search for something...

search for something you might like...

Don't Panic! When your once favourite band spectacularly fails.

Don't Panic!

When your once favourite band spectacularly fails.

by Erin,
first published: August, 2022

approximate reading time: minutes

The lead single shows Urie laying bare all the worst parts of the new Panic at the Disco in the span of just three minutes.

Panic! At the Disco - Viva Las Vengeance
(Fuelled by Ramen LLC)
favoritefavorite_borderfavorite_borderffavorite_borderfavorite_border

For many people, the bands that they stumbled upon in their early adolescence are the ones that define their lives for the longest period of time. For me, that band was Panic! At the Disco- whilst other artists impacted my life, Panic!, being the one that started it all gave them more value. When 12 year old me listened to ‘Death of a Bachelor’ for the first time, it had an immense impact on my view of music and opened up a lot of pathways for me to explore new forms of music.

This is probably what makes the recent musical output so upsetting. As the members left the band for a variety of reasons until all that was left was lead singer Brendon Urie, the quality of the music declined. The intricate lyrics and strong musicality were clearly products of Ryan Ross (the guitarist and lead songwriter on ‘A Fever You Can't Sweat Out’ and ‘Pretty. Odd.’) , Dallon Weekes ( bass player and member for ‘Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die’) and Spencer Smith (the drummer who worked on the band’s first four albums before leaving in 2015). Now it is just Urie and producer Jake Sinclair, all of the strong elements of the band have evaporated and whilst it was easy to ignore the declining musical quality previously by clinging to the nostalgia of better albums that thin veneer seems to have diminished.

A good example of this is the lead single ‘Viva Las Vengeance’ which sees Urie lay bare all the worst parts of new Panic at the disco in the span of three minutes. The tacky and surface-level lyrics, though not as bad as the line “...keep your disco, give me T.rex, makeup sex in the middle of the breakup” on the song ‘Middle of a Breakup,’ fails to convey any real ideas form Urie. The song references Excalibur and the idea of running from anonymity as a means of vengeance but the lyrics never explore this in anything deeper than stating that “I don’t want to be anonymous”.The same also applies to the production which is incredibly bland and one note. The guitars and drums play the same few artificial riffs over and over again with all other instruments drowned out by the screeching piano is only heard occasionally, and the bass appears non-existent. This is all furthered through Urie’s singing which is continually straining into the upper registers in a way that is not impressive but grating as there is little deviation in his performance. For someone who had experience on Broadway and openly idolises singers like Frank Sinatra, Urie seems entirely unable to use his vocals effectively.

However, Brendon Urie’s voice is not the only thing that becomes more aggravating as the album progresses, there is also the immense repetition that begins to haunt the album. Like several other artists, Panic! at the Disco has taken to having the album flow as one long song with very minimal difference between each track – which is a clear indication of laziness. However whilst other albums that do this, such as Drake's recent album (‘Honestly,Nevermind’), are able to function as background music as you go about your day I can't really picture anyone playing this album at random points throughout their day, expect maybe to scare away wild animals with the screeches of Urie’s voice. Each time the same few guitar chords are gratingly played, and the few drumbeats that Urie, and Sinclair found are played obnoxiously loud over and over, you begin to wonder why does this album exist. It feels that after creating the first song, likely the title track, they just copied and pasted the entire album with very minor changes.

As I write this I am explicitly aware of the fact that I may come across as bitter; that one of the bands I loved as a teenager has changed and now I can’t cope. However, it feels more than that. Bands change and create more ‘mainstream’ music and sometimes it's brilliant (the recent work of Paramore and Hayley Williams are great examples of that)- but Panic! at the Disco, or more specifically Brendon Urie, did not do that.  ‘Viva Las Vengeance’ feels like it is trying to be a lot of things- a cash grab, a statement, a means of artistic expression but when it is created solely by the lead singer who’s blasting his voice to smithereens with no semblance of what made the band great to begin with it fails to achieve any of those things - it fails to achieve anything, and that is probably the worst thing about this album.

Erin

Erin has a wide and diverse interest in music which she maintains is unsullied by the mostly impenetrable musical nonsense her father foists upon her.


about Erin »»

Armoires week web banner

RECENT STORIES

RANDOM READS

All About and Contributors

HELP OUTSIDELEFT

Outsideleft exists on a precarious no budget budget. We are interested in hearing from deep and deeper pocket types willing to underwrite our cultural vulture activity. We're not so interested in plastering your product all over our stories, but something more subtle and dignified for all parties concerned. Contact us and let's talk. [HELP OUTSIDELEFT]

WRITE FOR OUTSIDELEFT

If Outsideleft had arms they would always be wide open and welcoming to new writers and new ideas. If you've got something to say, something a small dank corner of the world needs to know about, a poem to publish, a book review, a short story, if you love music or the arts or anything else, write something about it and send it along. Of course we don't have anything as conformist as a budget here. But we'd love to see what you can do. Write for Outsideleft, do. [SUBMISSIONS FORM HERE]

OUTSIDELEFT UNIVERSE

Ooh Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha May 29th
OUTSIDELEFT Night Out
weekend

outsideleft content is not for everyone