of the tour, back in 2007 I think, and it was smashing. It was, actually, unreal and Gerard was a superstar: he was Ziggy meets Billie Joe meets every emo band in the world and it was a surreally moving victory lap for the great Gerard. His parents, hell, his Grandparents were in the audience and he was thanking them and really: it was a coronation, MCR had arrive. They were, for that night certainly, the greatest rock band in the world.
And then nothing.
Well, not nothing. The atrocious, band killing 2010 Danger Days, which four years after The Black Parade, found Gerard baffled and clueless as to how to follow up his masterpiece and so dumbing down to a hi glam glow completely stymied by lousy songs. And then he broke up the band, brought out a greatest hits earlier this year and, apparently enjoying four year breaks, … ta dah –his first solo release, the fuzzed out masterstroke “Action Cat”
Gerard recently said on his website: “I am continuing full-steam into comics, art, and more importantly to some of you- music. I am pleased to let you know I am now signed as a solo artist Warner Bros. Records. My album is near completion, and you should expect to hear things in the near future, even today actually- with a brief snippet of what is to come. I am excited. It’s starting again.”
Well, this is a great start. Maybe we don’t have Gerard the deep thinking mastermind terminal deadhead, but we do have “Action Cats this glorious slab of power pop, a wall of fuzzy guitar, it’s like the the Cure circa “Mint Car” without Smith’s thick voice, –yes, THAT GOOD!!! If the rest of the album can maintain this sugar and spice, Gerard is back on parade again.
Grade: A
