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Panic at the Disco's new CD is 'Pretty. Odd.'

Glenn Gamboa | DROPS

March 25, 2008

Who says punctuation isn't important?

When last we saw Panic! At the Disco, they were all about hyper-literate emo, circus imagery, guyliner, closing doors and that ever-crucial exclamation point.

For its sophomore album "Pretty. Odd.," the Las Vegas quartet has dropped the exclamation point from its name and seemingly turned into a completely different band, one with well-crafted songs steeped in Beatles grandeur, Beach Boys harmonies and other pleasantly surprising ambitions.

The Beatlesque first single "Nine in the Afternoon," complete with horn flourishes and a streamlined hook that is hard to shake, was no fluke. It was the throwing down of the gauntlet.

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Aside from Brendon Urie's distinctive vocals (and even those are bolstered by new harmonies and less-frantic phrasing), nearly nothing else from the band's multiplatinum debut "A Fever You Can't Sweat Out" remains.

There's a New Orleans jazz feel to "I Have Friends in Holy Places." There's "Folkin' Around," which oddly sounds like a countrified "I've Just Seen a Face." And there are loads of gorgeous pop songs, including "Northern Downpour," an acoustic gem that sounds like Panic's take on a "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" ballad.

Like their mentors Fall Out Boy did on "Infinity on High," Panic at the Disco has taken a quantum leap forward in terms of ambition and execution. "Pretty. Odd." is the exact opposite of the sophomore slump - a sophomore smash they can be proud of.

CROWS STILL COUNT. Ever since their breakthrough album "August and Everything After," Counting Crows have walked the line between emotional and self-indulgent, like celebutantes after pitchers of margaritas. They keep it together for a little while, but in the end they start bobbing, wobbling and eventually collapse in a heap of pretty, whiny self-importance.

Their new album "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings" (Geffen) is no different. The single "You Can't Count on Me" shows off what they do best, as Adam Duritz wraps his touching, imperfect vocals around another tale of egomania surrounded by nicely designed folk rock. On the hard-edged rocker "1492," the band disguises more talk about Duritz's female conquests in a broader context that includes talk of Christopher Columbus and the line, "I am the king of everything, I am the king of nothing," which kind of sums up the whole approach.

No matter how good the blues groove sounds on "Hanging Tree" or how tongue-in-cheek clever Duritz tries to be on "Los Angeles," it's short-circuited by the unrelenting woe-is-me narcissism. "Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings," like that one needy friend we all have, is passable in small doses, but after a while the need to say "Dude, shut up" becomes overpowering.

("Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings," in stores today; Grade: C+)

ALSO IN STORES. The Raconteurs' second album "Consolers of the Lonely" (Warner Bros.) arrives; The B-52's return with "Funplex" (B-52s /Astralwerks); "Making the Band 4's" Day 26's eponymous debut (Bad Boy); Pennywise's powerful punk "Reason to Believe" (MySpace); collector's edition of the Lemonheads'

"It's a Shame About Ray" (Rhino); and Morrissey's latest compilation "Greatest Hits" (Decca), featuring two new songs.

SONG OF THE WEEK. Death Cab for Cutie's epic eight-minute single "I Will Possess Your Heart" (Atlantic) starts with 4 1/2 minutes of driving bass and drums, atmospheric guitar and ambient piano before Ben Gibbard even sings one word. And yet it turns out to be a pretty potent introduction to the forthcoming "Narrow Stairs" album, with Gibbard's emotional pleas getting toughened up by rockier surroundings.

Contact Glenn Gamboa at 631-843-3434.

PRETTY. ODD. Panic at the Disco look back for their future. In stores today. Grade: B+.