Panic At The Disco

For this addition to Why Haven’t You Heard? I’m going to switch things around and tell you exactly why you haven’t heard Panic At The Disco (without the exclamatory gimmick)’s second, well-anticipated album Pretty. Odd. Their opener for the album, “We’re So Starving”, promises “we’re still the same band,” and sorely disappoints, if not outright lies. Three core elements of Panic’s original sound were abstract lyrics, intense techno, and balance; the first album featured two word-less techno jams to flavor the album. Needless to say there’s nothing wrong with adding more guitar rifts and solos to a band’s sound, but completely replacing techno with old-rock guitar makes for a shell-shocking difference.

The repetition in this album is overbearing to say the least - the chorus to “I Have Friends in Holy Spaces” has every line ending with ‘friends’. And yes, the worst has happened; in “She’s and Handsome Woman”, Panic depends on a hook to carry the song through, as though it were a life raft to keep them from drowning under an atrocious opening song and that headache “Nine In the Afternoon” all of us have the misfortune of knowing thanks to radio play. As sad as it may be, “Nine In the Afternoon” is the only song on the album that even attempt to resemble their original sound; indeed in “Folkin’ Around”, which is straight from a hoedown with banjo and violin, the only recognizable aspect of the old Panic is Brendan Urie’s voice.

Granted there are some interesting stories on the album that are merely poorly delivered, such as “She Had The World” and “Behind The Sea”, but a band cannot hope to carry the weight of fifteen tracks on the shoulders of two decent concepts. If one wished to transfer from country to some vague form of indie, Pretty. Odd. would be a perfect match for them. For previous Panic! fans who want to give the album a try the best way to approach it is as though Panic! At The Disco and Panic At The Disco are two entirely different bands. It may be beneficial to look into whether Pretty. Odd. is Panic’s withdrawal from some club drug that influenced their first album and switching over to opium. It also may be safe to say that their sparkle left the band when they ditched the exclamation point. To hear for yourself, check out www.myspace.com/panicatthedisco. Proceed with caution.