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

Comments

Pointless Nostalgic – Jamie Cullum

Year Released: 2002 Label: Candid Year Bought: Can't Remember Jamie Cullum burst into the nation's consciousness with a performance on Parkinson in April 2003, a showing that was soon followed by the huge-selling album 'Twentysomething'. It was 2002's 'Pointless Nostalgic' that put Cullum on Parky's radar, and shows the jazz singer and pianist beginning to hone the act that would make him such a breakthrough. There's a host of standards here – 'In The Wee Small Hours of The Morning'. 'It Ain't Necessarily So', 'I Can't Get Started' – alongside a couple of originals and a cover of Radiohead's 'High And Dry'. I remember that song being a big deal at the time for some reason. I think it was seen as rare merging of jazz and alt-rock. Cullum's version is not bad, and actually keeps it quite light and subdued without slipping into a dirge. Cullum was just 23 when this was recorded, and perhaps it's his yo...

Ringleader Of The Tormentors – Morrissey

Year Released: 2006 Label: Sanctuary Year Bought: 2006 Released in 2006, 'Ringleader of the Tormentors' in many ways represents the apex of the Morrissey resurgence that began two years earlier with 'You Are The Quarry'. Whereas that album peaked at number 2 in the album chart (although it did spawn 4 top ten singles), its successor gave Morrissey his first number 1 album since 1994's 'Vauxhall and I'. 'Ringleaders...' raised some eyebrows at the time as Morrissey sang explicitly about something he had previously made a virtue of not discussing. His sex life. "There are exploding kegs between my legs," he sings on 'Dear God Please Help Me' – a tune that swells and grows to a climax with strings written by Ennio Morricone. "Now I'm spreading your legs with mine in between," he later adds. Perhaps this new found desire of the flesh was due to this album being recorded in Italy, and references to the country season the ...

The Best Of - James

Released: 1998 Label: Fontana When I bought: Can't remember James are one of the great under-appreciated UK bands. Sure, 'Sit Down' will pay their pension, but there's so many great tunes that have been swallowed up and forgotten. When people talk about the great UK bands of the 80s and 90s, they never get a nod. Early in the band's career saw an involvement with Factory Records, but they rarely get a mention when that label is talked about. I remember very clearly when this singles collection was released. It was one of the records that made up the soundtrack to my summer of 1998. I was 13 years old, and into two things: football and music. At that age I used to spend most of my non-school time in a park at the end of the road I lived in in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, playing football with a bunch of lads about 3 or 4 years older who lived in the neighbourhood. They always had cool CDs, and one of them was this. Seemingly endless games of headers and vo...

All The Records I've Ever Owned

Search This Blog