Pretty. Odd.
| Untitled | |
|---|---|
Pretty. Odd. is the second studio album by rock band Panic at the Disco, and it is to be released March 25, 2008 on Fueled by Ramen.
Production and marketing
Panic at the Disco began to create their follow up to A Fever You Can't Sweat Out after being on tour for roughly two years, with no new material to perform. In January 2007 the band went into "hibernation" in a cabin (just outside the strip), as they began writing new material for the next six months for a planned fall 2007 release. On July 7, 2007 they performed the song "It's True Love" live during their first performance since going into writing, later that night however the band decided that they didn't like the direction the music had gone and scrapped all the songs they had written (which was roughly about 3/4 an album, as they were almost done recording).
A month later Panic introduced two newly written songs, entitled "Middle of Summer" (later changed to "When the Day Met the Night"), and "Nine in the Afternoon". In December, a part of "Nine in the Afternoon" was played on an episode of the television show Heroes. Panic then began viral marketing, building puzzles on their official website. For about two weeks the puzzle gave snippets from an unknown song, along with the caption "YOU DONT HAVE TO WORRY...". On January 1, 2008, the snippets finally were revealed to be part of a new song entitled "We're So Starving". A rough version of this song was then released for listening on their official MySpace page. A review from NME magazine was published on the internet with descriptions of each song. These reviews show the hugely different direction that Panic have taken with their new album. They show a more mature and musically diverse style.
The band announced the title of the new album, Pretty. Odd., through their website on January 9, and dropped the "!" from their band name at the same time. They've responded to this by saying "We've just traded the exclamation point for a few periods." [1] They announced the next day that they would be headlining the Honda Civic Tour in support of the album. The band then began a second puzzle[2] on January 17, challenging fans to find puzzle pieces scattered throughout Panic-related websites, in order to reveal the album cover. The cover was officially unraveled on January 22; four days later, a new scavenger hunt was hidden on the official site, revealing the tracklist of the album and offering a prize to the three who could find all 15 song titles first. This was completed later that day.
On January 28 the winners were revealed. That very same day, the band posted the final version of "Nine in the Afternoon" on their MySpace page. The band also revealed on their official site they were releasing a Deluxe Edition of Pretty. Odd. along with a version with alternate artwork.
iTunes made the Deluxe Edition and Standard Edition of the album available for pre-order on January 29, 2008.[3]
Track listing
- "We're So Starving"
- "Nine in the Afternoon"
- "She's a Handsome Woman"
- "Do You Know What I'm Seeing?"
- "That Green Gentlemen"
- "I Have Friends in Holy Spaces"
- "Northern Downpour"
- "When the Day Met the Night"
- "Pas de Cheval"
- "The Piano Knows Something I Don't Know"
- "Sushi in a Tuxedo in the Clams Casino" ("Behind the Sea" on iTunes)
- "Folkin' Around"
- "'Snooze Me, Ms. Britches" ("She Had the World" on iTunes)
- "From a Mountain in the Middle of the Cabins"
- "Mad as Rabbits"
Bonus tracks
- "Nine in the Afternoon (Radio Mix)" (Deluxe Edition bonus track)
- "Nine in the Afternoon (Alternate Version)" (Deluxe Edition bonus track)
- "Do You Know What I'm Seeing? (Alternate Version)" (iTunes Pre-order bonus track)
The deluxe iTunes version of Pretty. Odd. also includes videos for "Nine in the Afternoon" and "Mad as Rabbits".