Panic At the Disco's "Pretty. Odd." - Album Review!

Album Review: Pretty. Odd. - Panic At the
Disco

"Pretty. Odd.", or "Panic At the Disco Discover The Beatles!" (not really, but still..).

I had waited ages for this album. The Panic(!) boys had actually written their second album, decided they didn't like it, and started from scratch.
They were trying to kill me, honest to blog.

I was actually a little worried for this album. Okay, maybe a lot worried.
After hearing Nine in the Afternoon (and viewing their new fashion choices), I realised that Panic at the Disco were so obviously trying to steer away from their 13-year-old-angsty-hormone-fueled-fangirl fanbase - not to mention their "emo" label - and sound "grown up".
But A Fever You Can't Sweat Out was original and fantastic. It was sarcastic, ironic, even cocky at times. Lyricist Ryan Ross now seems much happier in regards to his lyrics - with the exception of the few lines such as "but who could love me/I am out of my mind" and "I never said I missed her/when everybody kissed her" - but replacing lines on Fever such as "you know it will always just be me" with "your eyes are the size of the moon".

Can we blame his new girlfriend for being too awesome, thus neglecting Ryan of angst-y content?
Maybe.
Is it humane to wish Jac Vanek on him again?
Probably not.*

Panic (or rather, Ryan) also appear to have realised that there are authors other than Chuck Palahniuk, and movie-adaptations-of-plays other than "Closer". They also have lost the guyliner, which will no doubt upset many a fangirl. Also me.

Some of the melodies on Pretty. Odd. are a little disorganized, and some a bit too similar, but overall, the sound is thought-out well.
And who knows, maybe they'll get some 13-year-old-fangirls to listen to the Beatles instead of the vomit-stained sound (sorry!) of Simple Plan and the like.

It actually has very good choruses (many songs could remind one of The Beatles' "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", regarding the vast difference between the verse and chorus), and a lot of the songs are easy to sing along with.

The album starts out with We're So Starving, and Panic tells us "we're so sorry we've been gone/we were busy writing songs for you". Good to know. There's applause in the song, which probably doesn't help the fact that I'm already thinking "IT'S SGT. PEPPER'S LONLEY HEARTS CLUB BAAAND!". Panic also informs us that we don't have to worry, 'cause they're still the same band. But they're not, really. The got rid of Brent. Making them a slightly different band. So they're not the same. Which is a little sad. Even though Brent was a loser.
This song was released on Panic's MySpace page a while ago, causing outcry amongst fans - some loved it, many despised it. I leaned toward the latter. However, Pete Wentz wrote on his blog that it was a joke. Okay, Pete...
We're So Starving is an alright track for the opening of the album, though, and it provides a nice blend into the next song - Nine in the Afternoon.

Nine in the Afternoon is the first single on the album, and I have to say, it really grew on me, and I quite like it now.
The outro is also good, and makes me think of the outros on Fever - like the one in Lying is the Most Fun A Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off.

The next song, She's A Handsome Woman, has great lyrics. However, the tune does not really match the lyrics, something which Fall Out Boy pull off brilliantly, but, unfortunately, Panic do not do as well.

I love the chorus of the next song, Do You Know What I'm Seeing?. It really won me over a bit for the album. It has a strange sort of feeling to it, and is probably one of the best songs on the album.
However, it is probably a bit longer than it needs to be.

That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed) is definately my favourite song on the album. It definately has the capacity to be really good live. It will also be the second single from the album - a good choice, I think.
It does have the potential to have a big intro, but it fails to do so a bit.
Some people have been saying that it contradicts We're So Starving by saying "things have changed for me/but that's okay", but I think that what they are trying to say is that their surroundings and situations have changed, but the band has not.

I Have Friends in Holy Spaces is more of an interval. It isn't anything special, and the song quality is a little annoying, but the song itself isn't too bad.

Northern Downpour is very pretty (not so much odd..), and sadder than the other songs. I liked it immediantly.
It has the lyrics "one and lonley" which I am guessing Panic have borrowed from Fall Out Boy and Timbaland's song One and Only.
Northern Downpour also, like on many other songs, features Ryan singing back-up vocals, and then solo, which is fantastic.
The song also has a nice ending.

Pas De Cheval - which means "step of the horse" in French, and is a ballet term (you have no idea how much I laughed when I read this title) - is another song I liked immediantly. It has Ryan singing back-up vocals again. It is catchy and less-mellow than the other songs, and Brendon sounds especially good on this song. I also like the guitar solo.

When the Day Met the Night is also a pretty good song. It features great story telling, almost as good as Regina Spektor's and The Beatles' during Eleanor Rigby.

At the beginning, The Piano Knows Something I Don't sounds very much like a song that is part of musical would. It then has a fantastic build-up, and is very catchy. The general sequence of the song is actually good for a change.

Beyond the Sea features Ryan singing again so I am about to die from happiness. However, I have to point out - "legs of wood waves"?! Um, okay!
The end of it has a build-up of random noises that reminds me of another album by another band who had another band member who wanted us to give peace a chance, HMMM.

My first thoughts upon hearing Folkin' Around were "Oh dear god no". Apparantly, I am not the only one with this reaction, because the critics hate it as well ("just for the record/the weather today/is slightly sarcastic with a good chance of/a) indifference/or b) disinterest/in what the critics say" - just had to throw that in there!).
However, as the song progresses, it isn't too bad, and, although it is definately not my favourite song on the album, it is forgivable.

She Had the World features Ryan singing again! Again! Oh, love! He sings one of my favourite bits in the song, too!
However, the song seems to shun rhymes. Rhyming isn't necessary, of course, but here it disrupts the flow of the song somewhat.
At first the song is kind of mediocre, but after you listen to it a few times, it definately grows on you - something I think will happen for all the other songs.

From A Cabin in the Mountains has good lyrics, however, the tune doesn't quite live up to it. I think it's yet another one of those "grow on you" songs.

Mad as Rabbits has a very good beginning, and is a not-particularly-good-but-not-terrible ending to the album.
I definately like the "we must reinvent love" part.

Overall, while A Fever You Can't Sweat Out is definately their best album of the two, Pretty. Odd. is actually a good listen. It's very mellow but it still has that something about it that made Panic so popular in the first place.
However, you can not listen to it with Fever in mind - you'll just be a bit disappointed.
Also don't listen to Fall Out Boy's Take This To Your Grave after it, because you'll wonder how the hell people can be so un-angry.

Song Picks:
That Green Gentleman
Mad As Rabbits

Rating:
3 stars out of 5.




*This is, of course, a joke, as I do not actually know Jac Vanek and therefore can not form a proper negative opinion on her. Don't sue meeeee!

Panic(!) At the Disco News!

Panic(!) At the Disco recently posted some lyrics from some of the songs from their upcoming album, "Pretty. Odd." (I'm excited!). Read them below!

Also, here is the official tracklisting:

1. We're So Starving
2. Nine in the Afternoon
3. She's A Handsome Woman
4. Do You Know What I'm Seeing?
5. That Green Gentleman
6. I Have Friends in Holy Spaces
7. Northern Downpour
8. When the Day Met the Night
9. Pas De Cheval
10. The Piano Knows Something I Don't
11. Behind the Sea
12. Folkin' Around
13. She Had the World
14. From A Mountain in the Middle of the Cabins
15. Mad As Rabbits

Lyrics
WE’RE SO STARVING
Oh how it’s been so long,
We’re so sorry we’ve been gone
We were busy writing songs for you.

You don’t have to worry, cause we’re still the same band.
You don’t have to worry, you don’t.


NINE IN THE AFTERNOON
Back to the street where we began
Feeling as good as lovers can you know,
yea we’re feeling so good.
Picking up things we shouldn’t read
It looks like the end of history as we know,
It’s just the end of the world.

Back to the street where we began
Feeling as good as love you could you can

Into a place where thoughts can bloom
Into a room where it’s nine in the afternoon
And we know that it could be
And we know that it should
And you know that you feel it too.

Cause it’s nine in the afternoon
And your eyes are the size of the moon
You could cause you can, so you do.
We’re feeling so good, just the way that we do
When it’s nine in the afternoon.

Back to the street down to our feet,
losing the feeling of feeling unique.
Do you know what I mean?
Back to the place where we used to say,
Man it feels good to feel this way.
Now I know what I mean.

Back to the street, back to the place,
Back to the room where it all began.


SHE’S A HANDSOME WOMAN
Innocence.
Sunk the glow and drowned in covers,
send for all your absent lovers things.

Sheepish Wolves.
Looking lived in eating buttons,
Wink, just don’t put your teeth on me.

Accidents.
Let the evening in the backdoor,
filled the room ceiling to the floor.

Beat backbones.
Grazed the poem and made it strange,
I wasn’t born to be a skeleton.

Go on,
grab your hat and fetch a camera.
Go on, film the world before it happens.

Jealous orchard.
The sky is falling off the ceiling
while I’m tucking fibs into a cookie jar.

Bombed reverie.
It’s useless searching in the cupboards
when everything you have is on your back.


THAT GREEN GENTELMAN
Things are shaping up to be pretty odd.
Little deaths in musical beds.
So it seems I’m someone I’ve never met.

You will only hear these elegant crimes,
Fall on your ears from criminal dimes.
They spill unfound from a pretty mouth.

everybody gets there and everybody gets their way.
I never said I missed her when everybody kissed her,
Now I’m the only one to blame.

Things have changed for me, and that’s okay.
I feel the same, I’m on my way, and I say.

I want to go where everyone goes,
I want to know what everyone knows
I want to go where everyone feels the same

I never said I’d leave the city,
I never said I’d leave this town.
A falling out we won’t tiptoe about.


MAD AS RABBITS
Come save me from walking off a windowsill
or I’ll sleep in the rain.
Don’t you remember when I was a bird
and you were a map?
Now he drags down miles in America
briefcase in hand.
The stove is creeping up his spine again,
can’t get enough trash.

He took the days for pageant
Became as mad as rabbits
With bushels of bad habits
Who could ask for anymore?
Yea who could have more.

His arms were the branches of a Christmas tree
preached the devil in the belfry.
He checked in
to learn his clothes had been thieved at the train station.
Rope hung his other branch
and at the end was a dog called bambi
Who was chewing on his parliaments
when he tried to save the calendar business.

The poor son of a humble chimney sweep
fell to a cheap crowd
So stay asleep and put on that cursive type
you know we live in a toy.
Paul Cates bought himself a trumpet from the salvation army
But there ain’t no sunshine in his song
We must reinvent love.