Wednesday, October 21, 2009

PANIC AT THE DISCO "PRETTY. ODD."

GENRE(S): Emo - Indie - Baroque Pop - Rock

PREAMBLE - The taboo of Pop Music has withered away and has all sorts of kids wishing they could cut a record at Abbey Road Studios.

LOOK: Panic At The Disco's choice of artwork for their second album, in leaps and bounds, is a step up from the High-School-Photoshop-project of an album cover they put out for A Fever You Can't Sweat Out. Victorian-styled illustrations in a Victorian Era frame highlights this whimsical album well.

LISTEN: Modern Pop songs are miles, if not light years away from the cornerstones set in the first half of the 20th century. Not afraid to slip their hand itno the sticky mess Pop has become, Panic At The Disco reflects on the past. Problem: their experimentation has them imitating sounds they've heard elsewhere without having a shred of their own.

The Kids meandering your local mall were tickled pink to pick up this new offering. Poster Children for the Emo Scene, Panic At The Disco is applauded for taking a daring chance, away from their Punk-Disco sound. Brush the bangs from your eyes, boys and girls, this Vegas quartet feverishly spent over a year doing nothing more than appropriating The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Pretty. Odd., from the get-go, has Panic personally addressing a crowd in waiting. "Nine In The Afternoon's" A-Day-In-The-Life pounding piano chords, "Mad As Rabbits'" Good-Morning-Good-
Morning horns, and every other song laced with George Harrison-esque guitar riffs, has you wonder if PATD stumbled across scrapped Paul McCartney tunes.

Do or don't get me wrong, some songs on this record are catchy as hell. "When The Day Met The Night" will snag you with its Baroque Pop style, but you still can't help but reference "Penny Lane". These songs are good because Panic At The Disco did their homework, and thus mastered the art of mimicking.

SPEAK: Your typical 15-year-old with skin-tight jeans, teased hair, and liquid eye liner (boys and girls included) live within an umbrerlla, inside a "scene", never having been exposed to anything but Paramore and Taking Back Sunday. Our sense of history has been lost. Educate yourself to find the roots that sprung your favorite artists.




ALBUM GRADE: C
ARTWORK GRADE: B
DO WE HAVE A FIT? YES

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