bands going downhill
I was listening to a song by My Chemical Romance called Kill All Your Friends*, a b-side to the album The Black Parade, and after that I listened to a song called It’s Not A Fashion Statement, It’s A Death Wish**, also by MCR, but on the previous album 3 Cheers for Sweet Revenge. I noticed that the older song, Death Wish, sounded so much better. And if you take the time, it isn’t just these two songs. In general, the two albums before The Black Parade, which are I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love and the previously mentioned 3 Cheers for Sweet Revenge are so much better.
It isn’t just My Chemical Romance- going by my opinion and not the number of sales or chart positions, Fall Out Boy’s first 2 albums, Take This to Your Grave and From Under the Cork Tree are, over all, soooo much better than Infinity on High.
One of the reasons I think this happens is because the first album of both of my examples went virtually unnoticed (until they were re-released after the band’s introduction to mainstream success), and the second and third skyrocketed and sold more sales in one week than the first one had overall (true for My Chem- Bullets sold about 30,000 originally and Revenge sold that much in a couple of weeks). I can understand that with mainstream success and being seen on MTV and Fuse everyday, you can be pressured to keep that success.
Maybe another reason is the fact that they are people (each of these bands write their own songs, by the way) and with being a person comes change.
Another possibility is lineup change; though Fall Out Boy hasn’t had one to date. My Chemical Romance, however, switched drummers for The Black Parade. This probably isn’t one, though, because Evanescence has had so many switches in personnel it would be nightmarish to try and count them all, and their most recent album, The Open Door, is a whole lot better (in my humble opinion) than Fallen.
It is really dissappointing to see a band you love so much just crash like that. Having that in mind, don’t get me wrong: The Black Parade, Infinity on High, and Fallen remain some of my favorite albums, they’re just not the best from the artist.
* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NImEpmYUmH4
** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J3_7CYhUuQ
Does this mean you’ll stop playing these CDs in my car?
MWHAHAHA NEVER!!!!
and just so you know, the Fall Out boy CD we listen to, “From Under the Cork Tree”, is the old one. The one we listened to on the way to the concert, “Infinity on High”, is the new one.
MCR didn’t switch drummers for The Black Parade, the switch was made during Revenge. Not sure whether I think the first two albums are better, but they are different. I think the band evolves so much with every album and every song that there will always be a big fluctuation as to their sound and lyrical content. One of their best qualities as a band is their ability to evolve… and ironically I thought Kill All Your Friends was much closer to what fans are used to hearing from Bullets and Revenge than the rest of the songs from TBP. I also think after their break their next album released may sound more like Revenge, TBP was more of a one time experience that came from more of a theatrical desire.
They are maturing and evolving musically, and I think each album has it’s own positives and negatives. It will be really interesting to see which direction they take the next album. The new song Stay they have been performing is much more like a Revenge type song.
As for FOB, I agree. I think Cork Tree was soooo much better than Infinity. I only liked 3 songs off of Infinity!
The drummer switch was made in the middle of tour for Revenge in Japan in ‘04, right? Sorry if I got it wrong in the article! =)
I totally agree with what you’ve mentioned in your post.
I miss the old days of My Chemical Romance when they had their Three Cheer songs. I don’t really like The Black Parade. It’s sound is too… gothic pop? I’m not sure on how to explain it but I think it’s just way too fictionally dark and it lacks a harder edge.
And to be totally honest, I hate Teenagers. It’s chorus is too repetitive and it gets annoying fast. The only songs I really like on The Black Parade are Disenchanted and Welcome To The Black Parade. (Even though I don’t really like the beginning of Welcome to the Black Parade.)
I really miss the old MCR.
^^ I agree. The new sound is too much concept, not enough MCR.
but we agree that Folie a deux was clearly the best, right?
Of course we do! Definitely the best. It even beats Take This To Your Grave.