After a 4 year hiatus, Brendan Urie’s solo rock project Panic! At The Disco returns for their latest album, Viva Las Vengeance. The 43 minute long project came out on August 19, 2022 and was supported by 4 singles; “Viva Las Vengeance”, “Middle of a Breakup”, “Local God”, and “Don’t Let The Light Go Out”.
Panic! At The Disco has never released an album that sounded the same as its predecessors, for better and for worse. Ever since the departure of lead songwriter and guitarist Ryan Ross in 2009, Panic! has shifted towards a more pop-centric sound, with different influences for every album. Viva Las Vengeance has a sound heavily inspired by 80’s glam rock, classic rock, and rock opera, drawing from artists such as David Bowie, Queen, and The Police. The instrumentation is mostly clean and interesting, but sometimes feels compressed and lacking in kick or drive. The songs are mostly piano, guitar, drums, and vocals, ditching the horns that were all over 2018’s Pray For The Wicked. This shift away from the trumpets and poppy synth benefits the band and looks good moving forward. The album will probably do well on tours in big arenas. Standout instrumentals are “Middle of a Breakup”, “Don’t Let The Light Go Out”, and “Say It Louder”.
The main man Brendan Urie pulls from his theater kid bag a tremendous amount of times on this tracklist, and it works sometimes. “Don’t Let The Light Go Out” has a hook that’s just Brendan Urie belting all around the instrumental, and “God Killed Rock And Roll” also excels in this. This becomes very cringe on some songs, though. “Sad Clown” has some neat ideas, but falls flat because of how corny Urie’s singing is. Campiness, corniness, and cringe run rampant throughout all of P!ATD’s discography. Urie’s got the vocal cords, but the problem is that he knows it. There is a fine line between him being very technically impressive and hitting vocal runs for the sake of hitting vocal runs.
The album tells a story of Urie’s life in Las Vegas, his struggle with fame and love, and artistic burnout. A common thread throughout is the character Maggie, suspected to be an ex-lover of Brendan Urie. The story is loose and not really connected, but it gets the job done. The listener can tell Urie is proud of Las Vegas and its culture. A few lyrics that stood out to me for being funny or cool were:
“You’re the only one who knows how to operate my heavy machinery.” Don’t Let The Light Go Out.
“Destiny, I hate those words like destiny, forever and all time. Guarantee, guaranteed we live forever, least until tonight” Middle Of A Breakup
“Maggie, the deck is stacked, you gotta hit your boyfriend back” Something About Maggie
“Local God! You'll live forever as a local God, it's even better than the thing you're not.” Local God
Overall, the album is a good time. The main thing holding it back is how corny and out there it is. If you’re already into Panic! At The Disco, you’ll enjoy it. If you like classic rock, you might enjoy it. If you’re not into any of it, try something new. I would give this album a decent 6/10, would recommend.