(Single from album, “Too Weird To Live, Too Weird To Die”)
Panic! are new to me, and I’m not quite sure whether or not I’ve stumbled across something epic or something far more mediocre. This track opens with a distinctive, layered vocal harmony, backed rhythmically by a heartbeat and joined after 45 seconds by the full, electro-rock bang of the sound, which has a stomping sway to its dance-floor swagger – like a violent slow dance if you will. In many ways, “This Is Gospel” isn’t dissimilar to “Do Or Die” by Thirty Seconds To Mars, if perhaps a little lacklustre in comparison; “Do Or Die” was, sonically at least, bloody huge. It’s also quite unfortunate for the band that Thirty Seconds released their track only a few weeks ago – they would’ve been competing anyway, but since they both strive for chart placings simultaneously, I fear the worst for “This Is Gospel”, which frankly, feels like an underachievement of sorts in comparison. Still, the harmlessness of the love-story lyrics in conjunction with the busy (but still poppy) arrangement makes for a winning radio song, or in fact, the ideal anthem for a chaotic disco – for once it would seem, a band whose name says something useful about them…
★★★
Versions of "This Is Gospel"
Album/Single Version - 3:07