A flair for heartfelt emo rock music

Album cover art, those little booklets that contain the lyrics and production credits inserted into jewel boxes are living on borrowed time. This is due to the popularity of downloading. After all there is really no need for CD covers when you have all your music stored in your PC, MP3, iPod or whatever new thingamajig you have chosen to use. The covers only take up space and when that too is limited, anything you do not need go into, hopefully, the recycle bin.

Given this, I can say that the cover of the latest Panic at the Disco (PATD) CD, Pretty. Odd. might just turn out to be one collector’s item. The artwork was done entirely and I would like to say, lovingly by hand. Pen and ink was used to write down every letter of the lyrics and to illustrate the frames used for the photos. The booklet actually reminds me of the drawings and letterings that young boys fill their notebooks with. The boys of PATD might object to word, but I really find the cover layout very sweet.

The full title of the album is Welcome to the Sound of Pretty. Odd. It is the sophomore effort of Panic at the Disco. The band is made up of Brendon Urie on vocals, guitar and keyboards; Ryan Ross on guitar, keyboards and vocals; Jon Walker on bass guitar and vocals; and Spencer Smith on drums and percussion. The band first made its mark with I Write Sins Not Tragedies from its debut album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out.

These guys really made quite a splash with that one. The circus wedding themed video for I Write Sins Not Tragedies was named Video of the Year in 2006 at the MTV Video Music Awards. It was also nominated for Best Group Video, Best Rock Video; Best New Artist in a Video and Best Art Direction in a Video. It holds the record of having been streamed from YouTube almost nine million times. And most important was the fact that the video introduced PATD as a band with a flair for heartfelt emo rock music and theatrical images.

Although the first cut in Pretty. Odd. We’re So Starving, has some, PATD has pared down the background noises that was so prevalent in Fever. Instead it went all out for commercial choruses and a generally upbeat mood. Helping provide these are well-executed rock ’n roll arrangements performed on real instruments, proofs of how much the group’s musicality has improved since the first CD. There are also just enough characters and situations of interest to indulge their flair for the dramatic plus lots of those unique turns of phrase most young bands like doing nowadays.

A nice example is the short and lovely Nine in the Afternoon. Nine o’clock is never in the afternoon but PATD has a way of finding itself in that time frame. The current single is the infectious That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed), a piece of art-rock that maybe classified as this era’s take on the New Romantic movement of the ’80s. I see When the Day Met The Night, as the best of the lot. It is where all the required pop elements mesh into one enjoyable song.

Other cuts included are She’s a Handsome Woman, Do You Know What I’m Seeing, I Have Friends in Holy Places, Northern Downpour Pas de Cheval, The Piano Knows Something I Don’t Know, Behind the Sea, Folkin’ Around, She Had the World, From a Mountain the Middle of the Cabins and Mad as Rabbits. The entire package is not perfect but PATD can now teach its contemporaries a thing or two about producing a good pop album.

Panic at the Disco will be performing at the Araneta Coliseum tomorrow evening, Thursday, Aug. 14. Also on the bill is the Canadian ska group Crowned King.

MYX’s Top 20

Meanwhile, the Top 20 in the MYX music channel’s list of international videos are: One Step at a Time by Jordin Sparks; Bye Bye by Mariah Carey; When I Grow Up by Pussycat Dolls; Leave Out All the Rest by Linkin Park; 7 Things by Miley Cyrus; Give It to Me by Madonna; Take a Bow by Rihanna; Forever by Chris Brown; That’s What You Get by Paramore; Bust It Baby by Plies/Ne-Yo.

That Green Gentleman by Panic at the Disco; I Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry; Pork and Beans by Weezer; Beat It by Fall Out Boy; I’m Yours by Jason Mraz; Say (All I Need) by One Republic; We Rock by Jonas Brothers; If I Never See Your Face Again by Maroon 5 and Rihanna; Violet Hill by Coldplay; and Moving Mountains by Usher.