CD Review: Frank Iero and the Patience – “Parachutes” (BMG Music)

Frank Iero has certainly kept his dance card full post-My Chemical Romance, but with Parachutes, the sophomore album from his latest venture Frank Iero and the Patience, he may have just found his new calling. At its core, Parachutes is part pissy, sneering garage punk rock with a snarling attitude (“World Destroyer,” “Veins! Veins!! Veins!!!,” “The Resurrectionist, or an Existential Crisis in C”) and part indie alt-rock (“I’ll Let You Down,” “Remedy,” “9-6-15”), though it’s much more than that in the end. The band does their best Brand New impression on “They Wanted Darkness…,” a four-minute monster that builds and crashes like a tidal wave of sound, the spastic, unpredictable and aptly titled “Dear Percocet, I Don’t Think We Should See Each Other Anymore,” which pretty well sonically encapsulates Parachutes, is a cathartic and seemingly therapeutic release for Iero, whose vocals devolve into manic screams swirling in a pool of grating guitars and “Miss Me” is sprawling and disparaging folk rock at its most emotional as Iero sings ‘I hope somebody miss me when I’m gone / I hope somebody miss me when I’m gone / I know it ain’t right to want someone to cry / I just hope you miss me when I’m gone.’ If My Chemical Romance never decides to get the band back together, it might be for the best, because if we get more from Frank Iero and the Patience, we’re all better off for it.

Grade: A-

Go Download: “I’m A Mess”