Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music CriticPanic! at the Disco’s “Viva Las Vengeance” will never get filed in the comedy section, but shuffling through its 12 tracks, your instinct may be to chuckle and laugh, and then laugh some more.
It’s a natural, admiring reaction to how Brendon Urie has brazenly fashioned the album as almost a parlor game of Spot the Classic-Rock Callback.
Nearly everything here is designed to evoke a fond remembrance of specific bands and sounds from the 1970s — give or take a late ’60s or early ’80s allusion.
Being a mere lad of 35, Urie must’ve been tuning in to all these period FM sounds from some celestial, prenatal dimension. Or maybe he’s getting high on some glam-rock or new-wave ghost’s supply.
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