Panic at the Disco - Pretty. Odd. (2008)

Ah, yes, the album that infamously dropped their exclamation mark. That was surprisingly a big deal when this album came out! It almost served as a precedent for Drake Bell's controversial "Sorry, still calling you Bruce" statement, except coming from fans about the band, and not nearly as homophobic. Okay, so I guess these two things have nearly nothing in common. Fuck you.

When this album was first announced back in early 2008 or so, many people, including myself, were still very much in love with "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" for its catchy hooks, unique lyrics, and the fact that it had almost an avant-garde approach to the pop-punk scene, experimenting with the exotic and mostly-forgotten musical style of baroque. In an ocean of bands begging for Maria to count them in, the band stood out in the scene, for better or worse. Either you loved them enough to quote them on your MySpace profile, or you hated the idea of them and would scream to the heavens "POP-PUNK?! THEY'RE NOWHERE EVEN NEAR PUNK!!" and the band must've heard the colossal collage of voices, both positive and negative, and despite how much money and more fame they could've gotten from simply repeating the first album, even they knew it was a horrible decision to try to recapture the flash in the pan and would potentially be called that themselves. They did the most punk rock thing they could've done: They said "fuck it" and made a folk-influenced pop-rock album that serves as an intense love-letter to the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and everything else their parents had on the record player while they were growing up.

I, myself, was just a wee little lass when this dropped, at the young, awkward, and fucking horrible age of 13, and unlike most of my friends who were fans of the band, I was completely down with this since the single for the cheerful song "Nine in the Afternoon" dropped, and although I thought it was pretty odd (HUAEHUAEHUAE) that they changed their sound so quickly and drastically without a seamless transition into it, I loved it! I actually wanted to pre-order the album to get the jacket, too, but MOM WOULDN'T LET ME!! FUCK!! I'd STILL wear that jacket, even close to ten years after the album came out!! But anyway, the album had a very mixed reception upon the release, with some going "What the fuck is this?!" and the others, like me, realizing a partially hidden (because most people disregarded it) gem was dropped onto the music scene and not as many people would value it the way it should. Hell, even the band mostly disregards it today because they rarely play any material off of it, which is a damn shame for so many fuckin' reasons.

Refraining from the album's previous love (and almost lyrical-crutch) of Chuck Palahniuk, this album, lyrically, takes a right-turn straight into lovely and even psychedelic fields, as especially evident in "Behind the Sea", a song where guitarist Ryan Ross manages to steal the microphone away from Brendan Urie, which very well might be the out-of-the-box song of the entire album, saying "A daydream spills from my corked head, breaks free of my wooden neck. Left a nod over sleeping waves, like bobbing bait for bathing cod. Floating flocks of candled swans slowly drift across wax ponds." in a musical love-letter for the Beatles with red-rose lipstick on the back. This combined with other spectacular songs such as the joyous "That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)", the bittersweet "She Had The World", or even the INCREDIBLE "Northern Downpour" which might as well go down as my favorite song by the band, this album has its feet firmly in the beauty, the pain, and the weird/drugged side of life, best explained as being an album directly inspired by "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Pet Sounds" having a baby: A 1960s pop-rock album brought to life in 2008, that very well could've gone down as a classic had it been released in that time period. It reaches for the past without ever giving off the impression of ripping off or half-assing anything. Just listen to the strings, horns, and melodies in "When the Day Met the Night", for God's sake! IT'S FULL-ASSED!!

Fans of the previous studio album should be aware of change, but go in with an open-mind, because when you do, you'll realize that "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" was no fluke, and the band (at least at the time, haven't kept up with their stuff after this album, as of writing) wasn't a flavor-of-the-month group. Just lay back in your bed with a good pair of headphones and listen to just how talented these (fab) four handsome bastards are, and how timeless this album is and will continue to be. This is truly an album to break out whenever your parents start going on about how music these days is shit, and hell, maybe even one to hold back and pop on the record player for your very own children one day, because this album simply transcends decades, and seems to age like a fine wine, but will never be given its proper dues. Get it, listen to it, cherish it and hold it close, because this album kept me warm on many a night in 2008.

That and pissing myself, but I've mostly gotten over that.

9/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!