My Chemical Romance takes on new roles for album

If one band from our high school days has survived, it’s probably the My Chemical Romance. But lately, the group doesn’t sound quite the same as it did when we listed it as one of our favorites on MySpace. My Chemical Romance

Danger Days: The True Lives of the

Fabulous Killjoys

Warner Bros. and Reprise Records

Rocks like: All-grown-up emo

Grade: A-

If one band from our high school days has survived, it’s probably the My Chemical Romance. But lately, the group doesn’t sound quite the same as it did when we listed it as one of our favorites on MySpace.

My Chemical Romance’s fourth studio album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys exhibits strong instrumental, vocal and compositional talent belied by its emo roots. It isn’t an easy evolution to pull off, but My Chemical Romance has attacked the challenge with aplomb.

The album kicks off with a brief intro track that segues seamlessly into the first real song, a technique previously employed on the band’s last album The Black Parade to merge the album’s concept and narrative storyline with otherwise standalone tracks.

This latest album chronicles the exploits of a group of outlaws — the “Fabulous Killjoys” — in California in the year 2019 and the group’s fight against the evil corporation Better Living Industries. It is guided on its crusade by Mindless Self Indulgence’s Steven Montano under the alias of pirate radio DJ Dr. Death Defying.

Sound like a comic book? This is not a big surprise considering that front man Gerard Way moonlights as the writer of the Umbrella Academy comic book series, but let’s examine the album’s musical caliber rather than its elaborate backstory.

“Planetary (Go!)” and “SING” stand out as anthems with tremendous riffs, swelling chords and spooky sound effects.

“Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)” — yes, that’s the real song title — contains suspect lyrics bordering on psychobabble, but no stranger or less effective than the fragment-poetry-esque style the band has previously employed to great effect. Even “Shut up and let me see your jazz hands / Remember when you were a madman? / Thought you was Batman” can be more or less redeemed by a jumpy catchy chorus.

“Vampire Money” is the band’s belligerent response to being asked to contribute a song to the “Twilight” film franchise soundtrack  — hint: They declined. Lyrics like “Play the game and take the band real far / Play it right and drive a Volvo car” are less than poetic, but the band’s mockery is entertaining.

The Dr. Death Defying monologue interludes reel toward the bizarre, and most listeners will probably skip past them after an initial exploratory listen.

My Chemical Romance is never quite the same band twice, a concept it has again played up by adapting alter egos: Previously it was The Black Parade, now it is — ambitiously — both the Fabulous Killjoys and The Mad Gear and Missile Kid, whichever role the album’s story requires the group to play .

Is it high art? Maybe not. Is it a far cry better than what one might have expected? Absolutely.