The lead singer of My Chemical Romance has had a storied history with alcohol and womanizing, but if we were going to talk about rock stars struggles with booze and babes we could simply say “Every one of them ever” and head out for lunch. The difference is most artists don’t let that rank over-confidence infect their lyrics, while Gerard Way makes smarmy rock ballads about cancer patients. Like the Nicholas Sparks of pop-rock for 13-year-olds, MCR’s lyrics drip with unearned self-importance. Unable to craft anything artistically nuanced, Way has the arrogance to ham-fistedly use mega-tragedies (cancer, 9/11, death in Iraq are popular ones) to make his point. Also while other celebrities have to change their look and adapt to recent ideas of what is fashionable, Gerard Way is enough of a diva that he apparently looked up the word “Emo” in 2003 and hasn’t changed since.
