Hesitant Alien – Gerard Way

Year Released: 2014

Label: Reprise, Warner Bros

Year Bought: 2014

When frontmen/women make solo albums, there's always a question of whether the final product could have just been an album by their main band, or does it stand up in its own right?

My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way released Hesitant Alien in 2014, a year after his band split up (and five years before they got back together). One of the leaders of the mid-00s emo scene, MCR hit it big with The Black Parade, a rock-opera album that channelled Meat Loaf, Queen, and Bruce Springsteen.

Way was always an ambitious front man, and the former comic book artist was open about his love of British music - be it Bowie, Britpop, or shoegaze - long before he made this album.

Those influences are splashed around Hesitant Alien, alongside the expected overwrought stylings so associated with MCR.

The album kicks of with 'The Bureau', which has a real Berlin Bowie vibe. It's more interesting than many would expect, but it's not long before Way slips into 'could have been a My Chemical Romance song' territory with 'Action Cat'. 'No Shows' is in a similar ballpark, with palm-muted power chords delivering some expected pop punk.

'Brother' sees Way in familiar, mid-tempo, anthemic territory, with a piano intro that could have come straight from 'The Black Parade' and lyrics that are suitably earnest: 'Cuz the nights don't last, and we leave alone, will you drive me back? can you take me home?'

The album's most interesting moments come when Way pushes himself away from previous roads and takes the ones less travelled.

'Drugstore Perfume' nicks a Jesus and Mary Chain intro and marries it to a Suede lyric and melody line. The result is the album highlight, a lament on 'dead leaves, desperate summers' and someone yearning for 'a love that's more'.

Album closer 'Maya The Psychic' is a stab at Britpop - with the influence on the 'pop', while 'How It's Going To Be' is smothered in Simon & Garfunkel harmonies over a rolling snare.

The album has a sense of man flicking through his record collection, trying to work out who he wants to be next. There's some great stuff here, and some stuff that's forgettable, but it's when he tries on different outfits that Way delivers something interesting, not just MCR-lite.

6/10

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