My Chemical Romance
The Black Parade

Reprise

My Chemical Romance’s mascara-wearing rockers may have disowned their “emo” tag, which is too bad since this is the first album in that nebulous genre to match its melodramatic aspirations.
But whatevs — the important thing is that after touring with Green Day, MCR stepped up their game, hired American Idiot’s producer and crafted a pop-rock classic that maries the stadium-sized sound of fellow New Jersey outfit Bon Jovi, the operatic attitude of Queen, the artiness of Smashing Pumpkins, the fire of White Stripes and plenty of their own theatrical doom-and-gloom.
The marching band bombast of the title track — one of the year’s strongest singles — is brazenly populist and so is the rest of this anthem-stuff album. And why not? After all, everyone loves a Parade.