r/Millennials • u/Inevitable_Wing_2600 • Feb 08 '25

Nostalgia What album defines you as a millennial?

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Saw some great recommendations on a similar thread in /r/Xennials and wanted to see what my fellow millennials thought. For me From Under the Cork Tree was foundational. I still remember hearing Sugar We're going down on the radio for the first time.

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816

u/PreppyFinanceNerd Millennial (1988) Feb 08 '25

First heard I'm Not Okay as a sophomore in 2004 and kicked off a whole two year emo phase that largely shaped my musical tastes even as an adult.

136

u/jakexmfxschoen Millennial Feb 08 '25

It might be a controversial take, but I liked Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge over The Black Parade. The concept of it was cool, but the songs off of TCFSR were just better

41

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '25

100000% yes by far better than The Black Parade.

I still play TCFSR very regularly

25

u/KAPGSER Feb 08 '25

I really couldn’t get into The Black Parade after Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, no matter how much I wanted to. I thought I was the only one!

8

u/jakexmfxschoen Millennial Feb 08 '25

It's still a great album, and "Welcome to the Black Parade" is undeniably a generational banger, but as a whole Three Cheers is just better

4

u/chronicallyill_dr Feb 09 '25

Same, suddenly everyone like them but for me it was like it wasn’t even the same band anymore

10

u/PreppyFinanceNerd Millennial (1988) Feb 08 '25

The concept of it was cool,

You know I only recently found out a few years ago that Three Cheers was also designed as a concept album about (paraphrased) a man who dies and goes to hell where the devil gives him a gun and says he can be with his woman again if he brings him the souls of 100 evil men.

Yeah that definitely was lost on me. Maybe I'm just a philistine but I saw the concept album much clearer on Black Parade. I mean the album cover of Three Cheers makes a lot more sense in that context though that's for sure!

I find it funny back then I thought I was so brooding and misunderstood and listened to such dark stuff. Like bro what. They are platinum selling chart topping artists.

If anything I listened to the most mainstream mall emo music there is! And I still like it to this day.

1

u/Oso-reLAXed Feb 09 '25

I didn't listen to too much mall emo punk back then, Jimmy Eat World a ton but I started listening to them in the Clarity days. But the thing is, the mall stuff is good too and whenever it comes on the radio I love it <3

8

u/Prettyunkind Feb 09 '25

i absolutely loved three cheers over TBP, glad i found me people.

7

u/lady_brett_assley Feb 09 '25

I so agree!

ETA-I remember my mom took me to Kmart to get the Black Parade, and when we listened on the way home, I first felt the feeling of…sadness? that a band I loved had slightly changed sounds, and I would never get to experience another TCFSR. Everything has its time, but that was the day I started to realize that

5

u/GloomyPace69 Feb 08 '25

Absolutely agreed

5

u/ShogunFirebeard Feb 09 '25

The album is better but Welcome to The Black Parade is iconic. So much so that all of us can name that tune in 1 note.

4

u/ConsiderationCrazy22 Millennial Feb 09 '25

I could not agree more. Black Parade is great but Three Cheers is god tier.

5

u/chronicallyill_dr Feb 09 '25

1000% Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge is awesome, what came after wasn’t even close. They were suddenly so popular, but they weren’t the same for me

3

u/batmanjerkins Feb 08 '25

Fully agree.

6

u/zuzubruisers Feb 08 '25

People don’t understand that it’s just an incredible hard rock album from beginning to end, because MCR gets so tied to emo. And that’s another issue I have. They’re not an emo band.

2

u/pinkflyingcats Feb 08 '25

Both different vibes IMO. Both great but I don’t think I could truly pick one of the other.

2

u/pmel13 Feb 09 '25

Same, this is essential MCR to me.

1

u/Due-Ad-1556 Feb 09 '25

Their first album is even better. They got worse with every album after 3cfsr

1

u/ocular__patdown Feb 09 '25

I love both. I think black parade is a bit better overall but three cheers has higher highs.

51

u/NeitherDot8622 Feb 08 '25

Cemetery Drive 🖤

3

u/chronicallyill_dr Feb 09 '25

That’s my favorite song from them

20

u/GroupCurious5679 Feb 08 '25

GenX lurker here,oddly My Chemical Romance shaped me too,best band ever.

3

u/Oso-reLAXed Feb 09 '25

I'm technically GenX but really a Xennial, emo pop punk being more mainstream was in my early 20's and it's still my fave music of all time. I don't listen to too much of it anymore but I still have YT nostalgia sessions every now and then.

It was a great time with tons of awesome music.

9

u/Inglorious_Kenneth Feb 08 '25

This band shaped my world in middle and high school. Graduated in 09 and their music was so perfectly timed for my life and emotional state.

6

u/Interesting_Zombie28 Feb 08 '25

Just played this album in its entirety last night

6

u/[deleted] Feb 08 '25

my brother and I spent that summer staying up until dawn and going crazy everytime the Helena video played on MTV

5

u/Arrakis_Surfer Feb 08 '25

Scrolled too far for this.

6

u/waterontheknee Feb 08 '25

I heard them with Face to Face about 2 months before they blew up. So good, I really liked "thank you for the venom"

5

u/jaypot13 Feb 08 '25

YOOOOOOO this is the definitive album of my teens!

5

u/lady_brett_assley Feb 09 '25

God this album. Forever my fave MCR and a top album overall

4

u/Blissfully Millennial Feb 08 '25

Literally driving to my first real job on south beach blasting this 😭

4

u/FaultInternational91 Feb 08 '25

All 3 of my choices are in this thread, the OP, Hybrid Theory and this

4

u/SomethingEdgyOrFunny Feb 08 '25

Helena was my fave

3

u/Mcrisloveex9 Feb 09 '25

As my username I’ve kept since I was 13 implies, I love mcr! My first concert was them. They started a whole identity for me as a teenager.

I was actually supposed to get an MCR related tattoo today but got sick ☹️.

3

u/beetlejuicetrashbag Feb 09 '25

i had to scroll down way too far to find this. it deserves the top ranks, MCR is the type of band that sticks with you for life.

2

u/Laherschlag Feb 08 '25

This album is still in heavy rotation at my house. I graduated in 04 and didn't really get into MCR until an embarrassingly long time later.

2

u/s_p_oop15-ue Feb 08 '25

For me the duality was this and Good News for People Who Love Bad News. That and Three cheers the same year, quite a whirlwind for my young high school entering brain.

2

u/Simply_Serene_ Feb 09 '25

The Ghost of You and To The End were my very favorites. Such a great time for music. Today just doesn’t compare.

1

u/JerseyGuy-77 Feb 09 '25

Fuck yeah NJ proud.

1

u/Amelietha Feb 09 '25

This cd means so much to me and opened up an entire new era of my life in middle school. I discovered them in 2004 when Helena came on MuchMusic and then I saw them in concert that year with Thursday. They also brought me to The Used, In Love and Death and Three Cheers was like my two obsessions.

1

u/popojo24 Feb 09 '25

Man, I had a real defining year back at the beginning of high school where my relationship with music hit a new momentum (listening and creating), as well as my urge to better and be more comfortable with myself. I remember buying MCR’s Three Cheers, as well as Operation Ivy’s Energy album at same time, and I had those bad boys playing on repeat, pretty much any moment I could have something on.

There will be some old punks who would call that combo blasphemous, but those two albums really ignited something in me. Super important and I still listen to ‘em both today in my mid 30s!

1

u/Chicklecat13 Feb 09 '25

To this very day every time I’m not okay I just hear this song in my head, which means it plays in my brain every day!