A name as volatile to the ears of indie pop listeners as “Voldemort” to Harry Potter aficionados, the skinny-tie-wearing brutes of Panic! At The Disco are back. The band’s rebirth comes under the alias The Young Veins and is comprised of two P!ATD converts along with three outside additions.
Take A Vacation!, an album punctuated with the clichéd exclamation point former Panic! members seem to be fond quite of, is a sunny collection of love songs. The general focus of the collection is centered on sugarcoated heartbreak with simple and romantic lyrics. Like a less catchy version of The Beatles or more pedestrian version of The Kinks, The Young Veins make use of strong three-part harmonies and classic pop guitar hooks paired with repetitive and simplistic balladry.
“Everyone But You,” is the standout track of the LP. The song is dreamily glum with a hypnotizing keyboard riff and enjoyable acoustic guitar part. Lines like “She comes to me / When I dream / I’m tired of counting sheep to see her / I sleep because I need her,” are perfect examples of the album’s basic lyricism but don’t sound overly naive on this particular track because they coincide perfectly with the song’s retro rhythm.
Other tracks like “Young Veins (Die Tonight)” and “Defiance” are typical modern day classic rock inspired tunes that could easily pass as the work of Rooney or Phantom Planet.
The cyclic nature of the lyrics gets especially tiring by the time you reach the second half of the album, as there is no variation in the style of the songs. This makes the album monotonous as a whole although it does have a few brief glimpses of enjoyability. The main question left with people after hearing this album would be: Why invest time checking out this Beatles/Kinks pastiche when you could just listen to the real thing?
In A Word: Kinks-y
