Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Return of the Days of Danger
On July 10, 2026, My Chemical Romance will release a new deluxe edition of their fourth studio album, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, with nine bonus tracks. The original album and two of its singles are certified platinum.
The release will be available in a plethora of formats: streaming, download, 2CD, multiple 2LP configurations including picture disc, zoetrope, and color vinyl variants, and even cassette. On their Black Parade tour, My Chemical Romance will hit Europe in June, the U.S. in August, and then Southeast Asia.
Pre-order or pre-save here.
Neil Diamond: Trilogy Complete
May 8, 2026 saw the release of the third and final album from Neil Diamond’s 2007 collaboration with famed producer Rick Rubin. Wild at Heart offers up 10 tracks that hadn’t been previously released from the sessions for Diamond’s #1 album Home Before Dark.
“My work with Rick was a labor of love,” Neil said, “and I’m so gratified that these songs will finally be set free into the world to complete our trilogy of work.”
Daughters of the Song
Amy Lee Nelson, daughter of Willie Nelson, and Tina Rose Bridges, daughter of Leon Russell, have released their first single as newly-formed country/Americana/”Gospell” [sic?] duo AleeN ROSE [AY-lee-uhn rohz] in advance of their self-titled debut album, out soon on Luna Wolf Records.
The single “They’re There” marks the birthday of Amy Lee’s late brother Billy Nelson and Tina Rose’s late father, legendary keyboardist, songwriter and arranger Leon Russell. The two women grew up knowing each other from their fathers’ many stage collaborations.
Said Amy Lee Nelson, “I shared with [Tina Rose] a song that I had begun writing after having dream visions of my brother, Billy. I asked her to write the second verse as a healing outlet for her [own] pain and grief. I was blown away by the verse she brought back to me. But it still wasn’t finished and we weren’t sure where to take it. We asked my dad for help, and so he wrote the bridge. Now it is a full-on family song, as it should be.”
Sisterhood: Fanny Mendelssohn
Speaking of famous relatives, today pianist Ana-Marija Markovina releases Vol. 1 of her recording of the complete solo piano works of Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, sister of Felix Mendelssohn.
Markovina has already recorded the entire solo piano music by Felix, by C.P.E. Bach, and others. But recording Fanny’s 160 or so piano works is special to the pianist in a particular way: “Fanny’s universe moves me time and again to a state of reverential awe,” Markovina says. “Her personal biography contains quite a considerable portion of tragedy precisely because it is not a story of legendary artistic potential but an example of the strictures of the era in which she lived.”
Today marks the Hänssler Classic digital release. A CD box will be available June 19, 2026.
