So I’m going to put my indie-cred on the line to state the following: I really liked Panic at the Disco’s debut album “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out.” Before you bring out your pitchforks and torches, let me explain to you why:
A) Their songs are catchy as hell.
B) Many of their song titles and lyrics are derived from Chuck Palahniuk novels.
C) I have a soft spot in my heart for bands featuring piano.
D) At least they are trying something different. I get tired of watching bands in black t-shirts with bright colors and swooping hair styles do scissor kicks onstage. I say go ahead and dress up in Victorian outfits with circus performers, at least they are putting themselves out there!
The truth is for all the records they’ve sold and all the girls they have made shriek, PATD have gotten a lot of shit. Yeah, some of it was deserved: they seem bratty, they haven’t paid their dues playing the bar circuit and they got a lot of help by record label head Mr. Wentz. But really, which band out there wouldn’t want to make it big in under 12 months with help from the label head?
The critically loathed band found a home in a genre amongst protegees like Fall Out Boy and The All American Rejects selling millions of copies of cd’s and playing arenas full of kids (and their parents). Now, after an aborted “fairy tail” themed follow up, Panic (no exclamation point anymore) is back with their sophomore release “Pretty. Odd.” And boy, is it different very different. Gone are the electronic interludes and samples of “Fever” and in are the sounds of the 60’s and 70’s. You want strings and horns? “Pretty. Odd” has oodles of them. Harmonica? You got it! Self referencing Beatle-esque songs? Goo goo g’joob.
Apparently the band has been on a Beatles kick ever since the completion of their last tour. The bands first single off the new disc is “Nine In The Afternoon,” a song that has a guitar riff that seems to be transferred from “Abbey Road,” and a horn section that was choppered in from the “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heartclub Band” sessions. The band’s new sound is introduced previously in the album opener “We’re So Starving” which begins with the apology “Oh, how it’s been so long/ We’re sorry we’ve been gone/ We were busy writing songs for you” before stating “You don’t have to worry ’cause we’re still the same band,” all of which is over a Springsteen type guitar riff and a clapping audience that again harkins the beginnings of “Sgt. Pepper.” They are both damn catchy songs and two of the only songs off the album that has kept the playfulness of the bands first album. The momentum of the first two songs are quickly sucked away by “She’s A Handsome Woman.” This slow moving song has the feel of “White Blood Cells” - era White Stripes (with added instruments and layers, of course), which doesn’t work because lead singer Brendon Urie never really lets go enough to make the song work.
The same goes for “Do You Know What I’m Seeing?” where more bells and whistles are thrown in including strings, harmonica and, ummm, seagull caws. Both throw the kitchen sink at the listener but the songs are not interesting enough to keep the listeners attention. The pace picks up again with “The Green Gentlemen” (which, appropriately, states “Things have changed for me”) and the New Orleans ragtime ditty “I Have Friends In Holy Places” which sounds like it was recorded sometime in the 20’s. “Northern Downpour” has the abstract feel of Radioheads’ “No Surprises” while highlighting the bands love for Counting Crows and Third Eye Blind (both recognized influences of the band).
As the album continues, it’s obvious that the band really wanted to make a different type of record. The album harkins the sound of the 60’s and 70’s it doesn’t seem a deliberate attempt at gaining a new audience (though it might drive some of the fringe fans away) or trying to win over wayward critics. It seems like an album that the band really wanted to make, though it never fits as well as the band might have hoped. This has the feel of a record that might eventually grow on me, but after a few listens it has yet to grow on me. I admire that bands ability to adapt, but the bands original charm was that it was a fun, guilty pleasure full of word jumbles and old time Charleston dance moves. On the bands second disc the sound may be pretty, but I guess I’m just not in the mood to go on an odd journey.
Grade: B-
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Winnie Jaing // Apr 22, 2008 at 11:11 am
The title of the article and the article itself doesn’t match
but good review 
2 Winnie Jaing // Apr 22, 2008 at 11:12 am
oops, I meant the picture!
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