101 Bands That Will Own 2008
PANIC! AT THE DISCO

Panic! At The Disco are putting the finishing touches to the follow-up to platinum-selling debut album ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’ and things could not be more different. Gone are the electronic influences and computer recording and in are the live studio sessions and acoustic guitars. The process has not been easy and their struggles have been well documented, but the band has bounced back after their initial output was scrapped, with the songs deemed too difficult for people to digest. However, Rock Sound has learnt that just because the quartet have ditched the concept record, it does not mean they have dumbed down their output and lost the ability to keep the people close to the m guessing which way they are headed next.

“That band always keeps you a bit in the dark,” admits Fall Out Boy bassist and part-time Panic! hypeman Pete Wentz. “I thought they were done with the makeup and stuff but then Ryan [Ross, Panic! axeman] told me they were going to enter their nu-make-up era. He then told me that if the last album was Moulin Rouge then the new record was going to be The Wizard Of Oz.”

Songs like ‘Nine In The Afternoon’ show the band referencing Third Eye Blind and The Beatles, and it seems this is the template from which the second album will be formed. “The new songs are definitely new,” said Wentz. “Maybe initially it will be a bit of a stretch for people to get, but I think it will work. The tracks are so different and the songs are so big, people will latch on to them.”

Source: Rock Sound magazine, issue #104