Don’t Panic Release ‘42’
The Phoenix, Arizona-based band Don’t Panic has released the latest album, 42, via Auspicious Records. This latest release from Don’t Panic represents a new approach to the band’s music. The members of Don’t Panic have all expressed how continuing to evolve has been a unifying theme of the group.
The band said in an official statement, “We’ve been intensely focused on bending our creativity, exploring new sounds, and uncharted ideas for “42”. This album is a segue between The Sleepy EP and an evolved, more “experimental,” early Don’t Panic. We’ve done our best over the years to not adhere to any one genre and allow ourselves to just be creative, this album captures that sentiment perfectly.”
Avoidance of being stuck in one style has been the band's trademark since the beginning. Don’t Panic is often described as alt-rock and even progressive rock, but the band often experiments further by adding elements of EDM and pop music.
Don’t Panic originates from an experimental side project that guitarist Jeffrey Robbins and vocalist Dylan Rowe envisioned. Both musicians had been involved in the local Phoenix music scene in separate bands, with Rowe singing for An Early Fall and Robbins playing for Killing Spree. With the addition of bassist Ryan Obermeit, Don’t Panic filled out their sound and began to record and experiment.
To date, Don’t Panic has released three full albums and two EPs. Robbins himself wrote and produced the EPs DOS Robot Circus and The Sleepy. There was a seven-year gap between Don’t Panic’s debut album, The Other Scales, released in 2003, and the group’s sophomore album, Every Day. Likewise, 24 came out more than seven years after the group’s last EP.
Making up for lost time, Don’t Panic has already released two singles off 42. The first single was “Time Machine.” The accompanying music video features Rowe at a stunningly beautiful castle where dreamlike she walks through an eerie masquerade ball while clutching moments from past days of joy. The haunting imagery in the video compliment her otherworldly singing style while Robbins and Obermeit alternate play expertly from heavy to soft, conveying the story's emotional turmoil.
The latest single off 24 is the song “Conquer Divide.” The band lines up for a (non-lethal) firing squad and gets pelted by eggs, water balloons, and pies while lyrics such as,
“but now is the time, we live and we fight
no tomorrow cause they will try
to conquer and divide.”
The juxtaposition of emotional lyrics with playful imagery just reinforces Don’t Panic’s commitment to not being labeled one thing or another. As the band said in their official statement:
“Beginning to end, there is an entirely different mood for each song, sort of like us as humans, a hot pink emotional From rollercoaster, with lasers and a disco ball.”
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