To end 2013, Panic! At The Disco hit their fans with not just a new, long awaited album, but also a surprise for the better or worse of things. “Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die!” was released on October 8th, 2013. This was their fourth studio album. Many fans weren’t too happy with the twist frontman Brendon Urie put on this album due to the rather pop, mainstream-y sound it held, yet at the same time, some fans actually enjoyed the turn of events. As stated in a line from a song titled “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage” from P!ATD’s first album, they “swore to shake it up” if their followers “swore to listen”, as some did. Panic! At The Disco has been labeled with a wide variety of genres, ranging from vaudevillian pop-punk, alt-rock, rock ‘n’ roll, to just plain pop.

The four piece band released two lead singles before the actual release of the album itself, titled “This Is Gospel” and “Miss Jackson.” “This Is Gospel” deals with former drummer, Spencer Smith’s alcohol abuse. Sadly, his abuse led to him leaving the band, but on another note, Smith and Urie remain good friends. In the song, it switches back from different perspectives. One being Brendon’s, and one being Spencer’s. From Urie’s POV, he claims that it’s entirely too hard to see his friend dealing with this stuff, and he tries to look into how Smith would be feeling as well. “Miss Jackson” has a large backstory, for both the meaning and song title. “Miss Jackson” was to originally be titled “Bad Apple”, referencing Fiona Apple, whom Urie was going to sample one of her songs, yet she denied. The actual titled hailed from Janet Jackson, and the “are you nasty?” lyric in the song is a reference to Janet’s song, titled “Nasty.” “Miss Jackson” is about one of Urie’s real life ex-girlfriends, who cheated as well as slept around often. “Hey, where will you be waking up tomorrow morning? Hey, out the back door goddamn but I love her anyway, I love her anyway, I love her anyway, out the back door goddamn but I love her anyway, Miss Jackson, Miss Jackson, Miss Jackson, are you nasty?” clearly shows that since whoever this “Miss Jackson” is, she sleeps around so much, he doesn’t know where she’’ be waking up tomorrow morning, and the “are you nasty?”’s refer to “Nasty” by Janet Jackson.

Next up, we have track 3, titled “Vegas Lights.” As you can tell by the title, “Vegas Lights” is about Urie’s hometown of Las Vegas, NV. “Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die!” mainly focuses on a theme of Vegas itself, and “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” Along with track 5, “Girls/Girls/Boys”, this song holds the more pop sound that fans weren’t the happiest about, although “Girls/Girls/Boys” is one of the tracks that has gained more attention from followers. “Vegas Lights” mentions something about “swimming with sharks until you drown”, which could quite possibly be a reference to the Golden Nugget Shark Tank, in which you are able to (safely) go down a waterslide through the shark tank. Track 3 features a sample from a Sesame Street song. The song also held lyrics such as “oh if you only knew what we’ve been up to, I guarantee you’d keep it secret, so give it to me now, we’re lost in a dream now, do it 5-4-3-2 one more time! In the Vegas lights, where villains spend the weekend...”

Tracks 4 and 9 AKA “Girl That You Love” and “Collar Full” both have a very upbeat sound, while “Girl That You Love” could be considered to be on the sadder side. Former bassist, Dallon Weekes actually wrote “Girl That You Love.” Some fans enjoy this, but others claim it’s just “there”, and could easily be replaced by one of the unreleased tracks Panic! At The Disco put on the Nicotine EP, available in the UK. Only two out of the three unreleased songs are on it. The other song wasn’t confirmed in which the title was, but it was accidentally played in the “House of Memories”, a VIP lounge for fans on their recent Death Of A Bachelor Tour. Some speculate the song could potentially be titled “Back Around”, and once again, goes along with the pop sound. The Nicotine EP holds three songs, two of which are unreleased, titled “Can’t Fight Against The Youth”, along with “All The Boys.” “All The Boys” was written by Weekes as well.

The other track on the Nicotine EP is, you guessed it, “Nicotine”, track 5. This track in not just another sappy love song. “Nicotine” features lyrics such as “I’m losing to you, baby, I’m no match, I’m going numb, I’ve been hijacked, it’s a f*cking drag, I taste you on my lips, and I can’t get rid of you, so I say damn your kiss and the awful things you do, yeah, you’re worse than nicotine.” These verse two/chorus lines claim that this female character is so bag for whoever’s POV this is, and he knows that, yet he keeps going back to her. This song actually has a very clever double meaning, in which it talks about what was just said about the main character’s position, and also, how real nicotine, like cigarettes, are addictive. Brendon says he knows they’re bad for him, yet they draw him back in. this song is really just about personifying cigarettes into a woman, or vice versa, in the words of Urie himself. Another notable lyric is “it’s better to burn than to fade away, it’s better to leave than to be replaced…”

In addition, we have quite possibly one of the most unique songs on this album, “Girls/Girls/Boys”, placed as number six on the tracklist. “Girls/Girls/Boys” is rumored to actually be about an experience Urie had in his teen years, yet the fans have interpreted it much, much differently. This song has pretty much become an LGBT anthem. A majority of Panic! At The Disco’s fanbase are actually members of this group, which is why if you ever show up to a P!ATD show, you’ll see lots and lots of people carrying around pride flags. An interesting thing, or more specifically one of the many interesting things about this song is that while performed live, Brendon grabs one of the crowd members’ pride flags and hangs it on his mic stand. While watching either recordings or just plain live videos of this song live, Urie typically gets heavily emotional, sometimes even tearing up. The display behind the band onstage during the Death Of A Bachelor tour was a whole bunch of LGBT celebrities and pictures of marches for LGBT rights, put in the color of the rainbow, representing the pride flag. Another important thing to note is that two girls named Eva and Briar started a “hearts project” on the DOAB tour, where they printed & cut out small hearts to hand out to fans attending with a tiny message written on the heart. Concert goers shined their phone lights/flashlights through the colored paper hearts, illuminating the arena and creating a truly iconic and emotional moment for everyone.

Track 7, also known as “Casual Affair”, is a sad, slow, not so typical love song. Brendon is being the narrator of a story about someone having a casual affair. The song has been rumored to be about former guitarist and lyricist Ryan Ross, but Urie has confirmed the song does not come from personal experience. Casual Affair is my personal favorite song from not just the album, but of all time, for the nice bassline and guitar it holds.

To close this review, we will end in discussing the last track, that goes by the name of “The End Of All Things.” This unique track is surprisingly a very sweet, sappy love song, for Brendon’s wife, Sarah. The track is actually Brendon’s wedding vows, for when they got married in April of 2013, six months before Too Weird was released. “We are young again, lay us down, we’re in love” is a notable lyric from the song. Just by listening to this track, many fans have found themselves tearing up. It is very apparent that Urie loves his wife dearly.

Whether you listen to Panic! At The Disco or not, they are definitely worth a listen. Ranging from genres such as pop punk to alt rock, they never fail to provide listeners a great pleasure. This band has never failed to amaze their large fan base, and I hope you may consider becoming apart of that fan base.