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Vices & Virtues is the third studio album by American rock band Panic! at the Disco, released on March 22, 2011 on Fueled by Ramen. Produced by John Feldmann and Butch Walker, the album marks the debut of the band's two-man lineup, featuring vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith, following the departure of primary lyricist and guitarist Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker in July 2009.
While Walker and Ross' exit left a hole in the Panic! songwriting regime, the experience became the catalyst for Urie finding his own voice and the confidence to take over as the band's principal songsmith. The lyrics, billed as a "study in human behavior", touch on themes of manipulation and confusion. Vices & Virtues took over two years to create, and the increased time in the studio brought forth new musical experimentation.
Upon release, the album received generally positive reviews. Critics praised the album's wide variety of musical stylings, while citing compositional simplicity and Urie's verbose lyricism as detractors. Preceded by lead single, "The Ballad of Mona Lisa", the album debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200, selling 56,000 copies within its first week.
Vices & Virtues features a variety of different musical styles in its tracks. As a testament to the amount of time of production, each song "sounds different from the next," according to Urie. In the beginning, the band had no direction for music or lyrics. However, after returning to the studio and re-starting production, the band became excited to start anew with a second chance. "We've been working on music for about a year and a half, so I think that partly adds to why some of the songs have some varying styles," Smith said. "Part of it was us, at the beginning, trying to figure out what we wanted to do — we had a new opportunity with just the two of us — and as we sort of got a better hold on what that was, just kind of went from there." The duo picked the best songs out of 30 written as time went on. Urie said the most exciting part of the recording process was "…You get all the work done, record the song, arrange it and then you can add the fun little stuff, little pieces of voices and talking and weird instruments you hadn’t used before." The band's musical experimentation stretched as far as employing an iPad to record synthesizer on the record. The band got to work with French band The Plastiscines, and a children's choir on the track "Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met…)".
A majority of the band's previous material was written by former guitarist Ryan Ross. For Vices & Virtues, Urie had "to step up and take the reins lyrically," which he regarded as having not much experience in prior. The biggest inspiration for lyricism was keeping busy and going out, instead of locking themselves in and writing. Urie has regarded the lyrics as very honest and straightforward, as well as very fantastical with elements of storytelling. Urie explained "We were so self-conscious about everything, hyper-aware of what we’re doing, that when we’re writing I go, “Okay, I don’t want this to be Barry Manilow’s "Mandy," but I want it to be as romantic and cute…’ There’s a lot of that fighting within yourself. But it ended up being great, and I’m glad that we were able to figure out what we wanted to write about." The lyrics also reflect the confusion after the departure of Ross and Walker. The sessions with Feldmann at his home studio led to experimentation with new sounds. "We really loved Paul Simon and got into using marimbas and string instruments," explains Urie. "We ended up buying some synths and messing around with them. It was two kids in a candy store… and we listened to Arcade Fire's The Suburbs on repeat for me for the past… well, since it came out ."
"The Ballad of Mona Lisa" has been described by Alternative Press as " the upbeat pop energy of A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, with the focus and clarity of Pretty. Odd." Urie has explained that he and Smith desired to achieve a sound that is more similar to the former: "We missed a couple things from our first record in terms of sonically, with these little instruments that we hadn’t really used on our second record. There a lot of organic instruments and not a lot of electronics or synthesizers. So we wanted to get back to some of that." Smith agreed, and stated "I think there's stuff from the first album that we kind of got away from on the second record that people who were fans of the first one will enjoy." "The Calendar", originally written about an intimate relationship between a male and a female, soon began to resemble the friendships in former members Ross and Walker; the song was finished as a direct response to their departure from the group. "Sarah Smiles" was written for Urie's girlfriend. "'Sarah Smiles" is about my girlfriend, actually, as sappy as that is," he told Spin in 2011. "When I met her I wrote this song to try and impress her. I was infatuated with her. I played it for her and we've been dating ever since. That was a huge step for me, personally."
1. "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" Urie/Smith/Walker/Feldmann 3:47
2. "Let's Kill Tonight" Urie/Smith 3:34
3. "Hurricane" Urie/Smith/Feldmann 4:25
4. "Memories" Urie/Smith/Feldmann 5:33
5. "Trade Mistakes" Urie/Smith/Feldmann 5:12
6. "Ready to Go (Get Me Out of My Mind)" Urie/Smith 3:36
7. "Always" Urie/Smith/Feldmann 3:27
8. "The Calendar" Urie/Smith/Feldmann 4:43
9. "Sarah Smiles" Urie/Smith/Feldmann 6:41
10. "Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met…)" Urie/Smith/Feldmann/Ross 7:04
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