Panic! At The Disco - But It's Better If You Do (Fueled By Raman)
UK release date: 1 May 2006
It could be very easy to dislike Las Vegas's Panic! At The Disco. There's that exclamation mark in the middle of their name, for a start. Then there's their too-serious-by-half expressions, precision-combed hairstyles and the fact that they belong to the US-originated style of music known as emo, a popular trend for troubled teenagers in the middle of their first, hormone-fuelled rebellion.
But leave your preconceptions at the door and you will find But It's Better If You Do to be a fun listen from a band with signs of grand potential.
The opening couplet of "Now I'm of consenting age/To be forgetting you in a cabaret/Somewhere downtown where a burlesque queen/May even ask my name", sung angstily over an almost Madness-esque piano, sucks in your interest and you find the song likeable enough to hold your interest.
Okay, so the concept (boy gets dumped, goes to strip show to feel better, finds himself feeling a whole lot worse) is hormone-fuelled and rooted in adolescence, but there's something charming, quirky and likeable to it.
The song is well crafted and suggests that this is a band to be taken seriously, complete with killer hooks, hand-claps, chirpy, piano-driven choruses and a hardcore metal drum breakdown. When you consider the musicianship in evidence here you also realise that this isn't a band that are part of a passing fad but one who may develop into something rather special, as their sonically ambitious debut album, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out indicates. A giddy guilty pleasure.
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