All About Three Cheers
Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge is the second album by New Jersey rock quintet My Chemical Romance. It was released in 2004 and is their first album on Reprise Records.
Overview
Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge is a concept album and continues the story from I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love where two lovers die in a gunfight in a desert. Three Cheers continues the story, detailing the struggle of a man to gain back his life to join the woman he loves. In exchange for his life, he must bring the souls of 1,000 evil men to the devil.
Contrary to rumors, Gerard has stated that they were never killed by vampires, but most fans of MCR speculate this because of the song "Vampires Will Never Hurt You". This song makes reference to social vampires who drain your life force, not actual vampires. Gerard claims this song is the one that "locked in that dark element."
The album starts off with Helena's funeral ("Helena"), and the male makes a pact with the devil, stating that if he can gather 1,000 souls of evil men, he will be with Helena again. He goes off to collect the souls ("Give 'Em Hell, Kid"), and makes it to a wedding party, where he takes the soul of the cheating, and possibly homosexual groom ("He's always looking at men"), and materialistic bride ("To The End"), then the souls of rapists and criminals ("You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison"), and a kid who goes on a shooting rampage at a high school ("I'm Not Okay (I Promise)"). He then starts to feel bad as his conscience gets to him coupled with the loss of his lover ("The Ghost Of You"). He starts feeling sick of what he's doing, and has doubts at whether or not he'll see his lover again ("Thank You For The Venom"). Finally, he pulls himself together, and pushes on no matter what ("Don't stop, if I fall, and don't look back"), even if it means not seeing Helena again ("Hang 'Em High"). The story comes to a close when he has gathered all the souls, and is reunited with Helena, but they are both killed since the male was the last evil man left ("I Never Told You What I Do For A Living").
Frontman Gerard Way has said that while the album started with a plot in mind, about half of the album isn't related to the plot as much as it is drawn from his own experiences with love and loss. In the Life On The Murder Scene DVD, Gerard talks about Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, saying it is mostly about the "fear of losing someone".
Track listing
"Helena" – 3:22
"Give 'Em Hell, Kid" – 2:18
"To the End" – 3:01
"You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison" (featuring Bert McCracken) – 2:53
"I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" – 3:08
"The Ghost of You" (featuring Rinat) – 3:23
"The Jetset Life Is Gonna Kill You" – 3:37
"Interlude" – 0:57
"Thank You for the Venom" – 3:41
"Hang 'Em High" (featuring Keith Morris) – 2:47
"It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Deathwish" (As Found on iTunes) – 3:30
"Cemetery Drive" – 3:08
"I Never Told You What I Do for a Living" – 3:51
"Bury Me in Black" (Japanese Bonus Track) – 2:37
Personnel
Gerard Way - Vocals
Ray Toro - Lead guitar
Frank Iero - Rhythm guitar
Mikey Way - Bass guitar
Matt Pelissier/Bob Bryar - Drums
Trivia
"Hang 'Em High" was named after a Clint Eastwood movie of the same name.
Credits
Craig Aaronson - A&R
Mark Holley - Design assistant
Fernando Diaz
Joe Nicholson - Drum technician
Eric Miller - Engineer
Mike Plontikoff - Engineer
Mike Gardner
Keith Nelson - Guitar technician
Bryan Mansell
Tom Baker - Mastering
Rich Costey - Mixing
Howard Benson - Organ (Hammond), producer
Chris Ozuna
Justin Borucki - Photography
Dana Childs - Production coordination
Matt Griffin - Production coordination
Paul DeCarli - Programming, digital editing, editing
Arturo Rojas
Gerard Way- Vocals
Mikey Way- Bassist
Frank Iero- Rhythm Guitar
Ray Toro- Lead Guitar
Matt Pelissier - Drums
Response and band image
After the release of Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge, My Chemical Romance received an extremely positive response from the mainstream music communities, as shown by the popularity of their music videos on MTV, etc. However, they received a generally negative response from the underground music communities. Factors that may have contributed to this shift in fanbase are hypothesized to include: the band replacing Matt Pelissier with Bob Bryar on percussion; the band signing to a new and major label, Reprise Records; a change in image and style; and the fact that they had gained a measure of mainstream popularity.
It has been implied by the underground fanbase that the band has abandoned their original stylistic roots in favor of a more mainstream sound and style. Critics called their previous album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, post-hardcore; some going as far as to say that the band had created a new genre for itself. Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge has been alternately called pop-punk, and emo by some reviewers, fans, and critics. Notably, My Chemical Romance's image changed right after the video shoot for "Helena" when they decided that they wanted to be a band with a uniform, from a Post-hardcore image to a more emo/pop-punk fashion. Critics note their music video for "The Ghost of You", and the increase in amount of cosmetics that group uses when performing as evidence of this shift.
Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge has sold 1.4 million copies in the U.S. and has been certified platinum by the RIAA.
