Band : Panic! At The Disco
Album Title : Vices & Virtues
Label : Decaydance – Fueled By Ramen
Distributor : Warner Music
Release date : 25/03/2011
Release : CD

I've been wondering about this band's musical orientation ever since I heard their name for the first time a couple of years back...so when the editor-in-chief pushed this album on me on top of a huge workload, I did not complain. Turns out I was ever so right not to, because the guys play a very nice Pop-oriented Rock combined with additions of wacky electronics and classical instrumentation, to make for a truly epic effect.

So imagine my surprise in finding out that this Las Vegas (Nevada) based band started out covering Blink-182 covers in order to learn playing their instruments. Well, that was back in 2004, and a lot of water went under the bridge since! According to the band itself, it's the monotonous nature of local Las Vegas bands which influenced the founding members [childhood friends Ryan Ross (guitar/ keyboards/ backing vocals) and Spencer Smith (drums) invited Brent Wilson to play the bass, whom in his turn invited Brendon Urie to come and sing (Urie is known to also play guitar, keyboards, and piano)] to be different. I'll not go into further info on the band's formation days, as you can find that described more in detail at Wikipedia. At any rate, at some time the boys made demos for a couple of songs of their own, and then invited Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz to come witness a band rehearsal. Wentz had just started his Decaydance Records/ Fueled By Ramen label, and he became só impressed by PATD, that they became the first band signed to the label. Not only that, but he would be found at several occasions promoting the lads as an up and coming act.

The first part of the band's September 2005 debut A Fever You Can't Sweat Out was mostly Electronic Dance Punk, with the second half featuring Veaudevillian piano, strings, and accordion. Although it started selling “moderately”, it went on to gain double Platinum by August 2006, sales aided greatly thanks to the high profile tours the band was put on (support to Fall Out Boy throughout the rest of 2005, support to The Academy Is... from January to May 3006), and the great additional promotion the band got by winning a price at the 2006 MTV Awards for the video clip of their song “I Write Sins Not Tragedies”. Not showing the same instrumental progress as his bandmates and failing to fulfill his responsibilities (Urie had been forced to play all his parts on the album), Wilson was ousted from the band in May 2006 and duly replaced by one Jon Walker (also aiding with backing vocals in live situations, Walker would later aid with additional guitar in the studio). June to August then, 2006 saw the band out on their first headline tour, a second one beginning in November, including shows in arenas.

Second album Pretty. Odd. came about in a weird way. Following a short break to assess new ideas in Winter 2006, the band reconvened in the rehearsal place and developed a bunch of songs for their sophomore album. In fact, the quartet even took the songs out on the road, trying 'em out on a live public during Summer 2007. However, the guys became disinterested in the material, and decided to write a new batch of songs with a simpler basis, starting by composing the material from the acoustic guitar upwards. As a result, the sophomore album was rather a different affair from the debut, this time taking influence from the likes of Beach Boys, Beatles, and The Kinks. In January the band also dropped the exclamation mark from its name, this to general dismay from their fans. In spite of the bad omens, the album debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 charts (only #112 for the debut), with 139,000 copies of the albums sold in the first week, and it even got in the charts of countries other than the US. Still, overall it sold less, in spite of better reception by the media. In December 2008, the band released its first full-length live album Live In Chicago, recorded earlier in the year during their Honda Civic Tour. In Spring 2009 P!ATD started the recording process of their third album...but apparently some differing views had developed within the band, with Ross and Walker preferring to go a more Classic Rock direction, and Urie wanting the band to turn towards a more polished Pop sound direction. The controversy led to a friendly split of the band in early July 2009. Tour plans with Blink-182 in August, and the new album's production were never endangered, as former The Cab member Ian Crawford would take over for Ross, and The Brobecks' singer Dallon Weekes would take over bass duties. P!ATD eventually re-entered the studio in early 2010, spending most of the year recording their third album.

As Vices & Virtues is actually the first album I hear by the band, I have no way of comparing or disputing the perception/ reception of their earlier material, but what I hear here immediately puts 'em at the top in my favorite lists! As mentioned above, the songs thrive on melodic Pop-geared Rock with nice additions...but what màkes the material even more, is the vocal stylings. Harmonic at all times, théy are what elevate the music to truly epic proportions more than anything else! Just listen to “The Ballad Of Mona Lisa”, posted at (www.) myspace.companicatthedisco, and you get a pretty decent idea what to expect from the rest of the album. A video for that song (along with new album track “Ready To Go”)can be found at the same site...together with older tracks/ videos! If you prefer to see the band's worth on a stage, you should be able to do so pretty soon, as the guys are currently “on the road” in Europe. Catch 'em as they play Melkweg (Amsterdam, on May 10), Trix (Antwerp, May 11), or one of the dates in the UK or Germany (see dates at MySpace page).

98/100

Tony.