Panic! at the Disco’s latest album, “Death of a Bachelor,” is the first to feature only one permanent member.
Frontman and lead vocalist Brendon Urie has been with the band since its conception in 2004. He is now the only remaining member, not counting those who take part only during tours.
However, even though Panic! has dwindled from four members to one over the last six years, Urie has refused to give up the band name.
In an interview with Rolling Stone last month, Urie explained that he did not want to relabel himself as a solo act because he wanted to keep the creative freedom that he associates with the band name.
In some respects, the new album is about the band’s change from a group to an individual performer.
“I’m always striving to create a new vibe with each album, and on ‘Death of a Bachelor,’ it’s the death of this thing that I’ve done a million times, and I felt comfortable leaving it behind,” Urie told Rolling Stone. “It’s a new era and a new challenge to accept.”
In the interview, Urie called the album a “love letter to L.A.” However, the album’s actual title, “Death of a Bachelor,” hints that this album is also about Urie’s transition into married life over the past two years. Despite that, this theme of change is applicable to only a few tracks, like “Death of a Bachelor” and “House of Memories.”
In the album, Urie fawns over L.A.’s glamour and promise in “L.A. Devotee” and “Golden Days,” and bitterly reflects that L.A. breaks its promises in “Crazy=Genius” and “Emperor’s New Clothes.” In the end, however, he reaffirms his devotion with “The Impossible Year.”
Overall, “Death of a Bachelor” seems like a confused mess with no consistent genre as it jumps from swing to powerful anthems to smooth Sinatra-inspired ballads. It comes off as more of an unrequited lover’s frustrated exposé about L.A. than it does a mushy love letter.
Despite listening to the songs on “Death of a Bachelor” several times, I still found it hard to fall in love with the album.
There are some catchy hits, but overall, it falls short of expectations set by past albums. The last two albums (“Vices & Virtue” and “Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die”) were coherent, amazing experiences; each track could stand on its own while adding to the album as a whole. In “Bachelor,” however, this is not the case.
“Bachelor” is likable at most. Listeners can admire the fact that Panic! is trying to find itself after its recent changes and is using clever allusions to do so. However, Urie’s “love letter to L.A.” isn’t quite getting its message across, and it is far from being Album of the Year.
This album gets three out of four Jon Wallace heads.