Song Spotlight – Panic

I’m going to start off a hundred percent honest, this is more about everything this song makes me think of, than the song itself. But sometimes that’s just what makes songs special. Right? Right. Hence the beautiful image above this paragraph. And it looks like I’m going to be doing this more frequently as I got more suggestions than I was expecting when I tweeted to ask what songs you’d want to see me talking about. I love it. Mainly cause while normally y’all let me ramble about just about anything, it’s nice putting what you guys want out into the universe too. The best thing, is when we all want the same thing. Seems to be the case about picking Panic as my song to talk about tonight on yet another two AM writing streak. As that tends to be when I’m most inspired.

The interesting thing about Unbreakable is that it seems to be what I think of as their most “underground” period. The venues for this tour were pretty small. Most people didn’t know what was going on with them after Kevin took his break (or as my friend Andie says, this was the beginning of the “dark years” till he came back LOL.) But there were some legitimate gems during those years – Undone being one of them as I talked about in my last Song Spotlight. Huh, I didn’t realize I picked back to back foursome songs till just now.

The thing is, this song is fun. It’s hyperactive and what I’d imagine Nick to be if we bottled up his essence and transformed it into a song. It’s like lift off from the very first note. The melody really does fit the lyrics in that it sets you off in a panic to keep up. It has some legit harmonies in the mix of all this craziness and it has this breakdown where it slows down for just a moment before kicking back into high gear.

It sets a mood but a fun one that’ll have you moving all over the place… like our dear Backstreet Boys.

Specifically Nick of course.

To this day I’m sad I’ve never had the chance to see the song live, in person. I went to an Unbreakable show, it just happened to be the one after a cancelled show due to Nick being so sick. He was still sick for the Vegas show yet they performed anyway with Howie taking as many solos as he could of Nick’s since his voice went out completely one song into the show. Panic got cut completely. Luckily they had that MSN Live in London concert so those of us unable to see it in person got something at least. Still, I hope day they bring it back, because live just has an epic energy that you really just can’t get in any other way.  (See what I did there? Ha!)

The biggest reason? THE PANIC DANCE.

Literally the Panic Dance is everything cheesy and lovable about the Backstreet Boys. It’s not trying to be smooth or sophisticated. Hell no! I mean they literally have brr it’s cold type movements as the song progresses to go with the lyrics. It embraces the fact that they can be corny and not care in the slightest. And okay speaking as an admitted Nick girl, Nick’s floppy limbs during this dance is amazing. Because as we all know, Nick loves to just go crazy when he dances. He never claimed to be the best dancer and never will, but he does just go with it. The only thing second to this would be Nick’s random movements to Breathe but that’s an entirely different topic.

But going back to the song itself? It’s an ear-worm. You hear it and it’s the type of song you’ll find yourself singing hours later. Or it’ll pop in you head and without realizing it you’re all go…stop and go… before giving in and singing the whole thing. It’s a short song and usually I find that annoying but in this it fits. Because it’s a short manic filled moment caught up in music. That’s what it is and it’s un-apologetically Backstreet. It’s a song that manages without Kevin to keep that “Backstreet Sound” they’d had for years. Sure they had to adjust their harmonies but this was a great example of them doing it and doing it well. It doesn’t try to be serious or pretentious. It just tries to give us what Backstreet always manages to give us…

A few minutes of joy.

Now if they could just bring the song BACK…Possibly for the DNA tour? I’d be thrilled! Think about it Boys!