My Chemical Romance: 'Danger Days' is no killjoy

If the last My Chemical Romance album, "The Black Parade," the stunningly effective concept album dealing with death, was a punctuation mark, it would have been a period.

Its new concept album, "Danger Days: The True Lives of The Fabulous Killjoys" (Reprise), is an exclamation point. Big! Bright! Loud! Wheeeee!

In "Danger Days," MCR's new alter egos are The Fabulous Killjoys, a gang of superheroes fighting alien crime and living on the edge comic-book style. Instead of the "Black Parade" slow crawl to death, the Killjoys are moving at high speeds.

The first single, "Na Na Na," sounds like it was built for driving fast on an empty freeway with its hard-charging guitar riffs and its scream-along chorus. If the revved-up glam rock of "Party Poison" and "Vampire Money," which sounds like T. Rex crossed with The Sex Pistols, doesn't get you shouting, it may be too late for you.

MCR tries out other personae, too. The guys make Ke$ha pop brainy without killing the buzz on "Planetary (GO!)." They channel The Cure on "Summertime" and Jane's Addiction on the hard-hitting "Destroya." And they keep some of their own earlier sound intact for the infectious "Bulletproof Heart."

"Danger Days" combines the feeling of living with no regrets and the extraordinary workmanship that doesn't require any, creating instant, well-deserved success.

My Chemical Romance

"Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys"

THE GRADE A

BOTTOM LINE A wild, eclectic ride through rock styles