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Album Review: Panic at the Disco, "Pretty. Odd." (Fueled By Ramen)
During "We're So Starving," the opening track of Panic at the Disco's latest album "Pretty. Odd.," the band promises that, despite time off to write new material, it is still the same emo/pop act that sold millions of records. That's not exactly so. Long gone is the exclamation point embedded after "Panic," and, for the most part, the dark clouds that hung over its fabulous debut, 2005's "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out."
Stories of whores, strip joints and cheating have been replaced by sunny pop tunes reminiscent of The Beatles and The Beach Boys. With its lazy strings and powerful horn arrangements, the new album's first single, "Nine in the Afternoon," is an upbeat throwback to "Sgt. Pepper." It has to be the peppiest song about the end of the world: "Pickin' 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."
Keeping with the buoyant mood of "Pretty. Odd.," "That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)," from which the band pulled the album's title, boasts the lyrics "Things have changed for me/but that's OK/I feel the same/I'm on my way."
While Panic at the Disco dabbled in ironic humor on "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out," the band members' straightforward clowning explodes on "Pretty. Odd." via guitarist Ryan Ross' lyrics. On the cut "Do You Know What I'm Singing?," vocalist Brandon Urie sings, "I know it's sad that I never gave a damn about the weather/And it never gave a damn about me."
The album is a cohesive collection of classic hook-laden pop songs that does Panic at the Disco well. However, the countrified "Folkin' Around" is weak and strays from the album's purpose. Nevertheless, Urie's vocals are impeccable and more mature in terms of range. Overall, Panic's "Pretty. Odd." is pretty. damn. good.
