Panic! At the Disco

Plays: Northern Downpour

It's kind of insane that this band exists because it feels like it was made in a lab for me to become obsessed with. And I'm definitely obsessed. Everything about their aesthetic sensibilities, fashion tastes, set designs, album concepts, musical style, and surrealist, overly verbose lyricism fits my tastes perfectly. It also doesn't hurt that they're super cute.
This is completely focused on pre-split panic, not because their later music is bad but because I just don't have much to say about it. And I'm a Ryan fangirl first and foremost :) He's my favorite trainwreck!

What is Panic?

In 2004, Ryan Ross was a loser who'd been kicked out of his dad's house for purposely failing out of college to become a rock star. He spent all day playing guitar with his friend spencer on drums or writing angsty songs to cope with his abusive alcoholic father and cheating girlfriends. At some point he realized he was "terrible at singing", so he recruited a nerdy mormon kid named Brendon Urie to be the voice for his songs. Together the 3 formed Panic, alongside bassist Brent Wilson. He promoted their music by posting photos of his ass on livejournal for emo girls to drool over, and posting his demos in Fall Out Boy fan groups. By some stroke of luck, Pete Wentz, fob bassist, took notice of his fanboy behavior and listened to his songs. Soon after he flew the band out to california to perform for him and, well, they must have done something right, because soon Panic, who had like 3 songs and had never played a concert, was signed to his label.

"wow. big things have been happening. pete from fob heard the band and liked it. wierd that someone in a band i really like is into my music. it feels good." - ryan ross, 2004 (yes, he spelled weird like that)
"in the lab with the scientists in panic. your next favorite band. I promise." - pete wentz, 2005

Nowadays most people know Panic as Brendon's solo project, that's pretty much unrecognizable from Ryan's original creative vision. Over the years members were slowly picked off. Brent was kicked out early on because his drug problem made him unreliable. He was replaced with Jon Walker. Then Ryan and Jon left after prolongued arguments over the band's creative direction, forming a side project called The Yound Veins. This quickly failed (though their (one) album is really good!) preceding Ryan's 2010s downward spiral into drug addiction, alcoholism, and constant harassment from fans and haters alike. Spencer was the last to go because the pressures of touring and exposure to other members' unhealthy habits were interfering with his addiction recovery. As of 2024 Panic has been laid to rest by Brendon after releasing several standard pop albums of disputed quality (i won't give my opinion on those lol). Ryan, after a period of understandable radio silence, comes out of hiding once in a while to perform at small venues with friends from his Panic days, like Z Berg of The Like (who are really good and you should listen to them!!) and Alex Greenwald of Phantom Planet. He claims he's "working on new music", but he's been saying that for 6 years so I'll believe it when I see it.

Silly quotes

"do you still look up to pete wentz?"
"no, i'm taller than him now." - ryan ross, 2006(?)
"what do you think of pete wentz?"
"i don't." - ryan ross, 2010(?)
"if i had an affair with anybody, i'd probably have it with ryan. He's a very good looking guy and he's pretty good looking for a girl too. - pete wentz, ????
"thank god the freakend is over" - ryan ross, 2010
"this is my coming out party. I AM gay. deal with it. done." - ryan ross, 2009
"sorry about that, wish i was gay, cause i hate girls" - ryan ross, 3 minutes later

Even sillier photos


A Fever

You
Can't

Sweat Out

What a wonderful caricature of intimacy..

Plays: Build God, Then We'll Talk

AFYCSO, Panic's first album, is half pop punk glam rock and half vaudevillian circus. I love literally every song on this album!! ryan's edgy but flowery writing gives each one a distinct mood and narrative.
aside from the songs themselves, the visual style of this album is perfect. Ryan perfected his makeup skills during this era, doing elaborate spiral designs across his eyes to boost his confidence on stage. Their costume and set design teams were working overtime to make their live shows fit into the circus aesthetic perfectly. They even hired a crew of performers to tour with them and do tricks in the background.
another key aspect of afycso concerts was brendon's "stage gay", where he and ryan molest eachother in front of thousands of screaming girls. Very high brow stuff.

