My Chemical Romance
may be the perfect new millennial rock band. Always poised for a significant hit, they instead wound up with a devoted cult following that peaked around the release of 2006's
The Black Parade
, a gobsmacked concept album on par with
Pink Floyd
's
The Wall
or maybe
Marilyn Manson
Antichrist Superstar
, but
MCR
were always more in tune with teen angst and were always more fun, as the 2014 hits compilation
May Death Never Stop You: The Greatest Hits 2001-2013
proves. The 19-track compilation contains three demos plus the new song "Fake Your Death," which opens a compilation that otherwise diligently marches forth in chronological order. The debut,
I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love
, is dismissed with two songs -- "Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us" and "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" -- leaving the molten rock of
Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
plenty of room, but
is the centerpiece of this collection, as it's represented with five songs and its strong follow-up,
Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys
, has four songs. The key to
Black Parade
and
Danger Days
is how
embraced theatricality -- the overblown drama inherent to leader
Gerard Way
's beloved comics -- and they could translate it well to record. They had records worth hearing in full --
, certainly, plus
Three Cheers
-- but the great thing about
May Death Never Stop You
is how it showcases all their brilliant, florid moments so they sound like visionaries without a continent to call home. Maybe they could've been bigger stars, but they channeled all the sturm and drang of the new millennium into heady goth-punk operas that still sound great when broken down into their individual elements, as this fine compilation proves. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine