ALBUM REVIEW: PANIC! AT THE DISCO - PRAY FOR THE WICKED
“Are you ready for the sequel?” may be a weird question to ask on your sixth album, but with ‘Pray For The Wicked’ it is wholly accurate as the latest record from ‘Panic! At The Disco’ is very much ‘Death Of A Bachelor’ part two. The highly anticipated follow up to the brilliant ‘Death Of A Bachelor’ continues very much in the same vein, but with even more bombast and flair. Considering Brendon Urie’s recent Broadway outing for ‘Kinky Boots’ it is hardly surprising that he has chosen to incorporate more showmanship and boy does it work.
When the first two songs were released as singles back in March, Spirit Level had very mixed opinions in that we instantly fell in love with ‘Say Amen (Saturday Night)’, but were less infused by side B ‘(Fuck A) Silver Lining’. Thankfully, the latter has grown on us considerably after repeat listens and makes a lot more sense as the opening track to a fabulously flamboyant record. There are still occasional throwbacks to ‘Panic! At The Disco’s earlier material in songs like ‘King Of The Clouds’; but with ‘Pray For The Record’ Urie has confirmed our suspicions that ‘Panic! At The Disco’ are much better at writing pop bangers than the emo and folk territories that they had experimented with in the past. The broadway influences are littered throughout and really come to the foreground on ‘High Hopes’ and ‘The Overpass’ with some brilliant jazz instrumental backing and catchy chorus’s. ‘Dancing’s Not A Crime’ ramps up the big band style towards the end, but runs dangerously close to ‘Maroon 5’ at points in the chorus.
On the flip side, however, whilst the songs are undeniably catchy and a joy to listen to, ‘Pray For The Wicked’ doesn’t have quite the same level of hook and power as its predecessor and pales in comparison. As much as we love the style that Urie has taken the band, we can’t help but think his latest record would have benefitted by exploring more territories. This is a minor criticism however as the songs still sound huge and we are not likely to get bored of ‘Say Amen (Saturday Night’ for quite some time.
7/10
Personal Highlight: ‘Roaring 20s’ goes head to head with ‘Say Amen (Saturday Night)’ for biggest party anthem in ‘Panic! At The Discos’ career. Showing off Urie’s phenomenal vocal range and bringing in a huge swinging broadway finale.
