At the Disco Panic!
MARCH/APRIL 2011 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM Panic! At the Disco released the long- awaited Vices & Virtues, the band’s third album and its fi rst written entirely by Urie and Smith. “It defi nitely took some time to fi gure out exactly what we wanted to do,” Smith acknowledges. “Even though it was still Panic, it felt like a new band.” Working with producers John Feldmann and Butch Walker, Urie and Smith struggled to fi nd their sound—but they did know they wanted to recapture the spirit of their debut, 2005’s multiplatinum A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out. Smith recalls that in the group’s early days, the members felt a sense of musical freedom. They paired punk guitars and pop melodies with synthesizer licks and dance beats, never thinking their hyperactive, hyper-emotional sound would help defi ne alternative rock for the MySpace era. “On our fi rst record, that was the mentality: Anything was allowed,” Smith says. “There was no pressure. Any musical style was possible.” On its follow-up, the band opted for what Smith calls a more “confi ned” Brendon Urie, Spencer Smith Jennifer Tzar approach, allowing their budding enthusiasm for ’60s psychedelic rock to lead them down the rabbit hole of Pretty. OOdddd., a Sgt. Pepper-style concept record. PANIC!PANIC! ATAT THE DISCODISCO VicesVices & VirtuesVirtues retains some of those No need for alarm—the synth-popsters have retro elements, but Urie and Smith mostly dust off the synths and deliver gigantic returned to the dance fl oor arena-emo choruses like the one heard on the lead single “The Ballad of Mona Lisa.” WHEN PANIC! AT THE DISCO Ross had just quit, leaving singer-guitarist “One album got it out of our system,” Smith announced in July 2009 that it was reinserting Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith says.
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