This Is Gospel

       I cannot put into (intelligent) words how excited I am for Panic! At the Disco's next album, Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die!, to be released October 8th. Their music is always amazing with the most thoughtful and painfully true lyrics and I can't enough of their new sound (as usual, it's changed from their last album, but if this latest single is any indication, it's changed in a really great way). Panic! is capable of creating wonderfully perfect anthem-esque music that sounds as if it came so easily to them, and I absolutely adore that. Of all the concerts I've been to, theirs is still my favorite and, with singles like "This Is Gospel" and "Miss Jackson", I will not be missing this album's tour (although after dancing to "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" in the rain and seeing Nate Ruess and Brendon Urie sing together, this next concert has a lot to compete with [but seriously, see Panic! live; you'll never regret going to an awesome concert]).

       As soon as the song starts with a line like "this is gospel for the fallen ones, locked away in permanent slumber, assembling their philosophies from pieces of broken memories" you know the song will be amazing, and as the composition carries on it's steady path through "when gnashing teeth and criminal tongues conspire against the odds, but they haven't seen the best of us yet" before it's steep crescendo into a chorus that states "if you love me let me go, 'cause these words are knives that often leave scars... and truth be told, I never was yours..." it easily shows Panic!'s adeptness at creating gorgeously heartfelt lyrics that fall onto a perfect composition. And, of course, the use of a steady back-beat which mimics a heartbeat and the repetition of "this is the beat of my heart" do an amazing job of showing how Panic! is the only popular band that has fully grasped and incorporated the craft of character music into everything they do; with music like this, the stage theatrics are barely a necessity, just a nice addition.

       The band has come back strong since splitting into two groups and replacing the exclamation point (which had dropped off shortly before the second album's release, reappearing before the third album's release) and I will be staying up until midnight on the 7th to get the album as soon as it is released, then staying up to write something for you guys (because I just can't get enough of music that states "bury me alive because I won't give up without a fight").

- E