Review: Gerard Way - Hesitant Alien
By Sammi Nelson, Blogs Editor
[Reprise Records; 2014]
Rating: 7/10
Key Tracks: “The Bureau,” “Action Cat,” “No Shows”
Over a year after the March 2013 disbandment of My Chemical Romance, former frontman and everybody’s favorite pale-faced dead boy Gerard Way releases his debut solo album, Hesitant Alien.
From his early beginnings, the now 38-year-old was inspired to focus on music and art in his not-so-safe town of Belleville, New Jersey.
While interning with Cartoon Network in the early 2000s, Way witnessed something horrific that shook his world. From his office window in New York City, Way watched as the Sept. 11 attacks devastated the city. After that experience, he questioned how his existence was affecting the world around him and decided to make a change.
Two months later, My Chemical Romance was born. One of its earliest songs, “Skylines and Turnstiles,” was written by Way after he witnessed the attacks.
Way’s preferences for art and music always tended to lean towards the darker side of perception. He spent many hours of his teenaged life closed up in his room while listening to bands such as Iron Maiden, Queen, The Smiths, The Cure and the Misfits.
Clearly, Way enjoyed a special blend of rock, punk, glam rock and britpop. While he and his younger brother Mikey, former bassist of MCR, brought these musical influences to MCR’s emo-punk-alternative-whathaveyou sound, never before have these influences made themselves apparent than in Way’s Hesitant Alien.
Imagine this scenario: Way takes elements of each of these bands, pours them into a cauldron
and mixes them up with a glittering red baton as he stares in his characteristically sensual manner at each and every listener. Throw in some hip gyrations from Way and that is Hesitant Alien.
The album itself is a musical representation of Way’s persona. Its punk elements give it a raw quality seeping with high energy, while its glam sound delivers a tune that’s perfect for dancing.
Anyone who’s seen MCR or Gerard Way perform live knows how much the musician loves to dance.
Hesitant Alien has a strong beginning with its opening track “The Bureau.” It has a deep element of punk with a hint of grunge but more prominently a dose of blues with his high guitars and deep bass. The lyrics are dark and haunting, with lines like “We got the operator for the boogeyman” which is soon followed by “Now levitator connect me to the Holy Ghost.” The song legitimately feels like a ghoulish bash.
In the music video for “No Shows,” Way demonstrates his eccentricity through his performance as well as the flamboyantly galactic outfits featured by the other people present in the video. The song is inarguably one of album’s more pop influenced songs with a mixture of punk in the music.
It’s essential to point out that the album is not by any means pop-punk. Now, maybe if pop-punk was transported back to the 80s and tweaked a bit it would be pop-punk, but that’s the only way.
Way’s tenor voice echoes throughout the album, singing lyrics that discuss topics such as our desire for “television bodies that we can’t keep,” and exclamations of “I miss you” on the album’s first single, “Action Cat.”
Way is cleverly catchy in his lyrical abilities while also remaining quite insightful. He consistently emits an ageless, youthful demeanor in his music, his stage presence and his overall personality, which is evident in Hesitant Alien.
