Panic! At the Disco is another one of those youthful emo-oriented bands, and I'm assuming their Myspace-driven popularity helped them land a record deal. Although they may be somewhat original and weird in a good way, it takes a lot for a band to pull off being a quasi-novelty act, yet consistently turn out quality tunes that don't rely on quirkiness to make them work. Only a handful of bands leap to mind who manage to carry it off - chief among them Mars Volta or System of a Down. The problem with Panic! is that most of their songs are just too weird to be listenable. They also need to realize that there's really no point for long song titles. However, I kinda like their overplayed radio single "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage," with its acoustic verses and transforming techno beat near the end.

The bulk of the album suffers from the same problem - the songs start off sounding pretty cool, but are then twisted and tortured by weird effects and/or bizarre lyrics. "Nails for Breakfast, Tacks for Snacks" had a cool 80s intro, but the weird synthesized vocals pushes the song downhill. The same could be said for "Camisado," which had a cool electric-piano intro but sadly spirals off into weirdsville, and "Time to Dance," which was a semi-normal song until the "When I say shotgun you say wedding" bit kicked in. However, "London Beckoned Songs About Money Written by Machines" was alright with its eerie Killers-like synthesizer throughout the song, and "Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off" was a pretty normal-sounding song if you can get past the lyrics consisting of phrases like, "Testosterone boys and hot liquid girls" (or maybe it was hot looking girls, I couldn't tell).

The last four of five songs on the album prove that these guys are taking the slippery career path, typified by such bands as Squirrel Nut Zippers - in a nutshell they're music is quirky and unique for thee sake of being quirky and unique. An approach that has worked to some degree for They Might Be Giants, but the number of novelty bands who have vanished into a Bermuda Triangle of obscurity stands as a giant blinking neon cautionary tale. Examples include the bizarre SNZ-esque vaudeville flavor of "There's a Good Reason These Tables are Numbered Honey," and the sinister circus-sounding "Build God, Then We'll Talk." Hands down best tune on the record, the oddly titled "I Write Sins not Tragedies" manages to keep the weirdness in check and with it's winning mix of violin, cello, and xylophone, and the lyrical phrase "The poor groom's bride is a whore, haven't you people ever heard of closing the Goddamn door," makes for a solid single that wouldn't sound out of place in a mix next to She Want's Revenge's asdlkfja;ldkfj;aldkf tune Panic! at the Disco is another example of how not every band can sound weird and pull it off well, and how in this day in age, you're more likely to get signed if you're overly-exposed on the almighty Myspace.com, which is why this band is and will be loved by emo kids all over the country.