In October of 2006, my family were on holiday in America. I was 12. One evening we drove to a mall and headed into a music store. I saw a wall of headphones. Below each pair, the album art and tracklisting of whichever CD was playing. I saw one with a skeleton marching on the cover and put the headphones on. I didn’t move again. I didn’t listen to any other music. I stood and listened through The Black Parade.
My Chemical Romance left a permanent impact. I was just the right age to do it all – guyliner to gigs, dressed in black, fringe covering one eye. MCR albums and gigs defined my teenage years, and to this day they’re one of my favourite bands. So when the teaser for something coming out in September was released, and suddenly MCR had a new ‘MCRX’ logo, my ears perked. The Black Parade/Living With Ghosts is a reissue of the seminal album, bundled with 11 previously unreleased demos.
The first thing to note is that, for some reason, the three excellent B-Sides from the original album aren’t here. My Way Home is Through You, Kill All Your Friends and Heaven Help Us were each released alongside the original singles, as well as part of the original album deluxe edition. They each, to me at least, clearly belong on the album, and their absence is confusing – especially considering that 3 of the ‘new’ tracks are demos of these tracks. For listeners who may be unaware of them, it seems an unusual choice to give them the demos but not let them know these tracks exist as fully fleshed and final songs.
A handful of these demos are as raw as they come, offering a glimpse ‘behind the curtain’, so to speak. As MCR’s albums were always (post Bullets) such complete, theatrical bundles, it can be almost jarring to remember these were, at some point, unfinished and under construction. Some fans are turned off by how early these takes are, but as a Nirvana obsessive, I’m used to gleaming enjoyment from home tapes and early edits. Sure, these demos may not be your go-to tracks in future, but they’re not supposed to be. Think of them as reminders that all art takes work – refinement, commitment, retries.
The most striking of these demos comes in the form of The Five of Us Are Dying, perhaps the ‘holy grail’ of MCR demos – hinted at over the years, it’s an early version of their most iconic song, Welcome to the Black Parade. The anthem that would become the mouthpiece of the emo revolution isn’t done baking here – its Three Cheers era roots shine through clearly, a more immediate cry to the vocals, more harsh and unprocessed sound to the guitars. It is, arguably, as good a song, albeit an entirely different beast.
The other highlights of the ‘new’ tracks are undoubtedly Emily and All the Angels, the former reminding us how dark MCR could get, a melancholic and somber song, while the latter reminds us how well Gerard Way knows a vocal hook. These two tracks, alongside The Five of us Are Dying, justify the existence of Living with Ghosts – happily nudging themselves into the larger MCR discography and feeling immediately at home.
The original album is here, complete with the now pointless minute or so of silence before ‘Blood’, originally a hidden track on the CD whose secret is out in the digital era. The original album – for better or worse – hasn’t been tweaked, edited or remastered. It is The Black Parade as you knew it then.
To be honest, I wanted more. I’ve taken to tweaking the album, so that mine is a three disc super deluxe, with the original B-Sides inserted at the end of The Black Parade, and the live (and final performance of the album), The Black Parade is Dead! Inserted at the end. It offers, in my opinion, a more comprehensive and complete listening experience, for what is, without a doubt, one of the most important albums of my lifetime.
There isn’t that much new here for die-hard fans, but those same fans would be remiss to let this pass them by. I’d say this album offers an opportunity to older fans, who may not have given the album a listen so recently, to give it another spin and take it in from a new light. It is true that 12 year old me and 22 year old me are very different people, but this album still speaks to me in a way few others do. For people who never listened, it’s never been too late to join the Black Parade.
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