Sometimes you wear something on a night out that is a little unusual for you, uncharacteristically flamboyant (or conservative). About halfway through the eve you become self-conscious about it, but it’s too late - you’re stuck with it, and removing it compounds the embarrassment.
Fast-forward to the day when the guys in Panic; At the Disco are sitting down to coffee, and one of them says what’s been in the backs of everyone’s mind: punctuating their name is not edgy, but is, in fact, fucking retarded. Everyone hangs their heads and admits that they only wish they’d brought it in 2005. Back-pedaling in indie rock, hah!
Pop and indie music basically has to be ironic to avoid the dreaeded ‘pretentious’ label, but the address where irony and pretensions meet is the corner of ‘Panic ‘ and ‘at the Disco’. Guitarist Ryan Ross said they didn’t want to, “Make a Sgt. Pepper’s thing,” but they went to Abbey Road Studios anyway, as if harmonies aren’t something that can be captured with a microphone and GarageBand. To listen to the band say it, the overdone sound isn’t meant to be taken seriously, but cutting out the excessive ‘do - you’ rhymes, wall-of-sound circle-jerking and Beatle-esque everything would leave an ineffectual nothing of an album. Over-production and quirkiness is the best thing that Panic* at the Disco has going for it on Odd.
Honestly, Odd. is not an excruciating listen, but the mediocrity herein that is about to be celebrated is only a little less than annoying than eyeliner on men. The album is full of pre-psychedelic pop riffs and tricks, and it makes a half-baked attempt at continuity by oft repeating the chorus from ‘Nine in the Afternoon’ apropos to nothing, like telling a joke twice to make sure everyone in the room gets it. A lot of people will be impressed at first by the few good ideas that were distorted, re-arranged and dressed up ad nauseam, but the fancy duds will get old after they’re worn out a time or two.
Word, Matt.
1 Comment »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Comment by Matt K. — March 24, 2008 @ 10:33 pm
Word to you. I like yours better. You use more $5 words. You obviously gave it a better listen than I did…and yet you feel the same…just not as angry.