Vices & Virtues

Vices & Virtues is the first album released after Ryan Ross and Jon Walker decided to depart from the band. The album itself is yet another reinvention of the band as a whole, illustrating Spencer Smith and Brendon Urie’s new vision for Panic! while still maintaining their dramatic flare. The album is a stark contrast from the band’s previous album Pretty. Odd. and is more like their first album A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out in that they are more similar aesthetically and musically.

Brendon Urie explained the inspiration behind the title of the album to SPIN:

I was looking at the lyrics, thinking, ‘What are the main themes here?’ They dealt with self-deprecation, pride, subversion, manipulation, but some good stuff too: self-expression, honesty. I was like, ‘Are these the seven deadly sins or something’? We did some research and ‘Vices and Virtues’ popped up. Aristotle has this Biblical list that’s tied in with themes of human behavior that we’ve been noticing in ourselves. This album is a study of our human behavior. It’s about our changes in self-esteem and the changes of growing up."