vinylfanatics.com

**Take A Vacation! by The Young Veins**
★★★☆☆

In the summer of 2010, as Panic! At The Disco was morphing into Brendon Urie's theatrical fever dream, two displaced musicians found themselves at a crossroads that would lead them down a surprisingly sun-soaked path. Ryan Ross and Jon Walker, the creative architects behind Panic's early circus-tent grandeur, had grown weary of the increasingly bombastic direction their former band was taking. Their solution? Strip away the vaudeville makeup, trade the top hats for vintage tees, and chase a completely different kind of high – one that tasted like California sunshine and sounded like your dad's record collection.

*Take A Vacation!* emerged from this creative rebellion as both a cleansing breath and a bold statement of intent. Where Panic! At The Disco had become a three-ring circus of orchestral excess, The Young Veins offered something radically different: restraint. This wasn't just a side project; it was musical detox, a deliberate pivot toward the kind of jangly, harmony-rich rock that built the foundation of American alternative music.

The album opens with "Change," a track that functions as both mission statement and gentle middle finger to their past. Ross's vocals, freed from the theatrical demands of Panic's later material, settle into a comfortable croon that recalls early R.E.M. filtered through a lens of '70s soft rock sophistication. It's immediately apparent that this isn't about shock value or costume changes – it's about songs, pure and simple.

The musical palette throughout *Take A Vacation!* draws heavily from the golden age of jangle pop and power pop, with generous nods to Big Star, Cheap Trick, and The Byrds. Producer Rob Mathes, known for his work with everyone from Sting to LeAnn Rimes, helps craft a sound that's both nostalgic and surprisingly fresh. The production is deliberately analog-warm, with guitars that shimmer rather than assault and drums that breathe instead of pound.

"Everyone But You" stands as the album's crown jewel, a perfect distillation of everything The Young Veins were trying to achieve. Built around a hypnotic guitar riff and Ross's most confident vocal performance, the track manages to be both melancholy and uplifting – a neat trick that the best power pop has always pulled off with seeming effortlessness. The song's bridge, featuring layered harmonies that would make Matthew Sweet weep with envy, represents the album's highest peak.

"Cape Town" offers another highlight, with its driving rhythm and infectious chorus proving that the duo hadn't completely abandoned their knack for crafting earworms. Meanwhile, "The Other Girl" showcases a more introspective side, with Ross delivering some of his most personal lyrics over a backdrop of chiming guitars and subtle string arrangements.

The album isn't without its stumbles. At times, the deliberate simplicity feels more like creative exhaustion than artistic choice. Tracks like "Maybe I Will, Maybe I Won't" meander without the kind of melodic hooks that make the best songs stick, and occasionally the whole enterprise feels a bit too comfortable, lacking the creative tension that made Panic's early work so compelling.

Still, there's something genuinely refreshing about *Take A Vacation!*'s lack of pretension. In an era where every rock album seemed to require a concept and a costume, The Young Veins offered something increasingly rare: songs that were content to simply be songs. The album's 36-minute runtime feels perfectly calibrated, never overstaying its welcome or padding out its modest ambitions.

Unfortunately, the music industry wasn't quite ready for The Young Veins' particular brand of anti-spectacle. The album failed to make significant commercial impact, and by 2011, the band had quietly disbanded. Ross would continue making music in various incarnations, while Walker largely stepped away from the spotlight. Their brief collaboration remains a fascinating footnote in the post-emo landscape – a reminder that sometimes the most radical thing you can do is turn down the volume and focus on the fundamentals.

*Take A Vacation!* may not have changed the world, but it succeeded in its modest goals: proving that Ross and Walker had more tricks up their sleeves than theatrical bombast, and delivering a collection of songs that improve with age like a fine wine left forgotten in a sunny California garage.