On Panic at the Disco’s debut album, their campy take on emo left them one trapeze artist short of a full-blown circus. This time around, there’s reason to believe they’ve grown up. Their latest album opens with a remarkably Tom Petty-like riff, and — surely the ultimate sign of growth and maturity — they’ve dropped the exclamation point from the middle of their name. Before you get too excited about that opening riff, though, here’s the opening lyric: “We’re sorry we’ve been gone/ we’ve been busy writing songs for you.” All right, so maybe they haven’t completely grown up.

That lyric aside, it’s clear the band has indeed been working on songwriting. They still revel in camp, but this time, they take more cues from Queen than from Cirque du Soleil. Occasionally they still try to be too cute (“I Have Friends in Holy Places”), but for the most part, they seem to have learned the value of subtlety. Both “Nine in the Morning” and “When the Day Met the Night” demonstrate the exponential growth in the band’s songwriting, as their more reserved musical approach leaves much more space to appreciate Ryan Ross’s intricate wordplay.

With Pretty. Odd., Panic at the Disco serve notice that they’re aiming to be the cream of a heavily saturated emo crop. More clever than their older brothers in Fall Out Boy and more likable than My Chemical Romance, they don’t have far to go.