Pretty. Odd.
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Pretty. Odd. is the second studio album by Panic at the Disco, released on the record label Fueled by Ramen. The first single from the album is "Nine in the Afternoon". The second single released as a digital single was "Mad as Rabbits" (released as a digital single on iTunes), although this was not really a radio single, a video was made. The third single is "That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)". The upcoming fourth single is hinted to be "Northern Downpour."
This album is different from their debut album, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, as many songs have the titles as lyrics. In A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, the majority of the titles of songs were from books and movies. The album also features songs where Brendon Urie and Ryan Ross both contribute the lead vocal roles, as well as a more mature and lighter musical and lyrical style.
It has already sold over 500,000 copies worldwide. On the album, the band has seemingly abandoned their original sound found in A Fever You Can't Sweat Out permanently, opting for a far happier and more mature sound. According to Ryan Ross, the band is already planning their third studio album as a follow up to Pretty. Odd.. [1]
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[edit] Production and marketing
Panic at the Disco began to create their follow up to A Fever You Can't Sweat Out after being on tour for roughly two years, with no new material to perform. In January 2007 the band went into "hibernation" in a cabin in Mount Charleston, Nevada, as they began writing new material for the next six months for a planned fall 2007 release. On July 7, 2007 they performed the song "It's True Love" live during their first performance since going into writing, later that night however the band decided that they didn't like the direction the music had gone and scrapped all the songs they had written (which was roughly about 3/4 an album, as they were almost done recording).
A month later Panic introduced two newly written songs, the tentatively entitled "Middle of Summer" (later changed to "When the Day Met the Night"), and "Nine in the Afternoon". In November, a part of "Nine in the Afternoon" was played on an episode of the television show Heroes. Panic then began viral marketing, building puzzles on their official website. For about two weeks the puzzle gave snippets from an unknown song, along with the caption "YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY...". On January 1, 2008, the snippets finally were revealed to be part of a new song entitled "We're So Starving". A rough version of this song was then released for listening on their official MySpace page, but was later pulled with the release of "Nine in the Afternoon". A review from NME magazine was published on the internet with descriptions of each song. These reviews show the immensely different direction that Panic have taken with their new album.
The band announced the title of the new album, Pretty. Odd. (which comes from a line from the song "That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)": Things are shaping up to be pretty odd/Little deaths in musical beds) through their website on January 9, and dropped the "!" from their band name. They've responded to this by saying "We've just traded the exclamation point for a few periods."[2] They announced the next day that they would be headlining the Honda Civic Tour in support of the album. The band then began a second puzzle on January 17, challenging fans to find puzzle pieces scattered throughout Panic-related websites, in order to reveal the album cover. The cover was officially unraveled on January 22; four days later, a new scavenger hunt was hidden on the official site, revealing the tracklist of the album and offering a prize to the three who could find all 15 song titles first. This was completed later that day. On January 28 the winners were revealed. That very same day, the band posted the final version of "Nine in the Afternoon" on their MySpace page. The band also revealed on their official site they were releasing a Deluxe Edition of Pretty. Odd. along with a version with alternate artwork. iTunes made these editions available for pre-order on January 29, 2008.
On February 10, the video for "Nine in the Afternoon" premiered on mtv.com. The day after it premiered, Panic at the Disco got to work on making the video for "That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)".
On February 23, Panic at the Disco hosted a private event with fan club members at The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza in New York City. The band held a Q&A session with the fans and those in attendance got to hear for the first time three new songs: "She's a Handsome Woman", "That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)", and "Mad as Rabbits". A poster for the event featured the Wal-Mart Soundcheck logo,[citation needed] making it possible that the performance will be released to the general public in the future.
On March 11, a teaser for the "Mad as Rabbits" video was put on Fueled by Ramen's YouTube channel, making it a digital single since it will exclusively be available through iTunes. It also features lead guitarist Ryan Ross sharing lead vocals with regular singer Brendon Urie. Ross also sings lead vocals in "Behind the Sea". In addition to Ross, every band member has recorded vocals for the record.
On March 18, the album, in its entirety, was posted for listening on MTV's and VH1's The Leak. Four days later, the album was available to people who pre ordered on iTunes, and to people with the band on their My Alerts page. The album was not available otherwise, but still showed a preorder option. The release date still showed March 25, 2008 on iTunes.
The Japanese import of the album includes a bonus track, and has been released in Australia and America for the album's promotion.
Although the band hasn't confirmed Pas de Cheval as being a single, it has received notable radio airplay, particularly on XM stations.
[edit] Track listing
- "We're So Starving" - 1:21
- "Nine in the Afternoon" - 3:11
- "She's a Handsome Woman" - 3:12
- "Do You Know What I'm Seeing?" - 4:14
- "That Green Gentleman (Things Have Changed)" - 3:15
- "I Have Friends in Holy Spaces" - 1:56
- "Northern Downpour" - 4:07
- "When the Day Met the Night" - 4:53
- "Pas de Cheval" (French for "Horse's Step") - 2:39
- "The Piano Knows Something I Don't Know" - 3:43
- "Behind the Sea" - 3:33
- "Folkin' Around" - 1:55
- "She Had the World" - 3:47
- "From a Mountain in the Middle of the Cabins" - 3:02
- "Mad as Rabbits" - 3:43
- Bonus tracks
- "Nine in the Afternoon" (radio mix) - 3:13 (Deluxe Edition/iTunes bonus track)
- "Behind the Sea" (alternate version) - 2:24 (Deluxe Edition/Deluxe iTunes Version bonus track)
- "Do You Know What I'm Seeing?" (alternate version) - 3:55 (iTunes Pre-order/Japanese import bonus track)
- The deluxe iTunes version of Pretty. Odd. also includes videos for "Nine in the Afternoon" and "Mad as Rabbits".
- The Japanese import of the album also includes an enhanced music video for "Nine in the Afternoon".
[edit] Reaction
Overall, the critical reaction to the album has been positive. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called the album 'a deliriously jumbled, left field delight', and NME called it 'one of the feel-good psych-pop albums of the year'. The album received a score of 70 out of 100 on metacritic, which gathers numerous reviews and calculates an average score.
[edit] Chart performance
On March 30, the album hit #2 in the UK Albums Chart.[3] The album debuted at #1 in Australia[4] and also debuted at #2 in the U.S., selling 139,000 copies in its first week.[5] It also debuted at number 2 on the United World Chart selling 500,000 copies worldwide.
| Chart (2008) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Albums Chart | 1 |
| Bruneian Albums Chart | 23 |
| Swedish Albums Chart | 35 |
| UK Albums Chart | 2 |
| U.S. Billboard 200 | 2 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart | 5 |
| United World Chart | 2 |
| Preceded by In Ghost Colours by Cut Copy |
Australian ARIA Albums Chart number-one album April 7, 2008 - April 14, 2008 |
Succeeded by Watershed by K.D. Lang |
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.patdonline.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1208555095&archive=&start_from=&ucat=&&PHPSESSID=11b32279b058141c9565fb6ef59c43c0]
- ^ YouTube - Panic At The Disco Interview (HCT Buzznet Interview)
- ^ BBC - Radio 1 - Chart Show - The UK Top 40 Albums
- ^ Australian Recording Industry Association Retrieved April 6, 2008.
- ^ Hasty, Katie. Billboard Day26 Upends Danity Kane with Number 1 Album Retrieved April 2, 2008.
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