All is not well in the world of emo. First My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way dyed his hair blonde (oh, the horror of it all) and now Panic At The Disco have lost their exclamation mark. This seemingly throwaway decision has inspired thousands of guy-linered kids across the globe to try to break the internet in half with their furious emoticon-laced postings on nerdy fan-sites. So can you imagine what they’ll do when they finally hear the Beatles-esque sounds on their sophomore album Pretty. Odd.? I shudder to think.
But we’ll cut to the chase. Panic’s follow up to A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out is a throwback to the ’60s and from the outset, it’s clear that they’re attempting to make their very own Sgt Pepper’s. Album opener ‘We’re So Starving’ is steeped in George Martin-isms and features more horns than a Viking convention.
It comes as no surprise to learn that most of Pretty. Odd. was made at Abbey Road, but by Christ did they ever drop the ball on this one.
To these ears, it sounds like Panic have decided that the solution to their second album writer’s block is to go back in time. In doing so, they’ve lost the spark of invention that made them unique and now they’re like a Hoosiers tribute band. Hopefully album number three will see them looking forward instead of backward. Let’s not do the Time-Warp again, lads.
Key Track: ‘Nine In The Afternoon’