Last year in April, Panic! at the Disco had the final departure of a band mate, leaving singer Brendon Urie on his own. Spencer Smith has been the drummer since the band’s inception; on their newest release, Death of a Bachelor, Urie introduces a completely new form of the popular rock band. Urie serves as the sole member on the album; he sings, drums, synthesizes; delivering in the process a far more polished pop album than any other in the band’s catalog.
Giving Urie the space to demonstrate his own capabilities as a musician of all trades, Bachelor makes due with his talents. While not the level of classic acts like Stevie Wonder or Todd Rundgren, Urie manages to fill an album completely celebrating a life of excess, yet ultimately finding the error in complete debauchery. “Don’t Threaten Me with a Good Time” makes these themes most evident with the first verse of, “Who are these people? / I just woke up in my underwear.”
A zen-ful balance shifts and falls back and forth between a scattershot of drunken nights and the aftermath of those wild evenings. Urie best sums the sense of regret from the madness which occurs through those intoxicated adventures in “Hallelujah.” Church-like choirs and angelic horns ease intones of a familiar plea: caught “under the covers / with secondhand lovers,” Urie sings of how it didn’t matter, it wasn’t himself, and he wants his true love back.
These sorts of themes are best completed in the conclusion of the album, “Impossible Year.” Offering one of Urie’s best vocal takes, this is also one of his most somber. A meditation on what has proven to be a tremendously difficult and trying year, it speaks to the very human regrets we make and longing for struggles to dissolve. It takes confidence to end on this sort of note; leaving a very pessimistic taste with the slight, small hope that next year may be better, though he certainly doesn’t say it.
Bachelor becomes a scattershot of pop music, with riffs of rock and undertones of the electronic vibe their most recent release, Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die!, embodied. What is most striking is the bastardized form of jazz that makes a distinct mark on the album. “Impossible Year” offers the clearest portrayal of Urie becoming Sinatra, and the effort is impressive. “L.A. Devotee” also is another standout track for building on their previous album’s sound and providing a nice anthem to the City of Angels.
The tracks that were released as the singles however, don’t tend to grab as Panic! songs usually do. “Hallelujah” and “Victorious” both come flat as pop music for now people, with elements appealing to the masses rather than just Panic! fans. Of course this has been the case since 2011’s Vices & Virtues; yet I am against the popular opinion of many Panic! fans because I consider Pretty. Odd. their best album.
Overall, Bachelor reflects Urie’s youthful focus of escape into now, into what’s around the corner. In a recent AMA on Reddit, Urie answered one fan’s question on the possibility of a reunion with old members. As amazing as a reunion with Ryan Ross and Jon Walker would be, and even the addition of Smith back into the mix, with full brevity he denounced bringing them back with a “nah.”
Panic! has become a guilty pleasure for me; though as long as they keep going in the full pop direction, they’re losing one fan who would prefer a return to their roots.
7/10
Anthony Campbell // A&E Editor
