Pray for the Wicked
Theatricality has long been a part of Panic! At the Disco’s DNA. But following a 10-week run playing entrepreneur Charlie Price in *Kinky Boots* on Broadway, Panic!’s lone full-time member, Brendon Urie, has infused his unique brand of emo-pop with renewed song-and-dance-man vigor. Each track feels humongous, swirling with strings and shiny horns and topped with Urie’s now theater-tested voice. “Say Amen (Saturday Night)” and “(Fuck A) Silver Lining” are on par with PATD’s most grandiose hits, while “High Hopes” and “Hey Look Ma, I Made It” take inspiration for their brassiness from Urie\'s mother (“Mama said, ‘It’s uphill for oddities/Stranger crusaders ain’t ever wannabes’” goes one memorable line). Even the piano-and-strings ballad “Dying in LA” radiates enough charisma to reach the top deck.
Florence + The Machine open up old wounds (and stick to old sounds) on High As Hope, while both Gorillaz’s The Now Now and what should be Teyana Taylor’s breakout moment, K.T.S.E., feel unfocused and undercooked. These, plus Panic At The Disco, Jim James, and Dirty Beaches’ Alex Zhang Hungtai in this week’s notable…
Brendon Urie brings buckets of sass and drama to his theatrical, glamorous sixth album under the guise of Panic! At The Disco
‘Pray for the Wicked' takes the kid-in-a-sweet-shop feel of 'Death of a Bachelor' and ratchets it up to eleven.
There are plenty of self-deprecating jabs by frontman Brendon Urie at his eccentric character, but also an urge to let loose and have fun, and not give a s**t what anyone else thinks
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The closest aesthetic parallel to Pray for the Wicked, the sixth studio album by Panic! at the Disco, can be found in recent cinema.
Now comprised of sole member Brendon Urie, PATD’s new album sounds very much like a musical on the theme of the trials of success