Panic! At the Disco Vices and Virtues (Decaydance/Fueled by Ramen)
When I first heard Panic! At the Disco, there were only but a few songs (rough demos even) on PureVolume.com. I then saw them live, opening first before bands like Cartel and Augustana. When A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out was finally released I thought it was the best musical experience I had in a long time. Many people agreed, as they went from opening shows in small clubs (Sorry, Meridian) to headlining, well, much bigger places.
Somewhere along the line, P!ATD released a second album, which went over to mixed reviews. Some said it was too much like The Beatles, and well, they dropped the “!” and tried to be a more normal named band I guess. This wasn’t bad, it was just a seemingly inevitable progression.
Now we hit our third album by P!ATD and half of the lineup is gone. Yes, the bassist as well as the guitarist (responsible for most of the lyrics) has left the singer and drummer to fend for themselves. That P!ATD sound you’ve come to know and love is still evident because they have the same backbone of a beat and the singer is still singing (while kind of talking his way through songs also), but you have to wonder if the heart and soul of this band didn’t leave it.
One major flaw in this new album—which leaves a noticeable gap with lost members—is not only the complexity of the music itself, but the lyrics. Sometimes it seemed like the lyrics to certain songs could write books. Also, some of the past lyrics were about books. On Vices and Virtues, the lyrics are pretty generic and not really at all clever as they had been before.
Even though I don’t particularly dislike this album (It still remains better than 89% of radio rock), I do miss what it could have been had the band not split in half.
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