Ottavia Recommends: “The Ghost of You” by My Chemical Romance

At the height of my tweens, my friends introduced me to some band from New Jersey called My Chemical Romance. All these years later, there are still teenagers like me who never got the chance to see them live because of their 2013 breakup but would give up a limb to see them reunited.

This is due to emo masterpieces like “The Ghost of You,” found about halfway through arguably their best record, 2004 Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge. Which is not to say that the other three albums in their discography — their 2002 debut, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love; 2006’s TheBlack Parade; and Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys in 2010 — suck. Those contain a lot of perfect songs. It’s just that nothing comes as close to touching Three Cheers, a realized concept album with real punch, so clean and tight that it broke the band into the mainstream.

So, about that song: “The Ghost of You” sounds like grief fed into a guitar amp — relentless and intense and emotional. It’s everything a 2000s rock song could possibly want, everything a My Chemical Romance song could possibly want.

Just listen to that opening guitar figure and how melancholic it is. How Gerard Way and his devilishly handsome New Jersey accent gets emo hearts to flutter right away with “I neeeeevvvvvvvvver! SAID I’d lieeee and wait forehhhhhvvverrrrrrr!” The intensity of the choruses. How you can hear Gerard’s lips quivering as he whispers, “If I fall…down…” The single second of quiet that follows. Then BOOM, just sheer power for the next minute or so.

This is MCR, everybody. Take note, youthful rock bands desperate for Spotify streams. This is how you do it.

The video is also awesome. Few MCR videos (except maybe “Helena,” also off Three Cheers) is more iconic. The band’s acting in it is so sincere. It’s like Saving Private Ryan but…better. Who knew that accuracy and effort could be found in music videos? See for yourself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCUpvTMis-Y(Song recommendation by Ottavia Paluch)