Two years ago, Panic! At The Disco went from a foursome to a twosome and we haven’t heard much from them since. But PATD fans I’m sure will be glad to hear that the duo of Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith are carrying the Panic! torch with Vices and Virtues, their first album since 2008. The first single is “The Ballad of Mona Lisa.”
I’m not quite sure what this song is about. I’m thinking Mona Lisa is a hooker who has been purchased by an impotent man. He just wants a taste of what he paid for and Urie keeps singing about her talking, like someone buys a hooker to listen to her run her yap. She must be hot though, he says he would pay to watch her frown. Getting paid to speak and frown? Not a bad gig.
The first few notes are that of an old music box, or maybe a merry-go-round. The whimsy is soon displaced with a simmering guitar and some simple percussion. The synth returns in splashes while the guitar is layered, slowly building into the chorus allowing for some louder riffage and some decent work from drummer, Spencer Smith.
The song construction takes some twists and turns, stopping abruptly just to re-start at top speed. There’s some neat digital tweaking that sounds like a changing of frequency or movement from FM to AM (you’ll get that if you’re old like me) but even with all the tricks and treats, this song is still pretty unexciting.
Maybe this will grow on me. I doubt it, but stranger things have happened. “The Ballad of Mona Lisa.” Enjoy. If you can.
Panic! At The Disco – “The Ballad Of Mona Lisa”
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