Metascore
70

Generally favorable reviews - based on 26 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 19 out of 26
  2. Negative: 1 out of 26
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  1. Kerrang!
    Dec 14, 2010
    100
    Rock'n'roll used to be about greatness, about escape and heroes. Once, you could get lost in an album, entangled in its world. It's been a long time since that has been the case. Danger Days...will change that.[13 Nov 2010, p.50]
  2. Dec 7, 2010
    90
    There's no emo bloodletting, no expressionist confrontations with death, just exaggerated adolescent anthems and calls to rebellion, just enough drama so this could be called cathartic by a certain generation, but for most listeners it's crystallized fun, the purest rush My Chemical Romance has ever delivered.
  3. 88
    If the down-and-out, early-MCR-worshipping emo set need the equivalent of an "It Gets Better" video to remind them how awesome life can be, no document could be more spirited and persuasive than Danger Days.
  4. Jan 13, 2011
    82
    This is the kind of album you just throw on to have fun. If anything, it proves My Chemical Romance don't need to be eccentric or theatrical to put out an enjoyable record.
  5. 80
    How they were able to construct an entire multi-layered universe (sonically, lyrically and with narration!) for listeners to get lost in-while writing some of the strongest and catchiest songs of their career-is anyone's guess. For the cookie-cutter bands and haters out there, that's what we call sweet revenge.
  6. Dec 7, 2010
    80
    This is a band that never rests on its laurels, a band that embraces new ideas but also knows how to write killer choruses. The worry was that this record would turn out dull; the reality blows that concern out of the water.
  7. This is the album they were born to make. It gives us all the things that punk has never been able to provide: romance, sex, the adventure of the open road and sheer nihilism-banishing energy.
  8. Dec 7, 2010
    80
    MCR have made an album that is as fun as it is meaningful, as experimental as it is familiar. Let's see the Daily Mail hijack this one...
  9. Dec 7, 2010
    80
    Darkness remains in songs that seem to party their way to some impending armageddon, but the album should delight their fanbase while appealing to people who previously wouldn't be seen dead listening to MCR.
  10. Dec 7, 2010
    79
    Most important, it's big fun, whether you buy into the high concept or not.
  11. Dec 13, 2010
    70
    It's no exaggeration that doing two concept records in a row could have been disastrous. But after four years and a whole lot of life, MCR proves with Danger Days that the days of their self-involved, namby-pampy crybaby act are a thing (mostly) of the past. And to think, all it took was the end of days
  12. Dec 7, 2010
    70
    So far so daft but what prevents Gerard Way and co from descending into the po-faced seriousness that blighted Green Day and their preposterous "21st Century Breakdown" album is a sense of fun that has eluded the SoCal punks in their latter years.
  13. Dec 7, 2010
    70
    Emo heroes reveal their inner Brian May.
  14. Dec 7, 2010
    70
    The band's held on to its drive and focus, and the hits outnumber the misses.
  15. Dec 7, 2010
    70
    In contrast to their previous record, on which they felt the need to dress up as some sort of 'shadow band' straight out of Disneyland for the sake of getting a message that got lost amongst the bombast and OTT nature of their sound, this is a refreshing change.
  16. Dec 7, 2010
    70
    Danger Days offers a total rejection of bloated celebrity rock. Intercut with fake radio-DJ skits (supposedly transmissions from a post-apocalyptic radio station) and powered by spite for rock-star cliches, MCR trade their signature Broadway-musical theatricality for simple loud-fast defiance.
  17. Dec 7, 2010
    70
    Viva la Vida Familiar.
  18. 67
    Trouble is, they were better at Alice Cooper excess, and the album's concept--cartoon band battles evil corporation--never coheres. There's no there there, emotional or otherwise.
  19. 63
    My Chem's indulgent side still sometimes gets the best of them--the rave synths on "The Only Hope for Me Is You" belong on a different album. But they made a wise choice in closing with "Vampire Money," a No Wave spitball whose opening lyric is an (unprintable) fistful of garlic in the eye of "Twilight's" sexless family-values-noir.
User Score
8.2

Universal acclaim- based on 173 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 13 out of 173
  1. Nov 22, 2010
    9
    Isn't it refreshing to hear a genuine rock n' roll album in todays' musical age of generic electronic auto-tuned pop garbage? Move over LaIsn't it refreshing to hear a genuine rock n' roll album in todays' musical age of generic electronic auto-tuned pop garbage? Move over La Roux, Lady Gaga, David Guetta, Cheryl Cole, JLS, Black Eyed Peas (the list goes on)... let the rip-roaring noise of guitars take the forefront once more! In 2019, Danger Days will be viewed as a modern masterpiece. Whether MCRs' vision of an apocalyptic corporation-run world will be reality at this point is another matter. But one things' for certain, this album is a huge statement that the band still aren't anywhere near packing up, despite previous speculation. From the very first space-age radio announcement from Dr Death Defying right through to the Rolling Stones-esque Vampire Money fair-well, Danger Days buzzes with electric energy and above all, fun. And it is evident this is the most fun the guys have experienced in their careers so far. A record jam-packed with fist-pumping punk, in the forms of "Destroya" (Rage Against the Machine anyone?) and "Party Poison", we only slow down on our journey with the Killjoys for the likes of such swinging ballads as "S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W" - in my opinion one of the greatest songs MCR have ever penned. By the end of this incredible rock journey, I was left longing to be there in Battery City with my laser pistol fighting off Dracs with the killjoys. The only other album that has had this kind of storytelling impact on me was another piece of concept genius, American Idiot, by Californian punk-rockers Green Day. I was a huge fan of The Black Parade, and would listen to it on repeat for days. But, if I'm entirely honest, Danger Days obliterates the 2006 award-winning album and sets the bar even higher. This record truly is "louder than Gods revolver and twice as shiny!" Full Review »
  2. Nov 24, 2010
    10
    Regardless of how much I love a guy with insomniac eyes and a funerary demeanor, gone are the days of MCR with lank black hair, bulletproofRegardless of how much I love a guy with insomniac eyes and a funerary demeanor, gone are the days of MCR with lank black hair, bulletproof vests, and weepy breakup songs, and here are the days of leather junker jackets, comic-book colors, and kick-your-ass rock suitable even for people who own no black clothing and have never worn eyeliner.

    With Danger Days, the guys have successfully steered way clear of the emo that people took so much exception to in '05 and have come back swinging with one of the first genuine rock albums we've seen since Linkin Park's Meteora - not to mention a visual concept that'll knock your socks off.

    In terms of lyricism and general musical maturity, My Chem has hit their peak form with Danger Days and brought us a truly enjoyable album that drags them back from the precipice of being doomed to a highschool audience forever - a precipice on which they had been teetering dangerously for some time.


    Recommended tracks:

    Planetary (GO!)
    Party Poison
    Scarecrow
    Full Review »
  3. Nov 24, 2010
    0
    This album wouldn't even make it on it's own. It is complete trash. I loved their past 3 albums. but this sounds like hollow dance rock madeThis album wouldn't even make it on it's own. It is complete trash. I loved their past 3 albums. but this sounds like hollow dance rock made by a 6 year old. I am no longer a fan of My Chemical Romance because of this. Full Review »