Line #43 Music/TheBlackParade


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/11408531.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''"When I grow up, I want to be '''nothing at all!'''"'']]
3	->''When I was a young boy\
4	My father took me into the city\
5	To see a marching band\
6	He said, "Son, when you grow up\
7	Would you be the savior of the broken,\
8	The beaten and the damned?"\
9	He said, "Will you defeat them,\
10	Your demons and all the non-believers,\
11	The plans that they have made?\
12	Because one day, I'll leave you\
13	A phantom to lead you in the summer\
14	To join the Black Parade."''
15	-->-- "Welcome to the Black Parade"
16
17	''The Black Parade'' is the third studio album by AlternativeRock band Music/MyChemicalRomance, released on October 23, 2006 by Creator/RepriseRecords. A RockOpera[=/=]ConceptAlbum, it tells the story of a terminally ill cancer patient (known simply as "The Patient") and the final thoughts and visions that go through his head as he lies dying in a hospital.
18
19	When death arrives for the Patient, it appears to him as a parade, recalling the fondest memory he has of his past (outlined in the lyrics of the page quote). This was based on an idea that singer Gerard Way had at the time of the album's production that death came to a person in the form of their fondest memory, and a parade was chosen as it could be used for both funerals and celebrations. The concept was also extended into the album's visuals through the creation of the alter-ego band The Black Parade, which the band performed as when playing the album live.
20
21	With a grandiose epic sound influenced by {{Emo\|Music}}, ProgressiveRock, PopPunk, PostHardcore, and GlamRock, ''The Black Parade'' gained the attention of a larger audience than the band's earlier releases and was featured in several lists of the best albums of 2006 as well as the 2000s.
22
23	Preceded by ''Music/ThreeCheersForSweetRevenge''. Followed by ''Music/DangerDaysTheTrueLivesOfTheFabulousKilljoys''.
24	----
25	!! Tracklist:
26	# "The End." (1:52)
27	# "Dead!" (3:15)
28	# "This Is How I Disappear" (3:59)
29	# "The Sharpest Lives" (3:20)
30	# "Welcome to the Black Parade" (5:11)
31	# "I Don't Love You" (3:58)
32	# "House of Wolves" (3:04)
33	# "Cancer" (2:22)
34	# "Mama" (4:39)
35	# "Sleep" (4:43)
36	# "Teenagers" (2:41)
37	# "Disenchanted" (4:55)
38	# "Famous Last Words" (4:59)
39	# "[[HiddenTrack Blood]]" (2:53)
40
41	!! Musicians:
42	[[AC:My Chemical Romance]]
43	* Gerard Way - Lead vocals
44	* Ray Toro - Lead guitar, backing vocals
45	* Frank Iero - Rhythm guitar, backing vocals
46	* Mikey Way - Bass
47	* Bob Bryar - Drums
48
49	[[AC:Additional Musicians]]
50	* Jamie Muhoberac - Keyboards
51	* Creator/LizaMinnelli - Additional vocals on "Mama"
52	* Rob Cavallo - Piano
53	* David Campbell - String and horn arrangements
54
55	----
56	!! ''House of Tropes'':
57	* AlbumClosure: The last official track is called "Famous Last Words," referencing the DyingSpeech trope. And then there's the HiddenTrack, a baroque radical departure from the rest of the album's sound.
58	* AmbiguousEnding: There's two endings to the album due to the music video and studio version of "Famous Last Words": The album version of the song (that ends with a subtle orchestra outro) implies the Patient goes off to Heaven while the music video version (with the usual rock ending) is him going to Hell.
59	* ApocalypseMaiden: Mother War, a character who appears in the "Welcome to the Black Parade" video and represents the self-destruction of humanity.
60	* AutoTune: Subtly used in "Cancer".
61	* BreakupSong: "I Don't Love You"
62	* CarefulWithThatAxe: ''"Just '''''SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!'''''"''
63	* {{Chiaroscuro}}: Pretty much the entire aesthetic of this record. Taken up to eleven in the music video for "Famous Last Words."
64	* ConceptAlbum: See the description above, but the context is the same: A man known as the Patient is dying from cancer and when Death comes for him, it takes the form of his fondest memory: a parade.
65	* CrapsackWorld: The afterlife, as portrayed here, isn't very pretty. Neither is the world the Patient has left behind.
66	* CueCardPause: Created by a line break in "The Sharpest Lives":
67	-->So why don't you blow me . . .\
68	A kiss before she goes?
69	* DarkAndTroubledPast: Several songs imply that the Patient was a soldier, and is still haunted by it.
70	* DarkerAndEdgier: While My Chemical Romance had already written some dark songs, this was arguably their darkest album, with themes of war, death, and heavy {{angst}}.
71	* DeadlyEuphemism: To "join the Black Parade".
72	* DemBones: The little fellow on the album cover, and some skeletal musicians who are a part of the parade.
73	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The WTTBP music video set looks very eerily like Ground Zero.
74	* DyingDream: Focuses on The Patient's dreams and memories as he dies.
75	* TheEnd: The title of the [[InvertedTrope opening track]].
76	* EpicRocking: "Welcome to the Black Parade", which stretches to 5:11 and [[SongStyleShift switches styles]] about three times.
77	* GoodTimesMontage: "Disenchanted" plays like a musical one, with the lyrics at several points having the feel of memories revisited, remembering the better times in his life as he comes to terms with the bad parts.
78	* GothicPunk: Plays as some kind of {{emo}}, [[Creator/TimBurton Burton]]-esque 1970s rock opera.
79	** The Patient fits Gothic tropes by being a [[ClassicalAntihero flawed hero]] who recognizes his horrible faults on death's door and is thus unable to make peace with his former lover and his mother. In "Disenchanted", he ultimately makes peace with himself and dies in a penitent state, in the grand tradition of the tragic hero.
80	* HiddenTrack: "Blood" begins after a minute and a half of silence.
81	* IrisOut: The music video for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRKJiM9Njr8 Welcome to the Black Parade]]" has a rather persistent one, which keeps on trying to end the video.
82	* KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: "No one ever had much nice to say / I think they never liked you anyway"--not a pleasant line to hear when you've just kicked the bucket.
83	* LargeHam: This album isn't so much "over the top" as it is "not on the planet any more"--and [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools deliciously so]].
84	** Gerard Way's performances, both vocally and in the videos. Not even a minute and a half into the album, he seems to plunge into some sort of emo-boy seizure with "When I grow up, I want to be '''''NOTHING AT ALL!'''''"
85	* LastNoteNightmare: "Sleep" ends with a rapid succession of long, tortured, raspy screams that only increase in volume and anguish as the guitars screech, and boy does it add to the creepiness of it all.
86	* LyricalColdOpen: "Teenagers" and "Famous Last Words".
87	* LyricalDissonance:
88	** "Dead!", whose main chorus line is "Have you heard the news that you're dead?" set to incredibly upbeat, almost jaunty music.
89	** "Mama" is a bouncy, baroque piece with a simple tune . . . about how WarIsHell and everyone the singer knows is about to die.
90	** This pattern is inverted at the end of "Famous Last Words", which goes out on a surprisingly hopeful note.
91	** The lyrically gruesome "Blood" is a fun little vaudeville-esque track that's almost impossible not to sing along to (with Gerard hamming it up as usual).
92	* MadeOfExplodium: Apparently every instrument and amp in the "I Don't Love You" music video.
93	* {{Mesodiplosis}}: In "House of Wolves", it's split as sentences instead of just comma-separation: "You better" {{Anaphora}} and "the [noun] 'cause they're never gonna [other noun]" Mesodiplosis:
94	-->"You better run like the devil, 'cause they're never gonna leave you alone\
95	You better hide up in the alley, 'cause they're never gonna find you a home"
96	* MoodWhiplash: The intense, thrashy "House of Wolves" is followed by [[TearJerker "Cancer"]], which is followed by the frankly bizarre "Mama".
97	* NewSoundAlbum: Although MCR's PostHardcore roots are still present in some songs ("Disappear", "The Sharpest Lives", "House of Wolves"), the album as a whole has a more pronounced theatrical feel than the first two albums (most notably on "Welcome" and "Mama"), with its imagery giving it the feel of a Creator/TimBurton musical.
98	* NoNameGiven: The Patient.
99	* PostApocalypticGasMask: Specifically in the music video for ''Welcome To The Black Parade''. [[ApocalypseMaiden Mother War]] is also depicted in a Victorian-esque dress and a gasmask.
100	* PowerBallad: "I Don't Love You", "Cancer", "Sleep", and "Disenchanted". The former two probably helped solidify My Chemical Romance as the face of emo.
101	* PowerPop: The genre of "Dead!", as an homage to Music/CheapTrick, Music/ElectricLightOrchestra, and Music/TheCars.
102	* ProductionThrowback: "House of Wolves" is a nostalgic return to their old sound circa ''Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge''.
103	* ProgressiveRock: A big influence on the album, along with GlamRock.
104	* RockOpera: The album tells the story of an unnamed dying cancer patient and his experiences in the afterlife as he encounters various spirits and memories.
105	* ShoutOut:
106	** "The End." = [[Music/TheWall "In the Flesh?"]]/[[Music/TheRiseAndFallOfZiggyStardustAndTheSpidersFromMars "Five Years"]].
107	** [[Music/TheBeatles A band dons a new persona, dresses like a marching band, makes an album that is both largely different from their earlier works and a twist on the genres the album is labeled as...]] [[https://web.archive.org/web/20090318052312/http://www.blender.com/guide/reviews.aspx?ID=4243 This review]] of the album didn't call it the "''[[Music/SgtPeppersLonelyHeartsClubBand Sgt. Pepper]]'' of screamo" for nothing.
108	* SiameseTwinSongs: "The End" {{smash cut}}s right into "Dead!".
109	* TallPoppySyndrome: MCR was criticized for attempting to rise above their station with this album, as it was apparently ''too good''.
110	* TeenHater: The song "Teenagers" features the chorus about how "all teenagers scare the livin' shit out of" the singer, and is about negative stereotypes of teenagers in general, based on the singer's negative high school experience and how he was judged by adults during his teens.
111	* TeensAreMonsters: "Teenagers" plays this sarcastically (while the verses make it clear that ''adults'' are the real monsters).
112	-->They could care less\
113	As long as someone'll bleed
114	* TitleTrack: "Welcome to '''the Black Parade'''".
115	* WarIsHell: "Mama", a darkly hyper-operatic track that deals with the horrors of war.
116	-->Well mother, what the war did to my legs and to my tongue\
117	You should've raised a baby girl, I should've been a better son\
118	If you could coddle the infection, they can amputate at once\
119	You should've been, I could have been a better son
120	* YourDaysAreNumbered:
121	** The second track states that the Patient has "maybe just two weeks to live".
122	** In "Mama", it's stated "raise your glass high, for tomorrow we die".
123	* YouWontFeelAThing: "Disenchanted":
124	-->It was a lie when they smiled and said you won't feel a thing

Context Music / TheBlackParade