Tear Jerker / My Chemical Romance

Oh boy...if Gerard and co. were paid to write a songs of darkness and dismay, they would be superstars...wait a minute...

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I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love

• The first song ever written by Gerard Way and preformed by the band, "Skylines and Turnstiles", was based on the 9/11 tragedy that Gerard witnessed first-hand in New York.
• "Early Sunsets Over Monroeville"

Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge

• "Helena". When you realise Helena was Gerard and Mikey Way's grandmother, it suddenly gets a lot more meaning.
• "The Ghost of You".
  • The ''video''. Specifically the look on Gerard's face as he watches Mikey die, and the fact that the others are literally dragging him back so he doesn't get shot too. It can really break one's heart.
• There's something weirdly heartbreaking about the end of "It's Not A Fashion Statement, It's A Deathwish."
  "When you go, just know that I will remember you
  If living is the hardest part, we'll then one day be together
  And in the end we'll fall apart, just like the leaves change in colors
  I will be there with you, I will be there one last time now..."
• "Cemetery Drive"
• As face-meltingly punk/metal as "I Never Told You What I Do For A Living" is, the way Gerard howls "I TRIIIIIIIIIIIIED!!!" before the guitar-drop sounds like he's crossed the Despair Event Horizon and screaming for another chance. And how hopeless sound the final words...
  And never again, and never again, they gave us two shots
  To the back of the head and we're all dead now...

The Black Parade

• "Dead!" at first seems to be singing about how joyful dying is (which helped fuel the 'they encourage suicide' claims by the Daily Mail and the like). Then you realize the song is sarcastic; The Patient knows they're dying, and they're venting their frustration. It really becomes clear towards the end.
  ''If life ain't just a joke
  Then why am I laughing?
  If. Life. Ain't. Just. A joke.
  Then why am I dead?
• "Welcome to the Black Parade" is another. The oddly upbeat melody and lyrics make it worse, not better.
  • This video manages to make the Tear Jerker moments from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann even worse by setting them to "Welcome to the Black Parade".
  • Similarly, this video does the same with Harry Potter. So does this one.
• The song "Cancer". "Because the hardest part of this is leaving you..." If you've had a relative die from cancer then you really can relate. The song also lacks a lot of the bombastic theatrics and Black Comedy the rest of the album has, consisting almost entirely of a piano track, Gerard's vocals, and nothing else aside from the typical drums and bass; no thunderous guitar work or blistering solos to be found here. And The Patient's suffering, admission that he has little left to live for, and regrets about his still living family are all played 100% seriously.
  • It doesn’t pull any punches about the physical effects of chemotherapy, either—literal lyrics aside, the general consensus is that Gerard sounds like he’s in a LOT of pain.
• "Mama" is built around taking War Is Hell literally - see "We'll let the fires just bathe us" - so whatever else you were expecting, leave it at the door.
  • The final "Mama, we all go to hell!" refrain is different from the two that came before - up to this point, the song has swapped between polka and metal, but now, as Patient!Gerard assures us Hell is "really quite pleasant", the metal infects the polka. The guitars are wranging all over the goddamn place as Patient!Gerard completely loses it - and then, of course...
  • ...the breakdown. Air raid sirens, the heaviest point in the song, and Patient!Gerard screaming for his mother.
  • Patient!Gerard sounds like he's on the verge of Inelegant Blubbering when he screams "But the shit that I've done with this fuck of a gun..."
• Much of The Black Parade Rock Opera about a terminally ill patient, could be considered Deus Angst Machina or even Narm. Nevertheless, "Sleep" really is genuinely sad: "The hardest part is letting go of your dreams".
• "Disenchanted" is an incredible song, especially the line "It was a lie when they smiled/And said 'you won't feel a thing'". Heartbreaking.
• "Famous Last Words". It can also be read as a Heartwarming Moment due to its life-affirming message (I am not afraid to keep on living...) and its backstory (being written for/to Mikey Way, who had temporarily left the band for mental health reasons).

Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

• The video for "SING" - well the end of it anyway, the rest of the video is Moment of Awesome
  • The end of the Na Na Na video is bad too, considering it sets up the events of SING.
• "The Only Hope For Me Is You"
• If you take a moment to actually listen to the words of "Save Yourself, I'll Hold Them Back", it becomes quite depressing.
  • The video to SING shows the situation this song is talking about in regards to the storyline of the album; Fun Ghoul (Frank) has a chance to get out of the building with Jet-Star (Ray) and Girl, but instead stays inside to, as the title says, hold the bad guys back.
• "Summertime"
• "The Kids From Yesterday" is just unbearably poignant.
  "'Cause you only live forever in the lights you make
  When we were young, we used to say
  That you only hear the music when your heart begins to break
  Now we are the kids from yesterday..."

Other

• "Desert Song" is another one. So beautiful but so, so sad.
• See also: "Kill All Your Friends", "Cemetery Drive", and worst, "Demolition Lovers".
• The band having officially broken up. Now go and listen to their songs.
  • "Helena" hits pretty bad with Harsher in Hindsight, considering it was the last song they played live—making "So long and good night" the last lyrics they ever sang live.
  • From their last project, Conventional Weapons, "The World is Ugly".
• The sixth track from Conventional Weapons: "The Light Behind Your Eyes". It's a very slow and subdued song, almost like the band's answer to the Simple Plan tearjerker "Untitled". And when the intensity rises, you can hear the band isn't screaming the words out; they're crying them out.
  • The Light Behind Your Eyes can double as a Heartwarming Moment when you realize Gerard wrote it for his daughter.
• The last song released by the band for their greatest hits: Fake Your Death.
  I choose defeat
  I walk away
  And leave this place
  The same today
  Some like to sleep
  We like to play
  Just look at all that pain
• Gerard's solo album Hesitant Alien is auditorially a love letter to guitars, '70s glam rock, & '90s britpop, and lyrically devastating as he works through calling it quits on My Chem and continuing to deal with mental illness and body image issues, but a special shout-out has to go to "Brother"—a bittersweet, affectionate song to his beloved little brother, Mikey, turned gut-wrenching by deciphering the near-incomprensible dialogue at the beginning/end: a phone operator telling Gerard that Mikey has committed suicide.
  • Potentially turned heartwarming again given that in reality, Mikey Way is alive and well, and surprised fans by joining Gerard on stage for a show in 2015 ^note the first time any two members of the band performed together post-breakup.
  • Mikey's death is something of a recurring theme for Gerard—"Brother," the video for "The Ghost of You," arguably "Famous Last Words"^note it's well-known that "Famous Last Words" was written for/to Mikey, but given that Gerard himself has said it's up to interpretation whether the Patient lives or dies..., "Jet-Star and the Kobra Kid," and the video for SING^note Mikey's character is shot due to his grief/anger over Gerard's character's death, at that. Ouch..
• Despite the flood of Squeeing at the news of the band's reunion, sections of the Broken Base are complaining yet again that Gerard looks "fat/ugly" when he just stopped dying his hair and wearing flamboyant clothing. The other complaint is that they're not doing enough concerts, conveniently ignoring how they're already flying around the world and three out of four members have young children now.

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