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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

weekend

I write tragedies not hits

Come, travel back through time with me. The year is 2005. The preps have fallen, skinny jeans are causing mass mutiny, black hair dye is in bigger demand than ever before and suppressing pleasant emotions is the only acceptable behavior.

You’re on your way to school, frowning out the window of your mom’s Honda Odyssey, trying to ignore the mainstream radio station she’s playing in an attempt to appeal to your generational interests.

And then you hear it. A quick sequence of five notes gradually building until you hear the words.

“Oh, well imagine / As I’m pacing the pew in a church corridor / And I can’t help but to hear / No, I can’t help but to hear an exchanging of words.”

Panic! At the Disco’s “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” was just the beginning of the band’s long-term involvement in the emo trend. It was one of the band’s that matured along with its audience to always keep us involved.

But I’m afraid PATD has lost me with it’s fifth album, “Death Of A Bachelor.”

I was a kid obsessed with PATD. I’ve followed this band through the years, sticking with it even as it changed from the alternative punk in “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” to the Beatles-esque vibe of “Pretty. Odd.” and every album after.

Admittedly, it hasn’t been the same since guitarist and lyricist Ryan Ross left, but it was still undeniably PATD.

But “Death Of A Bachelor” was a tragic and unfortunate disappointment. Just typing these words is betraying the emo seventh grader that will forever be a part of me, but they must be said.

To put it simply, there’s no depth to the album. There is no sense of direction or bigger message.

PATD’s intricate lyrics were always a distinguishing feature of the band. I remember sitting with a dictionary as I listened to “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out.” That album alone did more for my vocabulary than a year of AP English. That’s gone now.

I don’t even know what genre to call this album. PATD was never quite punk. It always had a more theatrical sound, but it was still alternative rock.

The hits on this album, like “Victorious” and “Emperor’s New Clothes,” seem to be trying to squeeze onto the pop shelf, but they’re barely hanging on.

In terms of the music, the closest we get to the PATD we know is in “Hallelujah.” It’s the peppy alternative we know with the edgy lyrics softened in the vocals of Brendon Urie.

“Impossible Year” was another stand out track for me. It breaks away from the chaos of the rest of the album to slow down and let Urie show off his more classical abilities as a piano and small band play behind him.

You never know what you’re going to get with a PATD album, but whatever I was expecting from “Death Of A Bachelor” was far off the mark. It was not well thought-out or executed. I can only keep my fingers crossed this one disaster doesn’t permanently damage the band — because I’m not ready to stop listening.

Lexia Banks

@LexiaBanks

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