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.
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.
