The second album from the Vegas pop-rockers gets the Tribune treatment
By Sam Dimmer
THE BEST thing about the Daily Mail is that sometimes they go totally over the top on an irrelevant topic.
Take "emo" music for example. A Daily Mail hack wrote a chilling exposm about followers of this genre, describing them as emos (and at one stage, thanks to the best typo ever, emus).The hilarious article, which featured the stunning line "A few of them appeared to be dead", warned parents that the emo look "is a celebration of self harm."
Obviously, it was a load of rubbish, but if any nervous parents took the warning seriously I have a message for them. Emo music is dead.
The number one exponent of the dreaded genre has turned into The Beatles for the noughties - with zany results. Yes Panic! at the Disco have ditched the eyeliner, exclamation mark and thought-provoking lyrics for bouncy, melodic pop that sounds more like The Beatles than The Beatdowns.
Debut album A Fever You Cant Sweat Out was basically all about sex and death, and lurched from catchy frenzied doom-rock to cabaret, with a little terrible, terrible techno thrown in for good measure. It was ok, but I would never admit to saying that.
New album Pretty. Odd is about as far removed from its predecessor as possible, and it really is a bit special as a result. New single "Nine in the Afternoon" is fun and fabulous, "Northern Downpour" couldn't be lovelier, and I still can't get "When the Day met the Night" out of my head.
Sure, some of it is just too experimental, and suffers as a result, but on an album that is so very different that can be forgiven. The skip button might get a bit of a bashing, but this is still a record you should at least listen to.
It may prove to be commercial suicide, because very few emus (sorry, emos) will feel as strongly about this record as the last, but its quality is undeniable. After their debut I would have given Panic! three albums at most. Now I think they are hear to say, and the musical world is a better place for it.
What's on 