Favorite Songs

Camisado- a bitter song describing ryan's complicated feelings about his father's alcoholism and emotional/physical abuse. Sadly his dad died from that same addiction while he was away on tour for this album, making him functionally an orphan at 20. He said they reconciled before his passing, but obviously it still hit him pretty hard.
Build God, then we'll talk- leaning into the moody circus theme, it's a black comedy involving lawyers, virgins, and seedy motels. ryan really gets into his pretentious, syrupy and (affectionately) jouvenile attempts at wordplay here. I bet he thought he ate when he was writing this in spencer's basement (he did). Also.. his background vocals in the live in denver version....... i have something to say that's not family friendly.

Oh, we're all too small.. to talk to god.

>

Plays: She Had The World

This album was a complete stylistic shift from fever, and in my opinion a huge improvement. They incorporated elements from their favorite 70s bands like The Beatles and made more folksy, classic rock songs. But they kept the same eccentric, literary lyrics. Many of the songs are references to the books Ryan was reading at the time, but Brendon also contributed to the writing this time. Their lyrics reflect their new experimentation with drugs, their feelings about the band's success and hows they've changed since it started, and Ryan's failing relationship during that time (which is a whole other rabbit hole...) They also leaned into the hippie thing, with Ryan using the slogan "reinvent love" and speaking in an exageratted retro drawl that also bordered on a fake british accent at times. In my opinion he sounded like an egotistical asshole trying way too hard to seem like he didn't care butttt i still love him <3 He also got to sing a whole song by himself on this album and he looked scared af everytime he performed it on stage!
Sadly their creative changes also brought constant arguments about what should go where, who should sing what, or if this was even the right direction for the band. A clear divide emerged between ryan and jon, who wanted to lean into the retro, calmer sound, vs spencer and brendon who both liked the showtunes/cabaret aspects of their first album and wanted to transition to slightly more straightforward pop music. They reportedly also disagreed strongly about values and what it even means to be a band. This is reflected in the lyrics of brendon's later songs (which i find a little tiny bit egotistical but that's not what this is about <3)
Due to all this, the band sadly broke up after touring for this album, and the hearts of depressed millenial fangirls everywhere were shattered. what a sad day for america.

Favorite Songs

Northern Downpour- This is a song that many people associate with Ryan and Brendon's friendship (or if you're a ryden shipper, their passionate love affair) and since they don't talk anymore its become a lot more bittersweet. But to me its still a soothing song that represents finding comfort and understanding in another person. I've cried to it at least once im ngl. Even Brendon cries when he performs it live since the split, but when ryan was asked about it in a recent interview, he was completely surprised that anyone would find it sad. This is further proof that he's secretly a psychopathic serial killer.
Mad as Rabbits- Do I have any idea what this song is about? No. Do the lyrics even make gramatical sense? That's arguable. But it's still one of the best on the album. It's an upbeat, fast rock song reminiscent of an alice-in-wonderland-ish trip into another world where things don't exactly make sense. None of the songs on Pretty Odd are meaningless despite all using this whimsical, fairytale lyrical style, but this one drifts furthest from the realm of reality (along with Behind The Sea).

Cricket & Clover

Plays: Nearly Witches

also called "the cabin album", this was a heavily mythologized but never realized project worked on between afycso and pretty odd. All i can say i'm glad they dropped this aesthetic. (just kidding I love greasy cartoon villain ryan!)
it was a period of creaive limbo for the band, where they reportedly got so experimental that the final products were completely incomprehensible. my understanding is that it was supposed to be a forbidden love story between the titular cricket and clover, but they kinda had no idea what they were doing with that concept. It was described by one of the few people who actually listened to it during its production as "a really weird musical about wolves".
the first track they previewed live was largely hated by fans for both sounding terrible and being too sappy, leading to someone on livejournal calling them "pussywhipped! at the disco". whoever that was i love you.
Even the members of the band seemed to have no confidence in themselves, and yet way too much at the same time... a bunch of egotistical 20 year olds with infinite money, time, and creative freedom expected to follow up with something great after being instantly launched to worldwide stardom with their very first album and presumably being hyped up by everyone around them... its no surprise they got a little lost in the sauce.
sadly the album was never released and we may never hear the recordings from that time. However it's not all bad. one track was leaked, The nearly witches demo version (from before brendon reworked it for Vices and virtues to be a love Song for his wife). It's really good, and I'll always prefer these lyrics over brendon's rewritten version even though i like that one too.
"and as the stars watched me descend, i cracked the family tree and, chopped off all of the branches"
those damn teases ryan and jon constantly hint that they have the demos but "they" wont let them release them.. JUST DO IT YOU DUMB TWINKS!!!

