Review Summary: Pretty poor effort.
Despite all the bitching about their young female fans (mostly by slightly less-young boys), Panic at the Disco!’s debut album
A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out was probably one of the best pop-punk albums released this decade, and easily the catchiest. In each high octane rock-fueled song glazed with glitzy techno, the sound calls the boys’ hometown of Las Vegas: the bright lights, the dazzling sin, and the guilt and anger boiling underneath. Vocalist Brendon Urie sang with a blend of indignant outrage and emotional whininess over some dangerously unforgettable pop hooks and guitar riffs. The lyrics suggested a sense of cynicism that seemed almost depressing considering the bands’ age; songs like “Lying is the Most Fun” and “Build God…” conveyed a bitterness unseemly for such a young group of lads. And the band’s vaudevillian and burlesque allusions worked as a weirdly effective metaphor for the absurdity of the bands’ lyrical concerns: the dating scene and the dying music industry.
But something happened over the course of the next couple of years. Basically, the band learned to suck. Attempting to be “the new Radiohead” in the words of Urie (he also called emo “bullsh*t”), the band decided to stop doing what it does well in favor of becoming a second-rate Beatles cover band. Too bad this bands’ ability doesn’t match its’ ambition. It becomes clear that the record was nothing but a sad attempt at winning more critical favorability and increase its already large fan base (over 1,000,000 sold).
The album begins promisingly. A predictably ironic intro lets us know that Panic at the Disco (they lost the “!”) are “still the same band.” It then becomes “Nine in the Afternoon,” the first single and best track on the album. As catchy and tuneful as anything on
Fever, this track features a melody so irresistible that it actually
does evoke the Beatles for a few shining moments. But even here, you’ll get the sense all is not right here; the lyrics seem to aim for a psychedelic zaniness that the band just doesn’t pull off. So sorry, but how did bitter, cynical Panic! become sunny, hippy Panic?
It’s hard to review anything that has no structure to it. This album is an absolute mess. It goes from weird Morrissey parodies (“Do You Know What I’m Seeing?”) to almost-revolting Beatles’ rip-offs (“Behind the Sea”). “Folkin’ Around” has to be the worst folk song/faux-folk song I have ever heard. It literally seems that this band stumbled upon their parents’ album collection for the first time and said “Hey! I kind of like this sh*t! Let’s change the chords slightly and add some kitschy lyrics!” Maybe that’s the point. If it is, it isn’t funny or clever. It’s just lazy. A collection of songs aping the sounds of random other artists’ work isn’t original and certainly isn’t enjoyable. It’s just annoying.
The lyrics are absolutely atrocious. Granted, their first album was hardly Dylan, but they
were clever and fun to sing along to. And “Camisado,” when read in context (Ryan Ross’s father was apparently an alcoholic), was actually quite impressive. Compare it to some of the following lines featured on this album:
“Come save me from walking off a windowsill
or I'll sleep in the rain.
Don't you remember when I was a bird
and you were a map?”
-Mad as Rabbits
“You will only hear these elegant crimes,
Fall on your ears from criminal dimes.
They spill unfound from a pretty mouth.”
-That Green Gentleman
“You've never been so divine
In accepting your defeat
And I've never been more scared to be alone”
-Folkin’ Around
Just because Jim Morrison got away with writing nonsense doesn’t mean it’s okay for anyone else to.
The question for many people is: why did Panic make this album? Well there’s a few possible reasons. The obvious one (and the most disappointing if true) is to assume they simply wanted to “prove all the haters wrong” by making an album that attempted to be mature. But self-deprecating lyrics that imply that the band was fully aware of their unoriginality imply otherwise. Maybe the band just wanted the attention of a more elite crowd, perhaps to make people unashamed to admit they actually liked this band all along. After all, no snobs are going to claim to like this band as long as its primary demographic is 14-18 year old girls. “What’s that? Your sister doesn’t like their new album? Now I can wear that sweet Panic at the Disco shirt and not be ashamed!”
Or maybe the band members are all really dumb. Who knows?
The simple fact is that this album hasn’t done well compared to their last effort. It’s selling about as good as Def Leppard’s newest album (yeah, they
are still around!) Their live show has also been stripped down in favor of a more “intimate,” “softer” show, in sharp contrast to their tour following
Fever, which featured carnival-like antics and crazy make-up.
This band simply isn’t meant to make this music. They don’t have the skill and it couldn’t be clearer that it was forced and calculated unlike their impassioned first album. I think I speak for everyone else when I say that I want the circus performers and synth beats again. Basically, I want the “!” back in Panic at the Disco.
