Four Ds for 'The Ballad of Mona Lisa'

Hey everyone,

I've been pretty bored recently and planned to do this at the beginning of the year. I plan to do a regular music review on new, old, and just plain classics. What I ask is that, if there is a new piece of music out, or just a song you really like, or even just something you want to mess me about with, that you tell me the song and the artist and I shall review it for you. All I will say about my reasons for doing this is because I really like music, that’s all you’ll get out of me and I will be happy to answer questions.

Now the first song I will review is one that is eagerly anticipated, it is the new single from Panic! At The Disco (yes, they have brought the exclamation mark back) called “The Ballad Of Mona Lisa!” It really is a good thing for me because it gave us a taste of what the new album will be like, and what they have is all good. It’s also good to know that they have come back to the same style of “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out”, released in 2005, because that is what they are best at: hard, well-sung truths about sex, marriage, religion, sin, and other such things.

It starts off light but then, after about fifteen seconds, kicks in dark and gloomy with the vocals. The doom lasts for another thirty seconds and then rips up into a heavy chorus. The lyrics of the chorus are:
Say what you mean
Tell me I’m right
And let the sun rain down on me
Give me a sign
I wanna believe
Whoa Mona Lisa, you’re guaranteed to run this town
Whoa Mona Lisa I’d pay to see you frown

The entire song carries on in the same way until 2:12 into the song, when it goes all quiet and light, but the lyrics are very powerful, in the sense that you feel how Brendon Boyd Urie feels as he sings. Now, the end of this song is very powerful. All it says is a statement made a couple of times that you may have heard:
There’s nothing wrong with just a taste of what you paid for.
This links to the majority of songs from A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out because a lot of those songs are about the good behind sins.

I’d like to thank you for taking out the time to read this and, if you are interested, here is the link to The Ballad Of Mona Lisa - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6coqkaaQYG8

All in all, I would give this DDDD (Taken from Kerrang’s ‘K’ system - the D here is for “Dobby). It’s a good listen and very addictive.

Nathan “Dobby” Dobson