Hello, and welcome to Hearing Double, where I compare and contrast two unrelated songs of the same title and decide which title does the most justice!
This week, we’re seeing things in a different light with “New Perspective” by Panic! At The Disco and Noah Kahan.
Panic! At The Disco released “New Perspective” in 2009 as part of a promotional campaign for the brilliant cult classic movie “Jennifer’s Body.” Lead vocalist Brendan Urie started writing it two years before the movie’s release. When he was contacted about releasing a song for the movie, “New Perspective” wasn’t his original plan. However, he sent it to his manager as an alternative, and it ended up sticking.
This “New Perspective” is an upbeat song with a classic 2000s feel. It speaks about a shallow, whirlwind love affair that captures the teenage angst present in “Jennifer’s Body.” Each verse has a repeated theme of the narrator dreaming, whether that’s while sleeping or simply drifting off in thought.
Meanwhile, he’s finding the titular perspective in the chorus, where he asks us to “stop there” while he corrects the drifting thoughts of the verses and pre-chorus. However, the chorus still acknowledges the narrator’s shallow attitude toward his lover, saying she can “come along because I love your face/And I’ll admire your expensive taste.”
At the final chorus, new lyrics come into play. In addition to repeating that “leaving now would be a good idea,” the singer says he doesn’t want to “live a life that is comprehensive” and “seeing clear would be a bad idea,” indicating that destructive patterns will continue to plague him.
The lyrics are steeped in a delightful irony as the narrator plays at being introspective while continuing to hold a less than admirable perspective. In classic Panic! At The Disco fashion, heavy guitar riffs and skillful drumbeats keep the song at a fun pace and ensure the listener can’t help but nod along. Especially given the masterpiece of a movie it associates with, this song is a trip down memory lane for any lover of 2000s nostalgia.
Noah Kahan released his “New Perspective” in 2022 as part of his hit album “Stick Season.” The song is another example of Kahan’s iconic love/hate relationship with the little New England town he calls home. In an interesting twist, the “New Perspective” is not Kahan’s, but instead belongs to a loved one who left home. Rather than desiring a new perspective like Urie, Kahan wants to “shut it in a closet/And drag you back down.”
The song paints a viscerally familiar picture of a small town in which nothing much happens. All it takes is one Target for people to declare an area “downtown.” But despite the narrator’s evident distaste for his town, he is bitter about a loved one coming back home and suddenly seeing the world in a different way from him. He even says the state bird now “sings our song so out of key.”
Kahan masterfully weaves together the narrator’s frustration with feelings of insecurity and nostalgia. As is typical of many Noah Kahan songs, the lyrics are underscored by a gentle, folk-inspired guitar that beautifully reflects the tone of the song. It’s a deeply self-aware song, projecting negativity for another outward while subtly emphasizing and articulating the negative emotions within the narrator.
The two songs have extraordinarily different subjects and tones. One is meant to be lighthearted, and the other is meant to be deeply emotional, which makes them difficult to compare. That said, a new perspective sometimes means looking inward to change how you see the world, even if you’re examining why you’re angry at someone else’s new perspective.
Winner: Noah Kahan