Seriously, don’t panic. It’s just time for me to review Panic! At the Disco! Since their first hit in 2005, this band hailing from Vegas has built a loyal following. It started out with four members, but now Brendon Urie, lead vocalist, is the only one who remains. As a result, each album has an entirely different sound. I had a lot of trouble choosing my favorite, and eventually figured out that I didn’t have one. So I decided on Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die! (they really like exclamation points). That album is the reason I really started to like Panic back in 2013.

 

Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die! is undeniably danceable, but can also be mellow and relaxing. It incorporates almost every emotion, from frustration to joy to longing to anger. All of the songs are connected to personal experiences that Urie had and are presented in such a clever way using beautiful language. There’s a unique word in almost every song that I usually have to look up because I don’t know what it means.

 

“This is Gospel”- The album starts off with a bass drum beat that one will quickly realize is emulating a heartbeat (later in the song there is a background chant of “this is the beat of my heart”). The vocals come in as low and intense, but they slowly build up to a chorus that’s characteristic of Panic!; it sneaks up on you and then it’s loud and exciting and passionate. I can always sense that it comes from a deeply personal experience in Brendon’s life. To close out the song, the heartbeat gets slower and slower and then stops.

 

“Miss Jackson”- Written about a girl sneaking around and cheating, this song is incredibly catchy. It talks about how Brendon is so frustrated with her, but he stays with her anyway. When I saw the band live, I learned that he actually wrote it about a real person, which is kind of a savage move. My favorite part is when he says “Miss Jackson, are you nasty?”, a reference to Janet Jackson’s song, “Nasty”.

 

“Vegas Lights”- The first thing you hear is children counting up to 10 in song, so it’s kind of a weird start. But then it just gets so good with some awesome electronic beats and the sample of the kids singing is used in other parts of the song to create a really cool effect. I was referring to this song specifically when I said that this album was “danceable”, because it always makes me feel like bopping around a little bit.

 

“Collar Full”- I really love this one because it’s one of the few PATD songs that feels romantic to me, rather than the usual snarky sound. The tone that Brendon sings in is more tender and soft as opposed to more of an outpouring of his soul. The lyrics are about longing for someone and realizing that you’re meant to be together. My favorite line is “If you’re going to be the death of me that’s how I want to go”.

 

Since this is my last blog, I’m really glad that I wrote about Panic! because it allowed me to remember how much I love their music and reminisce about all the friends I grew closer to over the love of music. Thanks for reading and check out all the music mentioned in my blog!