Panic! At The Disco
Viva Las Vengeance
Rare & Collectible Vinyl Records

Sealed 2022 Gatefold Original. Limited Edition Coral Colour Vinyl. "To Say That Panic! At The Disco's Seventh Studio-album, 2022's Viva Las Vengeance, Is A Love Letter To Rock'N'Roll Is To State The Obvious On What Is Also One The Group's Most Thrilling And Enjoyable Albums. Essentially A Solo Vehicle For Singer Brendon Urie Since At Least 2016's Death Of A Bachelor, Panic! At The Disco Remains A Conduit For Urie's Varied Passions, Touching Upon Post-Emo Dance-Rock And Broadway-Esque Balladry. While Viva Las Vengeance Certainly Retains All Of These Hallmarks, It's Primarily Focused On Fist-Pumping Rock Anthems, The Kind That Band's Like Queen, T-Rex, And Cheap Trick Spilled Across Am Dials In The '70s And '80s. These Are Hooky Cuts, Where Urie Frames His Still Angelically Amped-Up Vocals In Crunchy Electric Guitar Riffs, Wrestle-Mania Drum Beats, Candy-Coated Synths, And Even The Occasional Brassy Flourish Of A Horn Line. It's Worth Noting That Urie Recorded Much Of The Album Live To Tape. And While There Were Surely Overdubs Done Later (Not To Mention Swaths Of Operatically Multi-tracked Vocals), The Album Has The Crackling Immediacy And Organic Texture Of A Classic Vinyl Album. The Crate-Digging Vibe Is Unabashed And You Can Almost Call Out The Specific Artists And Songs That Inspired Each Song Here. "Middle Of A Break Up" Has An Elvis Costello-Meets-Raspberries Energy, While "Sugar Soaker" Is Pure AC/DC Cock-Foolery. Similarly Evocative, The Bombastic "Star Spangled Banger" Has A Jazzy Verse That Borrows Knowingly From Thin Lizzy's "Boys Are Back In Town." Urie Has Always Been A Bigger-Than-Life Persona, A Romantic Who Self-Mythologized From The Start By Draping Himself In His Idols, As With His Early Beatles-Fixation, Or Painting Himself As The Doomed Sinatra-Esque Crooner On Death Of A Bachelor. Viva Las Vengeance Feels Like An Apotheosis Of That Process As Urie Looks Back At His Career And Ruminates On Who He Was Before His Success And Who He Has Become. It's A Sentiment He Underlines On "Local God," Contrasting Panic's Rise To Fame With Someone Who Balked At The Chance, Singing "It's 2021 And I'm Almost Famous/you Never Really Cared About That." A Cheeky Reference To Director Cameron Crowe's Film That Was Itself Described As A Love Letter To Rock'N'Roll, The Song Plays As A Wry Ode To Rock Failure. Ironically, Urie Was Anointed By The Golden Rock Gods, But What Did That Cost? And What Did It Feel Like When Emo's Asymmetrical-Haired Moment Faded And He Was Left To Evolve With His Core Fans Perhaps In Limbo. He Plays With These Themes Throughout Viva Las Vengeance, Flirting With Superstar Burnout As On The Title-track And Declaring Halfway Through The Album That "God Killed Rock And Roll," Screaming "No Blood On The Stage/no Plant, No Page/Kiss Them All Goodbye." Viva Las Vengeance Is Urie's Amorous Declaration To Everything Sumptuously Mythic, Exultant, Tragic, And Yes, Even Silly About Loving And Aspiring To Be A Part Of The Rock'N'Roll World. That Urie Is Completely Self-Aware About His Place In That World Makes Viva Las Vengeance All The More Delicious." AMG Review By Matt Collar.