Vices & Virtues

After three years in musical limbo, Panic! At the Disco return, two members light, but doubly strong. _Vices & Virtues_ is a worthy effort at front-man Brendon Urie’s first spell at lyric writing and the absence of Ryan Ross and Jon Walker seems to have done P!ATD a world of good.

‘The Ballad of Mona Lisa’ is Urie’s way of letting _A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out_ [P!ATD’s debut album, 2005] fans know that he fully intends to return to the bands old ways and abandon the shoddily crafted Beatles-esque sound that plagued _Vices_ predecessor _Pretty Odd_ [2008] (an album that he’d probably rather forget). It’s not until the second track, ‘Let’s Kill Tonight’, that you begin to realise how desperate Urie is to keep the skeletons in the closet, ironically by writing a track that invokes images of a (not-so) haunted house that you would find at the local fairground. You know – the one run by the shady, hairy, slightly overweight carny, who pokes the smoke machine every 5 minutes, a beer in one hand and a copy of Nuts magazine in the other. Leaving the burlesque house of _A Fever_ and entering the haunted house of _Vices_, leaves the listener feeling patronised.

Just as you might lose interest in _Vices_, ‘Memories’ kicks in and offers a whole new dynamic to P!ATD’s sound. Urie drops his scare tactics and shows off his vocal talents, combining upbeat synths, soaring strings and his incredible singing voice with Spencer Smith’s [Drums] fast pop-punk beats, to reignite the record. ‘The Calendar’ is the highlight of _Vices_, where Urie once again shows off his ability to almost imitate the revered Patrick Stump (Fall Out Boy), which is no mean feat.

_Vices_ is an album that can be easily split into two. One half represents P!ATD’s naivety; Urie has been faced with a choice – take the helm of the band’s song writing or call it quits, and by choosing the former, the burden of this new found pressure is evident. The darker songs of the album lack substance and try too hard to recreate the sound of _A Fever_, to the extent that they sound like amateur pop-dance recorded on a fourteen year olds Macbook Pro. The other half, however, points towards a much brighter future for P!ATD and captures Urie’s strengths: the ability to bring together his sumptuous voice with sugar-coated power pop instrumentals.

_Vices_ must be applauded as a decent comeback effort by P!ATD whose song-writing dynamic has changed dramatically. They’re not quite there yet, but if they can hone their strengths, then there is no reason why we can’t expect big things from this rejuvenated act in the future.