Each album Panic! at the Disco releases has a specific flavor, and the band’s latest effort, “Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!” is no exception. Though the record wasn’t set for release until Oct. 8, the band posted the full album on YouTube ahead of schedule. Though “Too Weird” carries a new synthetic sound — a welcome deviation from the slew of Fall Out Boy copies that Panic! has put out in the last couple of years — the album is far from pleasurable.
The album’s first two singles, “Miss Jackson” and “This is Gospel,” sound characteristic of the band; the rest of the tracks do not. In the past, Panic! has built a reputation on its large vocabulary, a rhythm-driven sound and lead singer Brendon Urie’s strong, clear voice. But “Too Weird” falls flat on all three of these counts.
In confirmation of a recent trend in the music sphere, each track is frighteningly similar to the soundtrack of a John Hughes movie. Following the lead of groups like Two Door Cinema Club and Friendly Fires, the songs are driven by short, lyrically repetitive choruses and a constant, fuzzy piano or string-style instrument that flows along as a bass.
Aside from “This is Gospel,” none of the tracks are inspiring, which is in part because of the computerized drum that provides only minimal rhythm. One of the greatest tragedies of this release is the absence of Urie’s once-beautiful voice, which disappears beneath heavy auto-tuning and unnecessary layering.
Most disappointingly, this album seems to represent a failed — or at the very least troubling — transformation for the band. Until this release, Panic! was deliciously dark and exuded a fantastic freedom of styles and general personality that served as reassurance for anyone who felt like a weirdo. Now, they’re just like everyone else.
Even the formula of their new songs is similar to everything on the Billboard charts: verse; chorus; verse; chorus; soft, pseudo-insightful verse; and finally another, seemingly more powerful chorus to wrap up the sound.
Instead of writing songs about a wide range of topics as they have in the past — singing about everything from insanity and loose women to their excitement at returning to the recording studio — this album is focused blatantly on love and sex. The lack of finesse, eloquence and solidity leads to the death of the exciting wickedness Panic! used to ooze. At best, tracks like “Miss Jackson” and “Casual Affair” reinterpret the characteristic mystery, but there is no element of exhilaration.
This album contains no real music. There are melodies, harmonies and rhythms, but nothing substantial comes of them. The ambition of earlier albums, where each lyric had meaning and every instrument brought emotional emphasis to a cohesive sound, is lost in “Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!”
“Miss Jackson” and “This is Gospel” are extreme exceptions, however; they hold all the characteristics of the band that fans love. Traces can be heard in the vocal melody of “Collar Full” and the solid, unique instrumentation of “The End of All Things,” so perhaps the album isn’t a complete washout. But still, there’s no reason to rush out and buy a copy.
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