(...so far... I hope one day I can add to this list)
I decided to rank the officially released music videos of My Chemical Romance. I made my best attempt to keep my opinion on the songs out of the ratings, but sometimes they did impact them. Without further ado, from worst to best, my rankings of MCR's music videos (so far):
16. Honey This Mirror Isn’t Big Enough For The Two Of Us
We get it, you guys like obscure horror movies. I can’t say I do. Moving on.
15. I’m Not Okay (Version 1)
The less well known of the two versions of the I’m Not Okay videos. The behind the scenes and concert footage are a great peek at where the band was right before they REALLY made it big. But it doesn’t do much for me. If I would have seen this version after hearing the song on the radio, I don't know if I would have been hooked the way I was when I saw the second version, but I’ll get into that more later.
14. Teenagers
I’m trying not to make these rankings based on songs, but I also can’t help it. Teenagers is a good song, it’s an important song when interpreted correctly (I’ll never forget my college roommate who thought that it was a song about getting plastic surgery to become hot as a form a revenge). But the video doesn’t really do much for me, and I feel like the song gets overhyped (really Spotify, does it really need to be on that many playlists?). Do teenagers scare the living shit out of me? Duh, but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna go watch this video very often.
13. Blood
Shot at the same time as the video for Teenagers, this video is just a funny little thing for the funny little hidden track off The Black Parade. Set in a locker room, Frank brought a dog, Bob is putting duct tape on Mikey, and Gerard is just singing to the camera while the cheerleaders from the Teenagers video are completely ignored, despite their best efforts. And then they all leave. It’s weird. It’s kinda pointless. I sorta love it for all of that.
12. Planetary (GO!)
Planetary (GO!) isn’t one of my favorite songs off Danger Days, but I certainly don’t hate it. It’s fine, it’s just not a stand out, and the same goes for this video. It’s a concert performance video, but it lacks the intensity of other performance videos, and coming off the world built in Na Na Na and SING, it’s nothing really special.
11. The Kids From Yesterday
If you know me, if you know my Spotify stats, you know I LOVE this song A LOT, so it really pains me to put this video so low. But this video came out as the band was drawing to an end, so it really wasn’t much of a video, but rather a collection of behind the scenes and concert footage, similar to the I’m Not Okay v1 video. When you think of it in the context of a bookend to that video, it's actually a bit better, but for a song this emotional and powerful, it deserved more. If I wanna see a performance of this song, I’d rather watch the video of them playing it at the reunion show. It hurts less that way.
10. I Don’t Love You
I feel like this video gets forgotten a lot. When you have such massive songs on The Black Parade, a quieter song about heartbreak slips between the cracks. Filmed entirely in black and white, which fits the aesthetic of the Black Parade era, the band deliver intense performances across the board. Gerard especially delivers the emotional punches as he sings directly into the camera. While the story of the couple in black and white adds something, it wouldn’t hurt the video if the story wasn’t there either, but I do like the symbolism of the man leaving his mark on the woman.
9. Helena
I love Helena. It’s iconic. I still freak out when I turn on my car and it’s playing on the radio (which happens more than you’d think, thanks 106.7 The Resistance). But I can’t help but feel like this video might be just a bit overrated. Like I said, it’s iconic for really cementing the aesthetic of the Revenge Era, but it’s really a simple video about a funeral for a dead girl (who I will dress up as for Halloween one of these years…)
8. Vampires Will Never Hurt You
It’s a shame that even the highest quality version of this music video that can be found on Youtube is still pretty low quality. That aside, I love how low budget it is. I love (and by love I mean hate) Frank’s shitty dreads. I love the first attempt at what would become the Black Parade aesthetic. It's campy, you can barely see what's happening, and it's just a great early video from the band before they hit it big.
7. I’m Not Okay (Version 2)
"You like D&D, Audrey Hepburn, Fangoria, Harry Houdini. and croquet. You can't swim, you can't dance, and you don't know karate. Face it, you're never gonna make it." "I don't wanna make it, I just wanna-" Name a better intro to a music video, I dare you. (I could write a whole post just on this exchange (who calls their friend out like that?!), but that's for another day). This is version everyone is familiar with. Set in a prep school, cut in with footage of the band playing in a garage, this is the video that captured my attention after hearing the song on the radio. It pulled me right in as a depressed high school student, and I remember seeing it and thinking “I want in on whatever it is this band is doing.” My Chem has a way of really building a universe, whether it’s a whole album like with Danger Days, or just a single video like this one and it’s amazing what kind of stories they can tell in just three and half minutes.
