It is my favorite Panic album but there are 3 songs that I skip every time: The Piano Knows…, She Had the World and From a Mountain… Everything else on that album though is 10/10.
Yeah She Had the World is one of the best on there but all three of those are great. Behind the Sea is easily my least favourite song by them, I deleted it from my copy. I've never been the biggest fan of Mad as Rabbits either.
The lyrics to Mad as Rabbits are…something…but the pro footage of them playing it live back in the day sold me on it, plus it’s got a great bass line too.
Hmmm…it’s been a minute since I’ve listened to the album. I’m gonna revisit it now and give those tracks another shot.
I loved Mad as Rabbits at first but now I don't really care for it that much anymore. We're So Starving is the only song I don't listen to at all.
I remember, back when it released, there was a pretty massive divide amongst the fandom on ap.net. One of the criticisms I remember seeing was something along the lines of "if I wanted to listen to The Beatles then I would listen to The Beatles". Some loved it and some outright hated it. One of the other criticisms I remember seeing a lot of was the feeling that this sort of experimentation should have been saved for a third album after they'd solidified their status with a sophomore album that expanded on their initial sound. I remember really enjoying the album but keeping my mouth shut because things could get pretty dicey around those parts during that time lol.
Their mainstream popularity declined significantly. The Fever tour was massive. They were playing 5-7K venues right off the bat as a band. After Pretty. Odd. They went back to HOB-sized clubs for years. Wasn’t until Too Weird/DOAB when they started working their way back up in venue sizes.
Justice for Vices and Virtues, my personal favorite album by Panic if you count the bonus tracks. Just a more exciting time in my life and felt like a fresh start.
I was listening to Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die yesterday and maybe it’s because it came out when I was 17 but I love that record. Shout out to Far Too Young to Die and Collar Full
Too weird made it into my rotation today but I had a hard time enjoying it. I have such a bad taste in my mouth from how the Zach situation went down. When I hear the music, my thoughts immediately go to that and it’s hard to actually focus on the music.
Okay finally revisited this album… “The Piano…” actually is great. It’s got the most “Fever” in it compared to the rest of the album. I fucked up by neglecting this song for so long. Those harmonies and tempo changes are stellar and the transition into Behind the Octopus’ Gard, i mean Sea, is great. “She Had the World” is genuinely really pretty. Damn. “From a Mountain…” still doesn’t do much for me, except for the random whistling toward the end. That put a big dumb smile on my face.
With the exception of This is Gospel and The End of All Things, I’ve Never listened to TWTLTRTD. I saw them in Philly on that tour in 2014 though, and its my head canon that this tour is where Brendon decided to go all-in on pushing his range and doing insane falsettos live because of the reaction he was getting during The End of All Things.
Food for thought, what do you think Panic's story would have been if Vices & Virtues was the second album and THEN they did Pretty Odd (and then Ryan and Jon left)?
My buddy found panic on myspace when pete made them a part of his top 8. I’ve got a deep and abiding love for fever because i was at the right age and watching them from myspace demos to blowing up made my emo crew feel like we caught something just before it broke lol. I love pretty odd and loved it when it came out. It’s an amazing album. It’s insane teenagers wrote fever and pretty odd. I think it follows some of the same backlash folie a deux got. Both albums that retain the spirit of the band but ventured into some killer songs that the scene rejected because it colored a little too far outside the lines of what was blowing up.
Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die was a surprise. I assumed the entire record was in the same arena pop vein of the singles but the rest actually has more of a cool 80s, new wave throughline. It's a shame they pushed the bombast even further on the following two releases, with Brendon only getting more over the top (and annoying) with his performance to match the energy. I like parts of them (LA Devotee! Death Of A Bachelor!), but most of the songs also give me a headache, being so loud and straightforward. Them being filled with mainstream pop tropes of that time, such as the overuse of samples, can be a turn off as well. It's like he leaned into his worst impulses and it doesn't always make for a pleasant listening experience to my ears. Viva Las Vengeance, however, is such a weird one. Nothing works as intended, it feels like it has the wrong vocal performances for the wrong songs, all brought to life with the wrong production. It sucks because it was a refreshing departure in concept, but it ended up missing the mark.