can you give me a rundown on what's happening in mcr world regarding these leaks, i know about the tpk but it's hard to keep up
I'm going to try to lay out the entire timeline thus far- I'm typing this on 2/17/26 (if you're looking for a tracklist that will continue to be updated as things come out and information becomes clearer, my pinned post has a link to it)
Hi it's the 18th now and there's probably going to be a part two one day before too long hopefully.
In 2016 a large amount of files belonging to Warner Brothers leaked, including MCR demos. Those demos were vaulted and listed for, allegedly, around $1,500- $5000 per song (USD)
Pre-Swarm, a trailer (I've yet to pinpoint which) apparently had the chanting from Paper Swords. UPDATE 2/18/26: Thanks poolboydivision' for directing me to killrockstar's post with both the trailer clip and audio AND a comparison to the Paper Swords chant!! + frankieromoaning uploaded this higher quality copy! 2020 they posted a reunion trailer called The Summoning, and an early version allegedly contained the first note of Witch (I have not found a copy of THIS specific version of the video yet). 2/18/26: Shoutout to Smeagles for clarifying some stuff: Witch's first note appeared in an instagram promo before being removed, muted, and then reused. The youtube copy was a first attempt at archiving it, and while it still currently seems lost, it's not as lost as I previously understood.
This was the marketing where the Witch' code circle and the An Offering imagery comes from. Because of Covid restrictions the show got reworked and a lot of this marketing got deleted and seemingly scrapped.
I'm looking for a recording, but people recall a clip of Dive being played before MCR took stage at their first reunion show In the same post sourced above, Smeagle's linked this Dive intro and I now have a backup of that video (if you guys want that in the album file, let me know). The Offering cloaks have appeared in the stage shows since, and there's the Literal Paper Kingdom used as the Gentleman's Castle set in the visuals during Teenagers now.
In 2022, (all this happened on leakedCX) users named Excalibur and buyers Aang and Attam communicated, with a middleman (see leakedCX for more context) named D0UG. D0UG's username Probably? has nothing to do with Our Doug RIP<3 or his laptop?
Attam got tracks and began double-selling (saying "only you get this song" to multiple buyers getting the same song). I know nothing about Aang other than them being namedropped in a reddit comment I received three hours ago. Witch was the most circulated song around this time, and someone (Excalibur? Though I do not have screenshots or a source) said that Foundations had undergone many revisions.
February 1st (or January 31st depending on where you are), a full sequence of a majority of TPK tracks are leaked. At every point here, the songs we get are caught by content ID systems, save one I will mention when we get there. We know this leak is legit as Excalibur would prove their stock by sharing a-few-second-long-clips of the songs with an auditory "excaliburrr" every few seconds- and, also, they get copyright strikes.
Someone on the TPK subreddit (r/thepaperkingdomMCR) starts posting images of schoolbuses and fanedits of MCR EP covers that feature schoolbuses. I believe this was an account owned by ComingofJesus (COJ).
On February 11th, a few hours separated, they (COJ?) leak Behind the Bus and Into your Arms. Warner continues copyright striking, COJ's alleged reddit account is deleted. Behind the bus is unique cause it's a .wav file and the most DONE song yet, and it credits both Gerard and James Dewees as writers (from the metadata). Bus is tagged 2013.
On February 12th, COJ leaks "GAWAY Song," which probably means Gerard Arthur Way song. Whether this is late MCR or early solo Gerard is unknown currently, but the copyright strikes both call the song "gaway song" and source it to MCR. Later that day, COJ claims to have sold everything remaining to a private buyer- they were not accepting middle men nor group buys (see leakedCX and their rules). Dogs .wav, which had mastering (at least somewhat) completed and included dialogue, was one of the songs sold, and was leaked about an hour later.
Two hours after that, the .wav, smoother recording of Bike Thief was leaked, lacking the "Stars Align" transition/interlude that contentID recognized as the lead-in on the original sequence mp3. Then, a .flac copy of Wake Up without the organ solo, but with the band members talking, is dropped. Dark Cloud drops without the door-opening sound effect, but including "studio banter."
A rougher mix of War Beneath the Rain was dropped in .flac, with the same quality degredation/issues as the last three, followed by a .wav version in better quality but lacking the between-track-fade. (NOTE: It's still unclear when the fade ins and outs were added, nor by who. I'm sure there's a chance something we currently think is a transition is just a result of how the first sequence was mashed together, or if the band just needed a mashed up continuous-play of a shorter TPK at some point.)
2/18/26 Update: We now have, what's considered to be, an earlier sequencing of the test tracklist, and one reddit comment (so far) say's this altered version of Fake your Death has actually been heard before, so these sequences are now LIKELY the band intentionally clipping different sessions together/doing different runthroughs WITH transitions RATHER than transitions having been added by any leaker.
Some fan remasters and AI "remasters" and "upscales" began to circulate.
On February 14th, COJ dropped Batman Map. No date has been confirmed for the production of this song yet, but the name could be a throw to a Batman comic concept Gerard had where Batman's cape had a magic map on it's underside. Apparently. This song has YET to be copyright stricken.
Note that English is probably not COJ's first language- they then drop "Sketchs in Batman Map Demo (4)." This is a recording session where Ray and Gerard draft Batman for about twenty minutes.
A clip of another studio session titled "BATMANMAP-TPK1" is dropped, by a different user. The dates for this are unconfirmed and are not available in the metadata- this leaker says 2019, COJ says 2012.
(One of the timeline's I'm using to check this says an instrumental of Witch with unconfirmed authenticity then dropped, but I do not have this file and currently cannot find it. This also sparked 2019 vs 2012 discussion.)
COJ released the full "BATMANMAP-TPK1" as a file called "Untitled 2." is a studio session lasting about thirty six minutes. Their workshopping of Batman also has them play part of Falling Down near the end.
Bebsy, who leaked Wake Up's and Dark Cloud's .flac's, shared "Foundations (8) DRM Editing_2.wav" which has some lyrical differences to the final, official song.
COJ said one of the people they sold songs to was Galileeo11. Galileo, according to a comment from a user claiming to have spoken to them, says they actually got their files for free, but were told not to post them. About two(?) days ago now, they claimed their files are from after 2018, and not to be surprised if "Make It' becomes found. (Make It is a rumored song that the community has known about for at least a few years, found through copyright information dating to 2021.)
Other than waiting for more songs and sessions to appear, what's the most confusing is when Batman + Those Sessions + Foundations could've first been conceived. Foundations was never found in any part of the 2016 leak, but most of these files are ones that would've been on Doug's computers throughout the 2010s and early this decade- especially because they pulled some of that material back out for the reunion and current shows. We know this was after Danger Days because Gerard brings up that album by name in the first recording session we were given. Is Bus actually MCR or was Gerard doing something with James for Reggie and the Full Effect? Is "GAWAY" a Gerard solo? When is the earliest we can confirm Foundations existed? Those kinds of things.
OBVIOUS DISCLAIMER THAT ELEMENTS OF THIS POST CAN EASILY BE WRONG AND WE ARE PROBABLY NOT CLOSE TO DONE LEARNING ABOUT THIS.
A reddit thread chronicling a majority of MCR Lost Songs
A fan blog about the production and earlier leak timelines from TPK
Comments about Galileeo11 not purchasing the tracks
Smeagle's post here of screenshots from Galileeo11, Make It namedrop
Screenshot's of COJ's Bus teasers on reddit
2/18: Post with a comment saying FYD alternate has been heard prior to today
>Another test sequence, bike thief lossless, foundations demo, bus demo, that's what im getting copies of right now
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