Panic! at the Disco - Vices & Virtues, a review

If comeback singles are anything to go by, Panic! at the Disco are back with a vengeance. With the exclamation mark firmly back in their name, they're ready again to seize your average sociopathic teenager's heartstrings with gusto, and lead single and opening track 'The Ballad of Mona Lisa' made sure it was executed perfectly. Full to the brim with Danny Elfman-inspired string arrangements and a heck of a chorus (full with "whoa!"s and their signature unusual lyrical themes), it's a step back from Pretty. Odd. into A Fever You Can't Sweat Out territory.

'Let's Kill Tonight' is an immediate propeller into My Chemical Romance angst matched with self-indulgent guitars (Muse, anyone?) and more fist-waving than a particularly dark section of XTube I won't be going in again. It's a pretty ballsy effort but it's slightly too much of a Queen/Muse/MCR pastiche for them to pull off convincingly. In 'Hurricane' they revert to a more conventional sound, all slick guitar licks and slightly corny allusions to romance ("a revolution in my bedroom") that'll set teenage hearts racing - and it's one of the album's better tunes (dodgy wolf howl aside).


The Edge might want to have a word with Urie and co. for the guitar trickery in 'Memories', namedropping A Streetcar Named Desire to add to their sense of romanticism that dominates the album, whilst a strings solo thrusts them into the U2 arena further. It's certainly a pleasant surprise from them. The strings continue their twinkling with assistance from xylophones and other such little cutenesses in 'Trade Mistakes', as self-indulgent as PATD could get ("I may never sleep tonight as long as you're still burning bright" sounding contrived and a little bit egg-faced) and it's just all a bit too melodramatic.

I'm almost convinced 'Ready To Go (Get Me Out of My Mind)' is a Patrick Stump project, and with Fall Out Boy now out of the picture I guess the stage is clear for Panic! to seize that niche fanbase of eyeliner-bothering misanthropes - the track, some way off their famously long titles but the longest on V&V, is a pretty inoffensive offering and it could easily be planted onto a Disney soundtrack during a moment where title character is going for a jog or tobogganing or whatever it is they do. In steps acoustic guitar with 'Always' that positions Urie in a slightly uncomfortable situation, his voice a little too whiny and nasal to carry off something by itself.

Further musical experimentation is seen in 'The Calendar', a bold attempt sorely undermined by kitsch lyrics. The tune is pretty strong, but vague assertions like "there's nothing worse than knowing how it ends" and "I will come back to life but only for you" are a bit cringeworthy. An accordion somehow managed to sneak its way into 'Sarah Smiles', easily the most chirpy of the record with energetic drums, unusual influences that places them somewhere in the No Doubt sphere: indeed by the end ska influences have been thrown to the mix too.


The album closes with 'Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met)', another strong amalgamation of musical stylings - Egyptian-esque strings, a persistent guitar riff, French choir at the start - that sees the project out with finesse.

It's a great sign of things to come - the album seems to see off their old gimmicks with a fatal blow and, a few dodgy experimentations aside (no French choirs should ever set foot in a recording studio), we're left with the blueprint for a bold new direction for Panic! at the Disco.

Rating: 7/10
Virtues: The Ballad of Mona Lisa, Nearly Witches, Sarah Smiles, Let's Kill Tonight
Vices: Always, Trade Mistakes, The Calendar