Okay, so now I’m truly going to destroy all my indie cred, but I can’t help it. “Famous Last Words” is one of the most emotionally draining songs I’ve ever heard. I know this record has been out for over a year, but who cares. Sure, My Chemical Romance is way too over theatrical, but sometimes it works, and on this track it works like a charm. The intro is sorta quiet, except for Gerard Way’s sneering vocals and those big guitar hits, before that nasty guitar riff comes in. The verses are all brash and in your face with some nice guitar riffage, nothing too complex but perfect for the song. The pre-chorus sweetens things up a little bit, and then comes the fucking huge chorus. It’s huge I tell you. “I am not afraid to keep on living. I am not afraid to walk this world alone. Honey if you stay you’ll be forgiven. Nothing you can say can stop me going home,” it goes. Then after another round of verse, pre-chorus, and chorus, we get a huge Queen-ish build-up replete with big arena rock guitar solos, before it quiets down again. Now all this is great in and of itself, but the real treat comes at the end of the song. When the gut wrenching chords come in, things start building, the synths start to kick in full force, the lyrics build to their climax, and Gerard Way shoots up an octave to sing “I sleep all days, cause I see you lying next to me, with words I thought I’d never speak awake and unafraid”, that’s when the orgasm begins. It reaches its totally satisfying conclusion when the vocal layers pile on the already huge musical canvas playing the aforementioned lyrics against the chorus lyrics. The song fades out with these dueling layers in the forefront making you want to hit previous on your mp3 player to do it alllll over again. I swear my heart breaks everytime i hear this song. I don’t know why I resonate emotionally so much with this song, but I just do. I think it’s the romanticism of those last lines. Eventhough the kid has cancer he feels all right because the one he loves is lying beside him. A hopeless romantic I admittedly am.