so, the greatly anticipated (well, mostly by me) new Panic! at the Disco album is out. its called “too weird to live, too rare to die” and lets just say that calling it weird is being easy on it. i was excited, i love these guys. yes, it was devastating when they split up due to musical differences and Ryan and john went their separate ways but “Vices and Virtues” (which was the album brendon and spencer made by themselves as the remains of Panic! at the disco) was great, i even preferred it to their previous album, “pretty. odd.”.

and so, i was hopeful for this upcoming album. no, the singles didn’t get me too excited (although i can say that i prefer “this is gospel” to “miss jackson”) but they’ve never done anything i haven’t liked before. Panic! are known for changing their style because each of their three previous albums have sounded completely different to the one before it. and, even when i haven’t liked the music or the lyrics, brendons voice has always saved it. he just has the most incredible vocal abilities and he can make anything sound beautiful. want an example? check out “Northern Downpour” off their second album. or even their original and best known single, “I write sins not tragedies”.

but, no matter how hard i have tried, or how many relistens, i just cannot get behind these songs. maybe it still needs more time. it shouldn’t but maybe it does. yes, i was prepared for a change, but not this. its just too many elements that i don’t like combined without enough stuff that i do like. of course, this is all just my personal opinion and i know there are fans out there who love it. and because it’s Panic! i will continue to listen and will always love them, but i find myself believing  that had i not already been a fan of this band, there is no way i would listen to those singles and it would want to make me check out the album. none of these songs make me want to buy the CD.  For me it’s just too much techno/electric/autotuney i don’t even know how to describe it. but it’s not my style. i like rock/punk bands and this is far from that. it’s all synths and computer music. and the most frustrating part… you can’t even hear his voice!!!! its covered up by all the effects put on top. it’s like they auto tuned him, but he has one of the most incredible voices ever!!!! and you just can’t hear it. and some of the lyrics are supremely average, i’ve never been a fan of one line songs or one line choruses, sometimes there ok but most of the time, just no.

the other hard thing for me is that this album was streamed online almost the same day that the also highly anticipated  extension of All Time Low’s most recent album, the now aptly named “Don’t Panic! its long now”, was streamed online. so i put them both into a playlist on my iPod to listen to them together. and its just so painful moving from the new All time low songs (which also included four beautiful acoustics of songs off the first part of the album) to the Panic at the disco songs because of the drastic difference in the songs. for a perfect review of All time lows “new” album, check out Bec’s blog where she pretty much sums it all up when she says “they’re yet to release a song i don’t like”. and this new extended release is no different and in my opinion has some of their best songs yet. for a comparison, check out the two songs below.

all in all, i still love Panic! i’ll still wait eagerly for the next release and next change. i’ll still be standing their singing my lungs out when they eventually release an australian tour date. i’ll still buy their album (although this is the first time i’ve ever even thought about not buying it). and i’ll still probably call them my favourite band (although All time low is very very close to taking that title (and may succeed if i can’t find more redeeming factors about this album over the next week)).

song’s i actually do like off the album (and this is like in a very loose sense of the word because if it wasn’t Panic! i don’t think i’d like any of them) are “this is Gospel”, “nicotine” and “collar full”. yes, 3 out of ten. i feel devastated. maybe it just needs time. hopefully i can come back in a few days (ok, maybe weeks) and tell you i’ve had a sudden change of heart and its the best CD ever. but until then, i’ll be listening avidly to “Don’t Panic! it’s longer now” and trying to push this “too weird too live, too rare to die” out of my head.

oh, and here’s another awesome review of All Time Low’s new album