6. Welcome To The Black Parade
AKA my 19th birthday present from the band, this video was released on my birthday in 2006, shortly after I moved into my freshman dorm room with a lovely view of the cemetery that occupied the center of our campus. The video launched the band into a new era, the same as I was moving into a new era in my life. Everything about this video is perfect, the story it tells, the aesthetic of the band, which is so wildly different from that of the Revenge Era before it, just the whole scale of the production. The video is big, and different, and a little creepy upon first watch, and all of that is what we love about My Chem.
5. Desolation Row
The stopover between The Black Parade Era and the Danger Days Era, Desolation Row was a one-off made for The Watchmen soundtrack. It really is a shame that this wasn't an entire era for the band because this aesthetic was really something else, in a very, very good way. The punk rock riot brought back some of the raw intensity of the Revenge or Bullets Eras, with tattered clothes, spitting all over the stage and beating cops with guitars (bravo Ray), but with a bit more of the polish that the Black Parade Era afforded them. And maybe if I’m being honest, it ranks so high because all of this is just so incredibly hot. No shame.
4. Famous Last Words
Taking everything that Welcome To The Black Parade created and then literally burning it to the ground, Famous Last Words edges out it’s predecessor in my rankings for a couple reasons: 1. Famous Last Words is one of my favorite MCR songs, I know that shouldn’t count toward the video rankings but I can’t help it, and 2. This video takes away the theatrics of WTTBP and turns up the raw intensity. It’s worth noting that Bob suffered severe burns, and Gerard tore ligaments in his ankle, so they really did lay it all out on this one. Even though it is just a performance video, the band goes so hard, it makes you feel the already incredibly powerful lyrics even more.
3. Na Na Na
My Chem was at their world building best once they got to the Danger Days Era. Na Na Na introduced us to the Fabulous Killjoys, the Girl, and the oppressive Better Living Industries. Set in the California desert in 2019, the video foreshadows the masks we would all be wearing the following year, as well as the band’s own return. The thing I really love about Danger Days is the way the band created just enough of a universe to play in for a while, but left it open enough that fans could really still have fun with it years later. Na Na Na was the more fun and lighthearted of the two videos set in the Danger Days Era, with the band driving fast, shooting laser blasters, and taking out mindless dracs (the bad guys of the universe), but the end set up the next video, which is also the next video on this list.
2. SING
While writing this, I’ve watched through each music video (in chronological order), but I just can’t bring myself to watch this one right now. The video begins with the Fabulous Killjoys speeding into BLI headquarters to rescue The Girl from their evil clutches. Of course things can’t go too well for our heroes, as Korse, the big bald baddie from the Na Na Na video is hot on their heels with a squad of dracs. Finally in the lobby, the Killjoys have to fight for theirs, and The Girl’s, lives. Party Poison after killing a drac, realizes it is a person under the ugly mask, and in that moment Korse corners Party. Despite Kobra’s efforts to save his brother, Korse ghosts (as they say in the Zones) Party, and tragically the rest of the Killjoys fall saving The Girl, who gets away with some of the other Killjoys. Her story continues in the comics that came out in 2014, but that’s the end of The Killjoys sadly. Or is it? They looked ghosted at the end of Na Na Na too! Like I said before, a lot of this universe is wide open and fans can and have done a lot with it, myself included. Remember Killjoys never die! This particular song really lends itself well to such a dramatic music video. It's powerful, it's tragic, and it's very, very well done. I'm gonna go cry now.
1. The Ghost of You
And suddenly a theme emerges. I LOVE this video. Like I said with the video for I’m Not Okay v2, My Chem can build a whole world and tell a whole heartbreaking tale in just a few minutes and The Ghost of You does this expertly. Starting with the band playing at the USO in full WWII regalia. As the soldiers dance with their girls, the video starts cutting in footage of the band amongst the soldiers on boats getting ready to storm the beaches of Normandy (presumably). This video features one of my favorite transitions in just about piece of media, when there is an overhead shot of couples dancing, and it turns into the soldiers running up the beach. Then as the song quiets for a moment before the bridge, and the soldiers are walking out, Mikey turns to look back, and your heart just drops because you know nothing good is coming. I would like to retroactively petition all award shows to create a category specifically for acting in a music video because there is nothing quite as heart wrenching as watching Gerard having to be held down by Frank and Bob while screaming for his brother as Ray tries to save him after being gunned down. Absolutely heartbreaking. It's so different from everything they had done before, it really stands out and still holds up over 15 years later.
And there you have it. Like I said before, I hope that there will one day be more videos for this list, but this is where it stands as of today.
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