Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Life doesn’t have to have drama sewn through its inner skin and clothing, but it surely must have the theatrical, it must have the strength to embrace the flamboyant, the emotional and the sometimes over the top, a life filled with drama sounds staged, an exercise in false control and manipulation; a life that holds onto the colourful and the passionate on the other hand, surely makes you smile, and in some quarters allows you to Pray For The Wicked.
Pray for the wicked, for they at least bring something extra to the party, to the big bash and the disco, that little bit of sparkle that gives you free reign to look upon your own life and either lament that yours is not as exciting, or make you cower in expectation as you understand that the most fun to be had is to have that little devil in your eye, one that doesn’t want to hurt the audience, just make it groove and dance that bit harder.
It is a groove that Panic! At The Disco are happy to offer, the sensational on stage giving the audience another act of the music to listen to, and waiting in the wings, patient for the spotlight to fall upon the songs on offer, in this the band’s sixth studio album, the charisma, the ring master’s voice that brings the crowds in, a voice that devilishly exudes and clarifies the dramatic with positive intent.
Panic! At The Disco may have their detractors, those that suggest that vaudeville in the 21st Century has no room to breathe, and yet, like many of their counterparts who happily encompass the realm of expressive musical art, there is a certain cool to their work, a work of fiction perhaps, but one that brings pleasure all the same.
In tracks such as Say Amen (Saturday Night), Hey Look Ma, I Made It, One of the Drunks, King of the Clouds and Dying In L.A. the memories of great theatre comes out in the lyrics and the way they are presented, a Broadway production that arguably incorporates elements of the Progressive within its soul and is more than at home within the limelight, so much so that it radiates a goodness, a state of grace that the wicked will applaud and the listener will be entranced by.
Pray For The Wicked, for they at least can point the way.
Ian D. Hall