Perfect 10's: A Fever You Can't Sweat Out-Panic! at the Disco

So I'll have all sorts of irrelevant thoughts come to mind through out the day's but I seem to have a hard time really wording them which is why I almost never post on here anymore it's hard to really justify putting out sub optimal articles even if I do that fairly often but that's besides the point because I was talking to my Girlfriend a couple of nights ago and we were talking about some of her favorite bands and it occured to me that a decent amount of acts from about 10 years ago are a little too similar in terms of just how their careers laid out and I found myself comparing the year 2005 to 1991 in that there was about 3 BIG artist that kind of broke into the mainstream and defined a genre as a whole and if you're curious obviously the big 3 for 1991 the year of my birth BY THE WAY!!! ALSO MAYBE ONE OF IF NOT THE GREATEST YEARS IN MUSICAL HISTORY!!!!! were of course Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and The Red Hot Chilie Peppers who all had their biggest records and produced some of the most essential and successful alternative records of all time and it's kind of odd because that year was an impressively eclipsing debut album and two semi established acts having their commercial break and that happened again but rather then it being Grunge we had Emo have it's phase.

If you're not aware arguably the BIG 3 for the Emo boom in 2005 were Fallout Boy, Panic! At the Disco, and My Chemical Romance with of course two of them breaking through with their second album and the other having a stellar debut album which is actually the topic of today's article but for future reference if you're interested in hearing more into this I'll make those connections in a later article but for now let's discuss this perfect 10 of an album.

So if you were to ask me I'd have to say that the band that Panic! most remind me of in terms of how their career has turned out I'd have to say they're a lot like Weezer and I say this because their Debut Album is pretty much a pitch perfect collection of songs that in all honesty have no flaw's to be found and even at their worst or overplayed are perfect power pop numbers that are full of energy, clever song writting, and of course are catchy as fuck and while their second album is the better in both cases both of their second records were kind of critically under appreciated upon release and in time have been more then snubbed out by the band in question even if they're honestly the strongest records of those bands career and also in both cases both bands first album still remains their most treasured and highest sellers which is for a pretty good reason.

Now let's go back and note the things that I said were this albums strong points starting with the most important probably the fact that from beginning to end you are blasted with this kind of combination of synth heavy danceable and ever so electronic tracks that balance just enough fake instruments with the real deal to help highlight a series of songs that oddly enough was probably the strongest Brendon Urie was able to do in the course of this bands history because it's the perfect balance of kind of cheeky and dirty tunes that are meant as nothing more then fun sing alongs(I write sins not Tragedies, There's a reason these tables are numbered honey..., Lying is the Most Fun a girl can have...) and even a few songs here and there that are actually pretty serious in tone like Camsicado which is about his alcoholic father. The songs on this album are fairly natural really and listening to them through and through you can't help but want to learn all the words and sing along because even 10 years later they're still as amusingly refreshing as they were when these guy's were the biggest band on the planet.

Another thing this album has going for it is the fact that the first half of it is an electronic affair while the second half takes more a rock-ish at times almost cabaret approach which helps to break up the monotony that keyboard heavy records have and also it showcases that this band did actually have a lot more variety in them then you'd expect from their genre.

Now of course I will have to make note that the whole thing of your song titles being paragraphs of unnecessarily that they straight copied from the likes of Fallout Boy is annoying as fuck but in all honesty when that's the only bad thing you can come up with for this album you realize just why it broke them through and why we all have yet to be able to lose our nostalgia goggles when we listen to it because we all still remember just how awesomely big I Write Sins was and to this day you know if it comes on you'll still know every god damn word.

Re-Listening to this album is quite a trip still and what annoys me is that this band made a real leap forward in terms of musical direction with Pretty. Odd. even if it's songwritting wasn't on par but then because it didn't quite measure up they've spent the last couple of albums regressing and making more pop minded attempts at recreating this album which is a shame because it's the complete lack of them trying to be anything more then a bunch of young hungry kids making a record that really give this some character and strength they had nothing to prove and made a classic of their genre because of it too bad they had to follow it up but hey that's life and that's been another edition of Perfect 10's.

Quality Cuts: Camsicado, The Only Difference..., Time to dance, There's a reason these tables are numbered honey..., I Write Sins not tragedies

Song of the day 10/30/14

Soooooooo Halloweens around the corner people....you know what time it is...

Lost Great Albums Vol. 3: Pretty. Odd. Things to Panic! about....

You ever sit back and get reminded of a time when any particular band was hot shit then seemingly out of nowhere just kind of fell off the face of the earth as everyone kind of grew up, moved on, and decided to listen to other musical endeavors?

Well a few days ago I was hanging out with a buddy listening to some random shenanigans on Pandora and upon just general interest of the songs being played I was reminded about the band Panic! At the Disco, and while I do recall covering one of their efforts in the form of a song of the day with some sense of being impressed by them returning to a mildly electronic heavy but familiar sound of power poppy emo goodness that we all fell in love with when, “A fever you can’t sweat out,” was released but I kind of just ignored the effort released and realized they’re still making records and people do still in fact listen to this band albeit the tunes aren’t really that spectacular but this isn’t really a piece to bash what’s honestly a band that never really went to shit like their contemporaries but in the process of looking back I’m fairly inspired to do another edition of Lost Great albums.

Pretty. Odd. Its’ an interesting record that upon doing my research beforehand seemingly didn’t seem to get as well received as it’s processor but upon actually giving a listen while writing this article seems to rather strongly stand up at the very least in the first few tracks which kind of abandoned that familiar new-wavey feel of their earlier record in favor of what was a very Revolution-Era Beatles inspiration in the form of a series of natural instruments and kind of semi-psychedelic sounding tunes that are in some way’s straightforward pop tunes that do their best to try and be very lyrically imaginative and for the most part that really does work.

I’m not saying these guy’s hold a candle to the fab 4 themselves but in terms of looking at this as an attempt to beat the sophomore slump it’s strong especially in tunes like, “That Green Gentleman,” which is really a very amusingly bouncy number that treads a fine line between power pop and early to mid 60’s baroque pop, you have an album by a band who decided to do their best to not be another emo group and it’s kind of a shame because this record didn’t get too much praise when it came out and from the looks of it like Panic! It’s just faded into obscurity.

SO if you’re looking for the attempt of another myspace-era group to actually break the mold and make a very well crafted kind of Beatles inspired tunes that are both strongly done and that hold up a million times better then the album that came before I’d advise you find yourself a copy of this either amongst your old CD’s from High School or maybe in a random CD store if those are still around and you kind of enjoy yourself what James Montgomery (asQuoted from the Wikipedia  page) Said, “Give this one a decade…We could have another Pinkerton on our hands,” and in all honesty we just might….