Album Review: Pray For The Wicked by Panic! At The Disco — Adrienne Beckham

This album review was written for a series on the Rhapsody In Reverie website called Double Take, where my cohost and I write our take on a new album. Check out the full Double Take review by clicking here. And if you want more of my thoughts on Panic! At The Disco, you can listen to the Rhapsody In Reverie episode we did on their music by clicking here.

To say that Brendon Urie has had a whirlwind of a year would be an understatement. From Grammy nominations and Tony Awards, he's reached a point in his career that I don't think the teenage Urie that started making music with his best friends could have truly imagined. Transitioning into a new album cycle after all the success of Death of a Bachelor must have been a challenge; and for a lot of people, this transition could have been paralyzing. However, Brendon Urie did something that I think is admirable on Pray For The Wicked. Instead of running away from that question, he leaned into it. The result is 11 songs that are euphoric, melancholic and filled with beauty and fear.

Each one of these songs offers a new perspective on the question of who are you now. From the very start, you have “(Fuck A) Silver Lining” which fills you with so much determination and fierce optimism. Then it's followed up with the song “Say Amen (Saturday Night)” which shows the darker underbelly of that optimism and drive. Both of those songs segway into “Hey Look Ma I Made It” which marries the two ideas presented earlier into one complicated view from the top.

“Hey Look Ma I Made It” will always be my favorite for its ability to make me want to dance and cry at the same time. Adding in the fact that Michael Angelakos of Passion Pit is a co-writer on that song makes me want to weep for the rest of my life. It's such a beautiful collaboration of artists who have weathered so many triumphs and hardships in their professional lives as musicians. Not to mention, it's a song filled with damn good musical vibes. The breakdown at the end makes me wanna groove harder than I've ever grooved before.

Musically, Urie mixes together so many influences in a way that still cohesively aligns with his uniquely expressive musical style. “Dancing’s Not a Crime” sounds like a futuristic Jackson 5 song while “Roaring Twenties” sounds like a bombastic reinvention of big band music. “King of the Clouds” sounds like a mix between 90s boy bands, Aaliyah, and a cabaret number and then the record ends with “Dying in LA,” a beautiful number that sounds like it belongs on a stage on Broadway.

“Dying in LA” summarizes the entire ride of Pray For The Wicked perfectly in a Broadway-worthy reprise. In the lines, we see the story of a man both broken and reborn by the time he served in the land of glamour and fame. Much like the whole album, “Dying In LA” represents a beautiful rise and fall and rise again, making Pray For The Wicked feel like both an intimate confessional and perfectly crafted concept album.

Urie teaches us all on this album things about himself that we had never learned before. That new level of vulnerability is impressive for an artist like Urie who already seemed to pour so much of himself into the work he does. The idea that he could give us even more of who he is felt impossible to me and yet here we are. Something Katarina said to me after listening to the album rings true throughout this whole album; it feels like the most Brendon album he's ever done.

I feel so lucky that Urie was vulnerable enough to make a record like Pray For The Wicked. After reaching such a height over the last few years as an early 2000’s emo frontman, he took this time to look down below and question the view at the top earnestly. if I've learned anything from Pray For The Wicked it's that you have to embrace the fear and the thrill of success. It’s okay to rise, it’s okay to stumble, it’s okay to fall. It's okay because it's living.

Listen to Pray For The Wicked here!

Favorite Songs:

"Hey Look Ma I Made It" / "High Hopes" / "(Fuck a) Silver Lining" / "Dancing's Not A Crime"