In 2005, Brendon Urie said he’d “swear to shake it up if you swear to listen.” That line has defined Panic! At The Disco’s career ever since. The band redefined the 2000s emo scene with a sound that couldn’t be replicated.
After seven albums, line-up changes and genre-bending hits, Brendon Urie, the only original member left, disbanded Panic! in 2023.
However, the band returned with a 20th anniversary deluxe edition of the album that started it all: “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out.” Recorded in 2005 with original members Urie, Ryan Ross, Spencer Smith and Brent Wilson, the original release of the album received a 1.5 out of 10 on Pitchfork, which cited it as “vague teen heartache” with no “sincerity, creativity or originality.”
They couldn’t have foreseen the popularity of “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” commonly rated one of the best songs of the 2000s according to Harper’s BAZAAR. They couldn’t have predicted that Panic! At The Disco would become one of the most popular bands in the emo scene.
While we can’t fault them for that, we can tell them why they were wrong.
The approximately two and a half hour long 20th anniversary deluxe edition of “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” kicks off with a remastered version of the album. Urie invites us in with a staticky “Introduction,” before diving into a nearly manic and synthy “The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage.”
The lyrics of this album are bold, brash and startlingly self-aware. Ross captures the group’s fervent need to prove themselves with the lyrics “we’re still so young, but desperate for attention.”
Track “London Beckoned Songs About Money Written by Machines” is equally as cheeky, with the band declaring themselves “a wet dream for the webzine.” The audacious bass and synth of each song feels cleaner on the remastered version, each part layered to build a sound that’s less mumbled than the original.
The first half of the album ends with “Lying Is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off,” a track that spotlights both the heavy keyboard, infidelity and betrayal fueled by Ross’ own experiences.
It’s here that the album takes a step away from heavily produced punk to something baroque. Panic! At The Disco enters a new arena, one encapsulated by my personal favorite song, “But It’s Better If You Do.” It mixes all of the sounds of the album into one coherent thesis, supported heavily by the lyrics that describe sex, drugs and taboo.
Immediately following it is the legendary “I Write Sins Not Tragedies,” a song considered one of the best emo songs of all time. With that, the album flows seamlessly until the end, when “Build God, Then We’ll Talk” closes it out with an interpolation of “My Favorite Things” from “The Sound of Music.”
Disc 2 is a series of demos, mostly instrumentals with only the chorus figured out, the simplicity of which is endearing. Discs 3 and 4 are live recordings of a concert in Denver that includes covers of “Tonight, Tonight” by The Smashing Pumpkins and “Karma Police” by Radiohead.
Even after 20 years, this album holds up. Although some of the lyrics and titles haven’t aged well, Panic!’s first album remains a timeless classic, and its impact lingers in the pop-rock scene today.
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