Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys is the fourth and final studio album by American rock band My Chemical Romance. Released on November 22, 2010 by Reprise Records, its songs are associated with the band's well known sound of alternative rock and pop punk, as well as new elements, including power pop, pop rock, and electronic rock. The inspiration for the album comes from contemporary rock, psychedelic rock, and protopunk bands of the sixties and seventies. In addition, the group has stated that there is a strong influence of cinema on the disc. Like its predecessor, The Black Parade (2006), it was produced by Rob Cavallo.

The album's recording process took over a year, in which the band recorded more than thirty-six songs, most of which were discarded because the band felt they were not a contribution to the genre. The final edition of the album and video clips created a theme for the album, similar to the movie Blade Runner. The album's story line follows a city in post-apocalyptic California in 2019, where a few outsiders called Killjoys fight against a corporation that controls the people. In 2013, frontman Gerard Way published a comic that continues the story described in the album.

To promote the album, the band embarked on a world tour, titled The World Contamination Tour. It lasted from October 2010 to February 2012, and included concerts in Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania; the band also co-headlined the 10th Annual Honda Civic Tour with Blink-182. The album debuted at the top of the Billboard Rock Albums and Alternative Albums charts, and at number 10 on the Billboard 200; it also appeared in the music charts in several other countries. By February 2011, Danger Days had sold over a million copies worldwide.

The album's concept is based around the lives of the "Killjoys", a group of rebellious rogues living in a post-apocalyptic California, in the year 2019 (a reference to the film Blade Runner). Promotional websites for the album reference the alleged 2012 doomsday prediction as a possible cause of the fictional catastrophe. Like many concept records, the band members are in character, in the case of this album, as their "Killjoy" alter-egos: "Party Poison" (Gerard Way), "Jet-Star" (Ray Toro), "Fun Ghoul" (Frank Iero), and "Kobra Kid" (Mikey Way), which can be seen in the music videos for "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)" and "Sing". The Killjoys are a group of outlaws who are fighting against the evil corporation Better Living Industries (BL/ind.) and its various "Draculoids" and executors, such as Korse (Grant Morrison), from the S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W Unit. The character aliases were originally the names of their "designer" guns. Their guide is a pirate radio DJ named Dr. Death Defying who is voiced by Steve Montano (also known by the stage name "Steve, Righ?" when performing with Mindless Self Indulgence). Two of the album's music videos show a little girl known as The Girl (Grace Jeanette) and Dr. Death Defying's sidekick 'Show Pony' (played by a performer known as Ricky Rebel). '"Na Na Na" shows the Killjoys' daily lives until Korse defeats them and captures The Girl, while "Sing" shows the Killjoys' rescue mission to get her back.

The final track, "Vampire Money", was a reaction to the band being asked to do a song for the Twilight franchise. Gerard Way said that the reason the song was on the album was because "there’s a lot of people chasing that fucking money. ‘Twilight?’ A lot of people around us were like, ‘please, for the love of God, do this fucking movie.’ But we’d moved on."

When asked about the album title in a November 2010 interview, frontman Gerard Way said that "Danger Days is what it takes to do something great. It refers to us, to the fans, for all we know and artists who helped shape the album".

The album and its music videos are set in California, in the context of a 2019 post-apocalyptic future. The theme is developed in Battery City, a fictional city where everything is easy and secure, and where people can erase their emotions through tablets. Outside the city is a dangerous desert, inhabited by a gang of strangers called Killjoys, who must contend and fight against the corporation, Better Living Industries. The band has stated that this is a metaphor for the things they went through to create the album, and a reaction to "eliminating the special things, eliminating art, and absorbing such low-risk culture as rock". The theme of the album has been compared to the 1970s films Vanishing Point and Mad Max and the disc also notices some elements similar to the concept album Kilroy Was Here from the U.S. group Styx. Ray Toro has said that for him, the message of the album is "about freedom [...] simply about being the person you've always wanted to be".

The characters played by the band are Party Poison, Jet Star, Fun Ghoul and Kobra Kid (corresponding to Gerard Way, Ray Toro, Frank Iero and Mikey Way respectively). There are also other allies, such as the radio host Dr. Death Defying. In addition, the social network Twitter user accounts were created for other characters from the album, as News A Go-Go and Tommy Chow Mein.

The magazine Rolling Stone says the frontman "dyed his hair fiery red, and he's pissed at everyone: junkies, party girls, Hollywood, and most of all himself, for getting so damn famous", and that Danger Days is a total rejection of the rock infladísimo celebrity. In the same vein, the song "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)" presents a stand of criticism of consumerist culture of the United States. 

The magazine Chilango argues that "the letters of the album have elements of science fiction, horror and comics, which helps to create an atmosphere of pop culture that is heard along entire disk". Similarly, claims that the songs "Party Poison", "Vampire Money" and "Planetary (GO!)" show a new side of the band: a fun and partying, previously seen for a moment in the song "Teenagers".

This phrase also gave its name to the first track of the album, which consists of an introduction of a radio announcer. The name chosen for this presenter was Dr. Death Defying, a phrase that is described by Way as a summary of what the band is. About the first song on the album, "Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)", Dan Martin of NME said that "as creepy as it sounds, of things to be found here [in Danger Days], this is the closest thing to My Chemical Romance so far. The band has said that Jenny, one of the protagonists of "Bulletproof Heart", could be the Jenny of the song "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine", as a tribute to their countrymen The Killers. 

The quartet has indicated on the song "SING" as follows: "The idea of Danger Days and especially that song is subversion, and to delve under the skin of certain individuals politically, socially, and also to reach national television to talk about how we feel about the world." The issue of "Planetary (GO!)", meanwhile, was inspired by the 1966 song "Paint It, Black" by The Rolling Stones. It is also the first time band wishes to create a dance song. Gerard Way has stated that in the intermediate track "Jet-Star and the Kobra Kid/Traffic Report", they wanted to create "two characters that feel like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". 

The rock ballad "S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W" is, in the words of guitarist Ray Toro, a psychedelic song that "shows the artistic side of the band", and that they tried their best to make a song like "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by The Beatles. The garage rock song "Vampire Money", the last track of the album, was created after the group refused to contribute to the soundtrack of the film New Moon of the Twilight series, whose main characters are vampires. Gerard Way said: "That's why this song is on our album, because there are many people taking that damn money." Spin said that "On Danger Days, My Chemical Romance appears as a muscular band exploring the intersection of risky glam of the seventies and the new wave of the eighties."

Cover of the album "Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoy"