Damion Parr - 4/1/2012

Panic! At The Disco- Pretty Odd

Panic! At The Disco (P!ATD) are now well renowned for their unique sound and strange lyrics that have their own seductive lure. A lot of their songs make absolutely no sense to the listener and really in theory a lot of them should simply flop. However they all have a certain je-ne-sais-quoi about them that make them compelling to listen too and have brought P!ATD worldwide fame in the Indy music world.

This is their second of three albums and in my opinion the best, it has a much more mellow and relaxed feel to it; perfect for playing on a summer's night. It summarises to me who they are and what they're about with a lot of personal touches clear in their songs that allow me as the listener to connect with the artist; and that's special. It goes against the expectations of the fans from the original album's release, bringing a completely new style to Panic, but for me it is an utterly compelling one. I have listened to this CD countless times and it has proudly held it's place on my iPod since it's release.

The lyrics are truly weird and wonderful, and all of there interpretations of them equally so: God knows hundreds of ideas have erupted from these lyrics and chased themselves round and round in my head. Panic's videos are also well renowned for their uniqueness and artistic take on themes. "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" was a video which caused large controversy over it's style but drew hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Particular highlights of the album for me are the very popular "Nine in the Afternoon" just for it's unique take on life and the way time revolves around us. "I Have Friends in Holy Spaces" also charmed me with it's unique style along with "Northern Downpour" combining great lyrics and relaxing music that let everything around sink away; something any good record should be able to do.

The album clearly takes inspiration from the Beatles' later work, using every orchestral instrumental imaginable and all to an extremely professional degree; the recording work going on here really is excellent. The whole niche of P!ATD is that they have no real overall style, I've already talked about how each song has it's own unique style and this is true: because each song has no real style. Take "That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)" it truly defeats any form of categorisation, and yet still this clash of several styles seems to work in the Quartet's favour and make the song a pleasure to listen too.

This album is certainly not one intended to please their stereotypical fan base, they have gone all out on the ambition here; taking on nearly every genre there is. If there were any die-hard Panic fans picking up this album for the first time after hearing their original release (A Fever You Can't Sweat Out,) they may have been disappointed. However for those who wish to taste a pallet of all sorts, polished to the infinite degree then this is truly worth a listen.