Singles Roundup: Avantasia, Pale Waves, Yours Truly, & MCR

We have some big names with new songs this week. But are they any good?

Avantasia - The Wicked Rule The Night

I'm not afraid to criticize those who have made so much of my favorite music, and that's the case here. The first song from a new Avantasia album cycle is here, and it's..... so depressing. First of all, it sounds far more like "Hellfire Club" era Edguy than it does Avantasia. That isn't a problem by itself, even if it does undercut Tobi's own rationale for Edguy no longer being active. The bigger issue is that the chorus of the song isn't very strong, which it needed to be, becaue Ralp Scheeper's shrieks his way through the verses with some deeply unpleasant sounding vocals. My first reaction was to turn the song off, and I don't see myself warming up to it. On first reaction, this is easily the weakest song ever released as an Avantasia single. If this is what the album has in store for us, it's a good thing I'm used to being disappointed.

Pale Waves - Lies

Album number three is coming this summer, and the first track from it seems to be pointing us in yet another direction. They had quite the change in sound from album one to album two, and while this one isn't as dramatic, it is still another shift that makes it hard to pin down who Pale Waves are. This is headed back in the synth direction of the debut, but with a completely different feeling behind it. This song is almost entirely driven by the mood,  as Heather gives us a vocal melody with little hook to it. It's as if the band is now purposely trying to make their music inaccessible as a response to the backlash their last album received. Whatever the reason, this is a dull song, and it portends more issues of identity the album probably won't be able to answer. I'm not looking forward to this one.

Yours Truly - Hallucinate

With a new EP now scheduled for release in July, this single is keeping the hype train rolling. Written to express what an anxiety attack sounds like, it finds the band continuing to sound darker than they did on "Self Care". While I wouldn't mind a bit more pop fun thrown into the mix, they're striking the right balance between confronting the ugly issues of life and sounding confident we can move past them. This isn't as addictive as "Composure" was as a single, but the upcoming EP still sounds like a possible highlight of the summer.

My Chemical Romance - The Foundations Of Decay

Oh boy. After more than a decade away, MCR has finally released a new song. Look, I like "The Black Parade" like everyone else, but I don't understand why the band are talked about as legends. Everything else they've done isn't that impressive to me, on its own or compared to their peers, and this song is further evidence a lot of people listen to music with their hearts and not their ears. If this wasn't MCR, it would never get any traction at all. It's six minutes of slow build, no hook, and a piss-poor mix. I would say the band is trolling the fans by intentionally putting out something terrible, as if to prove a point, but that would require me to think more (or is it less?) of them than I do. This song is terrible, and the love it has gotten is totally baffling.