Vices & Virtues

Plays: Always

Vices & Virtues is Panic at the discos's 3rd album and 1st post-split album. While ryan wrote some of the lyrics, the majority of this was created after he and jon left. But despite the fact that i'm a proud ryspawn, this is actually, believe it or not, my favorite panic at the disco album. It's not the most interesting, the most lyrically complex, and it doesn't have the coolest aesthetics or attention to detail. But the songs on here are undeniably catchy and creative and the instrumentation and production is the best it's been for this band. As much as i love afycso, there's a reason i only listen to the live versions (and it's that the production is a fucking abomination. just listen to nails for breakfast to see what i mean.) Nearly Witches, Always, and The Calendar are some of my favorite songs ever and this is the only one of their albums I always listen to all the way through without skipping. I don't dislike any of the songs. The best part is this is their most drama free era, so unlike the rest of their discography, I don't get emo ptsd flashbacks when I listen to it!

The Young Veins

Plays: Lie To The Truth

"and I'm not in panic at the disco anymore. and the young veins didn't work out. and climate change is a serious problem. " - jon walker, 2012
The Young Veins was jon and ryan's new project after leaving PATD. What a cruel world we live in that they only released one album...
after ending things with spencer and brendon on bad terms and being cast aside by pete and their old label, they started working on a new album heavily inspired by the music of the 70s, while their aesthetics fully transitioned into a 2010s hipster style (and ryan grew his hair out and got a perm! cute! ^^)
this project was kind of doomed from the start, due to ryan's slipping mental health, poor reputation with patd fans due to gossip and various scandals (coke plate photo anyone?), lack of support from their former associates (pete didnt even mention the album when it came out.. heartbreaking... billions of wentzross nation citizens dead in the streets...), and the fact that there wasn't much hype for this style of music, especially among PATD's fans. 'Take A Vacation was released at the same time as V&V, to about 1/100th of the hype.
As much as I love Ryan, and his voice has a certain charm, in my opinion he isn't cut out to be a lead singer. Even on the album his voice sounds strained, and more so in their live performances. He was also somewhat mic shy, leading him to take ecstasy before concerts as a confidence booster. Unfortunately this made them uncomfortable to watch as his eyes would constantly roll back in his head from the drugs.
So things weren't looking good. As quickly as they formed, the young veins dissapeared. (sorry, "went on hiatus.") I don't know the circumstances of the end of their band, but like I said, it's not like there are no clues. Ryan would reflect on this time in a 2019 podcast, saying he needed a serious ego check and shouldn't have expected everything he did to magically work out. I wish things went better for him, but it honestly seems like he didn't really want to be famous and leaving the public eye was a good thing for him. Instantly becoming world famous and rich at age 19 without ever having the chance to mature normally or living in the real world, with no family to support you along the way, would do crazy things to anyone's mental state tbh.
Anyway, as for the actual music, I really love it. Even though i was a little mean earlier, I'll always love his fragile but beautiful voice and the unique style of this album. And the songs where jon sings are great too! There's even a feature from my goat Z berg B^D I think they succeeded in capturing that beatles/beach boys sound, though its pretty derivative and not as creative as it could be. I love the melancholy, subdued music accompanying ryan's depressing self reflecive lyrics. My fav songs from it are dangerous blues, the other girl, heart of mine, and lie to the truth. fun fact: at least half the tracks are about ryan cheating on his girlfriend, but somehow ryden fans still came up with a whole conspiracy about how they're all about his secret relationship with brendon. I admire their commitment.