10 Pop-Punk Bands Whose Second Album Was Better Than Their First
4. My Chemical Romance
I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me A Better Album.
Firstly, apologies to all those who are gasping in horror at My Chemical Romance being classified as a pop punk band here, but it's near impossible to NOT have them on this list.
While the band's trajectory has taken them down the road of stadium rock, their first outing is very much in the pop punk mould - and arguably the best thing they ever did was veer away from those roots.
Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge is often thought of as MCR's first outing - purely because it's when they stepped out to be noticed! However, the lesser-known I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love was released way back in 2002.
Tracks like Vampires Will Never Hurt You, Headfirst For Halos and Honey, This Mirror... are still iconic to this day, but nothing could have ever lived up to the genius of Three Cheers. I'm Not Okay and Helena put the rocket on the band and gave them the platform for mainstream success with third album The Black Parade.
While somewhat of a departure from their punk origins, Three Cheers was a small step in the direction they've strode in now, and has sold over three million copies to date in the United States alone, and is still heralded as one of the greatest "emo" albums of all time.