"Time to Dance" by Panic! At The Disco from A Fever You Can't Sweat Out

"Have some composure—where is your posture? Oh, no, no… You're pulling the trigger, pulling the trigger all wrong…"

One thing Panic! At The Disco's good at is making weird lyrics. From the opening ("Well, she's not bleeding on the ballroom floor just for the attention") and throughout, the words and catchy techo dance-style music capture the listeners' attention. The band loves word play ("When I say 'Shotgun!' you say 'Wedding!'—'Shotgun!' 'Wedding!' 'Shotgun!' 'Wedding!'").

The story comes from a scene in a novel, where evidently a girl is holding a shotgun to her fiancé in attempt to get out of the wedding, while blood spills from her and further destroys the tatters left of her wedding gown. (Or so I understand—I've not read the book.) The violence and abuse are more implied than stated, with the language uncharacteristically clean for Panic! "Time to Dance" may not necessarily be very applicable to your life, but it's thought-provoking, amusing, or a mix, depending on your personality.

Many people dislike techno since it's the same throughout, but Panic! well manages keeping a consistent subbeat while varying the music throughout and giving it a lot of depth. It's mostly electronic, but it's fun and memorable. Though if you don't like electronica, you'll have a hard time enjoying it.

I, like many people, was first drawn towards Panic! from Brenden Urie's voice when I heard the band's music at school. (Of course, I also somehow completely missed the blaspheming in the chorus of the song I heard, but still…) This song offers a linguistically clean means to enjoy the singing of Brenden Urie, if you so desire.

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Lyrics: 4/5
Music: 5/5
Vocal(s): 5/5
Overall: 9/10

"Hero (Red Pill Remix)" by Superchic[k] from X 2004: 17 Christian Rock Hits!

"He doesn't know he's a leader with the way he behaves." "He can do what he wants, because it's his right; the choices he makes change a nine-year-old's life."

When "Hero" first came out on Superchick's Last One Picked in 2002, it wasn't the only song bemoaning the state of the nation's youth. P.O.D.'s "Youth of the Nation" similarly spoke of our sad state (or at least it was a "we" for me at the time when I first heard those songs.)

But now, five years after the song first appeared, this remix seems more popular than the original version. (Hey, I liked the first one.) Superchick's standard odd mix of music appears in both with nearly-identical choruses, though overall I'll have to call the "Red Pill Remix" an improvement on the original. It's not nearly as harsh-sounding.

Many people, not necessarily Christians, have been convicted by this song, and it strikes close to home for many. It's a warning that a little bit of kidness from each one of us can make a difference. Each verse tells a different story where that can be true—of a boy who lashes out at his tormentor through suicide or a gun, of a girl who in her loneliness fights "the lie that giving up is the way," and of a boy who doesn't realize he's leading many others down the path for life that he's chosen for himself, including his young brother.

An addition in this remix to the original "Hero" comes with the rap part (that actually has some of the best background vocals and music of the entire song), returning to the first boy and telling of him putting a gun to his head.

Superchick's an interesting breed of music, mixing aspects of pop, punk, R&B, contemporary Christian, and rapcore. It's therefore hard to rank, since it's rather "unique." The layers were designed to flow together as a unit rather than work separately, so sometimes there's a layer in the song that's an assault on the ears. I therefore don't care for Superchic[k] nearly as much as I once did, but their lyrics still rank among my favorites.

Superchic[k] doesn't try to preach theology; the members offer Bible-based advice. The clear… singing… when it is singing… sounds very much like it's geared for teens, as some listeners have complained. The band also dresses like it's trying to reach a teen audience.

Go figure. It is.

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Lyrics: 5/5
Music: 4/5
Vocal(s): 3/5
Overall: 8/10

"Build God, Then We'll Talk" by Panic! at the Disco from A Fever You Can't Sweat Out

"What a wonderful caricature of intimacy" sings Brenden Urie caustically, and that pretty much sums up what I've heard of the band: caustic, and not afraid to use coarse language to make their point. Knowing that about them, the title "Build God, Then We'll Talk" hardly sounds like it would be one of their cleaner songs.

If you're queasy or uncomfortable with some of the abuses happening in our society, you'll want to avoid this song. And the rest of this review, for that matter, since I quote the song and give the unpleasant story. (Panic! at the Disco is sometimes incorrectly classified as emo from the emotional element of their songs.)

Nonetheless, this song gets an incredibly disgusting image across without a word of coarse language. The song follows a seedy motel and one room's occupants over a night. A lawyer makes the most of a "virgin" soon to be working at his office, meeting her for "'Strictly business,' as he said to the Mrs." The girl later bumps into a cop who offers to ignore her drugs if she'll… indulge him, too.

Not a pleasant image, and it's certainly compounded by a colorful image produced by shifting a popular song from The Sound of Music. "(There are no…) raindrops on roses and girls in white dresses—it's sleeping with roaches and taking best guesses at the color of the sheets before all the stains." The point? If intimacy is supposed to be for love's sake, why is it happening like this?

Many people who hate the style of music (or lyrics) of Panic! at the Disco will agree that Brenden Urie has an appealing voice. They are very much a punk pop band, with a somewhat techno form of rock. A lot of it is beat, but that varies even within the song.

If you don't mind the genre or message, it's actually a surprisingly good song. But avoid the music video.

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Lyrics: 4/5
Music: 4/5
Vocal(s): 5/5
Overall: 8/10

"Headstrong" by Trapt from Trapt

"Headstrong to take on anyone" probably best personifies punk rock, music aiming for shock effect with foul language and such. Trapt has a "clean" version of the CD, but evidently even that isn't properly edited. The band limits its cussing in "Headstrong" to shit, but it's still cussing… why? There are other ways to express that someone's "full of sh—", and their choice to use the uneccesary direct cuss distinctly lowers their quality, in my opinion.

Trapt at least admits its anti-convention mindset with the implications in the lyrics. In essence, they say they know where you stand. "Back off; I'll take you on!" "This is not where you belong." They'll take you on for countering them. Most people live in a fantasy world, and they're the ones who see it properly. (Hey, at least you can get a chuckle.)

On the music level, it's rock with a bit of rap, something like the chorus of Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life" but of lower quality and with cussing. Ironic that a song that did as well as "Headstrong" can be interpreted as insulting its listeners.

That brings us to the vocalist, Chris Brown, who reputedly can't sing too well in person and therefore probably has cleaned up the recording on his albums. And the screaming wasn't necessary to suit the song. No offense intended to any heavy or black metal fans reading this, but I don't find either a legitimate form of singing. Rap is debatable. Trapt does at least manage to make the rap quasi-singing in "Headstrong".

The song's still catchy, but it would be a lot better if someone else sang it—and without the cuss.

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Lyrics: 2/5
Music: 3/5
Vocal(s): 3/5
Overall: 5/10