Image credit: My Chemical Romance: Chapman Baehler

My Chemical Romance

The emo superstars go big on their third CD, an eccentric concept album that owes an obvious debt to Green Day's American Idiot — and easily outshines the current cookie-cutter bands in their genre. There's tons happening here — including strings, accordions, and a full marching band — as MCR transform themselves into ''The Black Parade,'' a death-obsessed alter ego. The results are by turns morbid and triumphant, with hints of sea shanties, Broadway... and a little Bon Jovi (hey, they're from Jersey).