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Following their appearance at the When We Were Young festival last month, My Chemical Romance (MCR) has ignited rumors of new music on the horizon. The band shared an image depicting a dystopian city skyline filled with floating pieces of paper on Monday, November 11, 2024.
The cryptic nature of their latest "comment-disabled" Instagram post stirred fan discussions surrounding a new album on My Chemical Romance's official Subreddit.
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The three letters on the image resemble Russian characters, which publications like NME speculate translate to "TPK". The caption on MCR's Instagram post reads:
"If you could be anything, what would you be?"
This marks the first hint of new music from My Chemical Romance since their 2022 single, The Foundations of Decay. Fans have taken to social media to analyze and discuss the meaning behind this post.
Individuals were seen theorizing whether the image might hint at the release of The Paper Kingdom, an album that was shelved a year before the band officially broke up in 2013.
My Chemical Romance fans speculate on The Paper Kingdom album release after cryptic Instagram post
Over a decade ago, MCR revealed they had completed six tracks from a project titled The Paper Kingdom. The album was set to follow up on the band's fourth studio album Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys released in 2010.
Community notes on Genius suggest that some tracks from the scrapped LP were supposedly included in MCR's 2014 greatest hits album, May Death Never Stop You.
The records that have surfaced in leaks over the years, with speculation suggesting them to have been written for TPK, are listed below:
- Witch
- Wake Up
- Fake Your Death
- Dark Cloud
- Fake Your Death
Shortly after the cryptic Instagram post, fans flocked to My Chemical Romance's Subreddit, launching a thread called "WHAT DOES THIS MEAN," to theorize a potential album rollout.
"Ran right here after seeing this post" - A fan stated.
"Literally my brain went "WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!", ran to Reddit, and this was the first thing I saw" - Added another.
"A new MCR album would be an incredible way to welcome 2025" - Another suggested
"MCR 5 BABYYYY DONT TELL ME TO TAKE MY MEDS EVER AGAIN ITS REALLLL" - A fan excitedly states.
"Who else immediately ran to reddit after seeing this. A new MCR album would cure me of all my problems" - A user claims.
While many fans on the Subreddit excitedly shared their opinions on a potential new album, several users were found attempting to analyze the Instagram post in depth.
Users were found suggesting the imagery on the band's post hints at the possibility of My Chemical Romance rolling out their fifth studio album, with many believing the project to be their scrapped The Paper Kingdom LP.
"I think it has to do with Paper Kingdom, there are papers floating around everywhere and there is a castle in the background." - A fan claimed.
"Also they have to have had some inkling that the image and the paper will recall the paper kingdom idk!!!" - Said another.
"Maybe they could have reworked some parts they didn't want to share, or done a whole new story line that still matches the title" - A fan suggests
"It's just kinda weird to pick up on a project you were working on 10 years ago. Idk some people do it but like... you're an entirely different person after 10 years" - Another stated.
One individual broke down MCR's Instagram post, proposing that the "falling paper" and cryptic letters point to a connection with The Paper Kingdom, explaining:
"I'm not gonna lie this give The Paper Kingdom vibes. For one I mean look at the literal paper falling. Like a kingdom made of paper that is falling apart. But not just that, the letters. The first is a backward K, the second just add a vertical line and it could be a backward P, and the third, straighten it up and you have a T. Then flip it around and it says TPK"
Following My Chemical Romance's split in 2013, lead singer Gerard Way spoke about their scrapped TPK album in an exclusive interview. He suggests the band's intention to dive into darker themes of loss and grief, carried by an intriguing storyline, set in the fictional world of The Paper Kingdom.
"It’s going to be this storyline about a support group of parents who are dealing with the loss of their children so they make up this story about the children all being missing in the woods and fighting this witch and that that was what it was about. It was called The Paper Kingdom." - Gerard Way stated.
Although information on My Chemical Romance's highly anticipated fifth studio album remains scarce, their recent Instagram post is driving fan theories surrounding the band's music and a potential upcoming project.
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