Panic! At The Disco - Pretty Odd

That's not too say Pretty. Odd. isn't dripping with ambition—in fact, if anything, the opposite is true. From the bouncy and psychedelic first single (and accompanying video) "Nine In The Afternoon" to the spaghetti-western shuffle of the horn-driven "Pas De Cheval" and the straight-ahead pop genius of "Northern Downpour," Pretty. Odd. sees the band stepping outside their comfort zone to prove how much they've grown up since their debut, which was written when the members were just seventeen years old. "It wasn't a conscious decision to have older influences show through on this record, it just seemed like around the beginning of the sixties there were less subgenres, so it wasn't weird for songs to have a trombone part or violin part," Smith explains, adding that in some ways, his parents' dusty old records helped sonically liberate the band. "I think that will probably something that will stick with us after this record."

Another huge difference between these two albums is the fact that Pretty. Odd.'s basic instrumentation was recorded at the Palms Hotel in the band's hometown of Las Vegas, while the strings and mixing was done at the legendary Abbey Road Studios in London with the help of their producer, Grammy and Emmy Award winning arranger/composer Rob Mathes. "It was an amazing experience," Smith says, adding that recording the strings in studio two of Abbey Road was a pretty surreal experience for a band who had to call their label's owner John Janick to approve three hundred dollars to hire a trumpet player to play on their debut. "We're really happy with how the orchestration turned out on this record and that's probably the biggest change from the last album," Spencer confirms.
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