“Say Amen” and “Silver Lining sizzle” on Panic! At The Disco’s Sixth Studio Album

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Amber Kelly, Opinion Editor

After dropping hints on social media from March 8, Panic! At The Disco released the date of their seventh album along with a new video and two new songs. The album, “Pray for the Wicked”, will be the second produced solely by the only remaining member of the band, Brendon Urie. The two new songs are “Silver Lining” and “Say Amen.”

 

“Silver Lining” starts out with a 50’s era introduction and quickly jumps to a more modern sound. The song is much different from previous songs and was a drastic change from the predecessor title track “Death of a Bachelor.” Urie sings “Screw a silver lining ‘cause gold is only hot enough,” Urie expresses his need to be the best and most loved, he won’t settle for second, he constantly wants first place.

It’s just cherries, cherries, everything is cherries on top,” alludes to Urie’s happiness with his fame, the saying means adding something that’s great to something even better. Urie has won many different awards and honors and “Sunset shadows through the trophies,” leads the listener to think about all of his awards and “sunset shadows”, reminds the reader that he lives in California, which is famous for their “California Sun”. Urie has expressed many times that he’s a big fan of Beyonce, so fans weren’t surprised when he referenced her in Silver Lining, “Quick charade, Beyonce, Lemonade”.  

“Say Amen” is a much more classic Panic! song. It sounds as though it was a reject off of “Death of a Bachelor.” The song incorporates one of the transitions Urie created for the 2017 Death of a Bachelor tour. It’s definitely shows off Urie’s vocals, with a very high note included towards the end of the song. It opens up with Urie telling the audience that he’s tired of carrying the band, “been traveling in packs that I can’t carry anymore, been waiting for somebody else to carry me.” The chorus “I pray for the wicked on the weekend,” is reminiscent of the party life that Urie leads. “Swear to God I ain’t ever gonna repent- Mama, can I get another amen?” Urie left his faith of mormonism when he turned 17 and in this set of lyrics it says that he’ll never go back on that decision. “If every night I go to sleep knowing that I gave everything that I had to give, then it’s all I could have asked for,” in this statement Urie says that he will always put in his very best to his work and if he can do that, then he’s done his job correctly.

The music video for “Say Amen” is nothing like Urie’s typical videos, though it does tie into the storyline of previous ones. It’s a cross between John McClane’s bruteness and James Bond’s creativity with a bucket of fake blood thrown into the mix. Urie’s character has stolen the priceless devil’s key from a history museum and is now being robbed by ninjas for it, all while getting ready to celebrate his girlfriend’s birthday. There’s even a cake on the counter. Urie fights off the ninjas in record time, without a scratch on him.

As Urie and the girlfriend get ready to celebrate, she sees the priceless key around his neck and starts to beat him up in order to take it from Urie. She takes the key knocking Urie out and leaves the house as his heartbeat starts to become louder and slower to the viewer. Fans have noticed that Urie is dressed in the same outfit he is wearing in “This is Gospel,” published in 2013, where Urie is taken to the hospital and is tried to save, but ends up dying. At the end of the video there’s a shot where Urie is intermixed with clouds and it appears as though he’s made it into heaven. In 2016 Urie released “Emperor’s New Clothes,” the same shot that was used at the end of “Gospel,” is shown as the opening shot for the video then, instead of going to heaven Urie falls into hell and there he transforms into a demon throughout the video, which explains the devil’s key.

Panic! At The Disco’s sixth studio album and eighth album all together is planned to be released June 22. Panic’s summer tour starts July 11 in Minneapolis and will run for seven weeks. With the tracklist already updated to iTunes and new music released, fans are ecstatic for what Panic! will do next.