My Chemical Romance – I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love
welcome folks! this week we’re kicking off a brand new discography – we’re gonna be looking at New Jersey based outfit My Chemical Romance, which consists of Gerard Way on vocals, Ray Toro on lead guitar with Frank Iero on rhythm, and Mikey Way on bass. they’ve had a few different drummers – Matt Pelissier provided percussion for the first two records, and Bob Bryer was their drummer until their first breakup, with James Dewees taking over on their return. the first record here is I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, released in 2002. let’s dig in!
Romance is a cover of an instrumental piece that was featured in Dawn of the Dead, which is neat. Honey, This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough for the Two of Us i feel is the strongest in the bits leading into the chorus. Way’s vocals here occasionally don’t quite land for me, but it’s def neat, esp since this was their first single. i’m not huge on the vocals for Vampires Will Never Hurt You – got some excellent drumming on this one though. i like that they let it be so pronounced in the mix, haha. i feel really mixed on this one, as it’s the exact level of like, dramatic that could really work here but it just doesn’t land for me. Drowning Lessons is aight too. there’s a kind of bright drive to this that i remember being very popular in this kinda music at the time, but unfortunately that just causes my brain to interpret it as generic. Our Lady of Sorrows has a real fun vibe to it. i feel like this is one i could come around to really easily. damn the intro to Headfirst for Halos really kicks ass, right before jumping into the pop-punky vibe. def my fave of the tracks here sonically, as grim as it is contextually, haha. Skylines and Turnstiles is apparently the first studio track of the band’s, and one of Way’s first tracks, inspired by 9/11. p solid. Early Sunsets Over Monroeville is a slower, quieter track, and you gotta love a tragic romance song in a zombie apocalypse – plus the outro to this one works really well, i think. i feel just fine about This Is the Best Day Ever. i think Cubicles is one where the song feels… a bit incomplete. i really like the idea of this one though, and it def comes around musically by the end of the track. Demolition Lovers closes the record, and as i understand it is a bit of a prequel to the next record. v solid closer, esp after the fake closer.
faves – Headfirst for Halos
dislikes –
yeah this was fine. there’s a lot of fun energy bleeding through here, and i appreciate the thematic throughline of “stories of doomed romances” (they don’t open with Romance just because of their name, lol), but there’s a lot here that’s just not my taste, or feels kinda juvenile in development. nothing here’s bad but a lot of it just ain’t really working for me. this is the type of first record i’m always keen to go back to after i’ve heard the rest of the work by the band to see how that re-contextualization changes my feelings on the band, and i think this is another record where hearing it in context to the music that was coming out around it would also have changed my opinions (especially given that it’s responding to current events on tracks like Skylines and Turnstiles).
I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love – 5/10
this is the beginning | next: Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
all my reviews for My Chemical Romance
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