The Ballad of Mona Lisa
Encyclopedia
"The Ballad of Mona Lisa" (commonly referred to as simply "Mona Lisa") is a song by American rock
band Panic! at the Disco
, released February 1, 2011 as the first single from the group's third studio album, Vices & Virtues
(2011). Vocalist Brendon Urie
wrote the song to express personal struggles and convictions many years prior to its official production for Vices & Virtues.
The song has received positive critical reviews upon its release.
, was one of the first tracks composed for the band's third album, Vices & Virtues. As a song written before the band even began recording their second album, Pretty. Odd.
, it proved to be an inspiration for the production of Vices & Virtues. "A few of the ideas — like "The Ballad of Mona Lisa", specifically — was from an idea I had probably four years ago, before we even started touring on Pretty. Odd., and it was just sitting in my laptop collecting figurative dust on my hard drive, not really doing much," said Urie. "That ended up being a really good intro to the whole process." "I showed the band a couple times," said Urie, "but it just fell to the wayside, we never did anything with it. Other ideas beat it out or whatever reason it was.” He wrote the song dealing with his own personal convictions and struggles. "On the surface it can seem like just the story of drama between a guy and a girl," explains Urie. "But it's really about what I've been going through, an inner-struggle within myself, and fighting the dualities of my personality -- the side that fucks everything up and destroys everything and the other side that tries to pick up the slack. It's all growing pains." The song was also inspired by Urie's move from Las Vegas
, Nevada
, where he's lived his entire life, to Santa Monica
, California
with Panic! drummer Spencer Smith
. Urie notes that the move was "a huge part of growing up."
Musically, the song is similar to those produced for the band's debut album, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
(2005); however, Urie explained in a 2011 interview that the song represented more of a new beginning. Urie said "It was a new start when Spencer [Smith] and I started writing, so it was gonna end up sounding different, sonically." The music has been described as a combination of buzzsaw riffs, punchy percussion and literate, multi-layered lyrics. The song's title is, of course, an allusion to Mona Lisa
, the famous Renaissance
-era oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci
. The painting inspired Panic!, which pulls their style from the nostalgic romanticism
of the Elizabethan and Victorian eras. In a 2011 interview, Urie regarded the name and theme of the song as neither male nor female. “That whole thing with Mona Lisa was the idea that there is this character. For us, you look at the painting, and you can’t tell what this person is thinking. Not showing too much emotion, there’s this Mona Lisa smile masking what’s going on in that person’s head," he explained. "The song is about a battle in yourself […] an inner struggle in oneself. The duality in nature, where you see yourself as a bad person, and the good person trying to correct your bad habits. That’s what it was about. We thought that would be an easy way to describe how we were masking our own emotions and trying to figure out how we can solve the bad choices we make."
posted a 30-second clip of the track on their Tumblr
and YouTube
accounts. On January 21, 2011, the song leaked in its entirety, and Panic! at the Disco released a lyric video on YouTube on January 24, 2011. Shortly after its February 1 debut on the iTunes Store
, the single shot to #1 on iTunes' "Top Alternative Songs" chart, and remained a top ten favorite for the weeks following. The music video has had an even greater success: the video debuted at #1 on iTunes' "Top Alternative Music Videos" ranking, having also recently entered into heavy rotation across the MTV Networks
: MTV
, MTV2
, mtvU
, MTV Hits
, and Logo
's NewNowNext PopLab. The video received 120,000 streams on MTV.com within the week of its debut there and, as of 6 July 2011, has over 10,000,000 views on Fueled By Ramen
's official YouTube
Channel. In Australia, "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" held the top position on iTunes' "Top Alternative Songs" chart for months following its release. The single's greatest charting success was in Australia where it reached #21 on the ARIA
singles chart, spending eleven weeks on it.
"The Ballad of Mona Lisa" has received positive reviews upon its release. Two journalists from Spin
reviewed the song positively. William Goodman of Spin, regarding the single, described the song as "an anthemic power-rock ballad with dark and personal undertones," while John MacDonald, in a review of the band's first official live show of the Vices & Virtues Tour
, commented "At the Bowery
, Panic! swung the song's sinister faux-cabaret verses into an absolutely towering chorus -- one that's destined to get blasted out of every sports bar and strip mall in the country over the next few months." USA Today
called the track a "midtempo rocker" in lieu of a "ballad." Many journalists have noted the similarities between "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" and A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
. Prior to the song's official release, Wendy Rollins, disc jockey for Philadelphia's WRFF
(Radio 104.5) described the song via her Twitter
account as "sounding a whole lot like A Fever You Can't Sweat Out." Emily Tan of AOL Music regarded the song's sound as "bringing fans back to the sound they were introduced to when the band first broke onto the scene." The track was described by Alternative Press as "[having] the upbeat pop energy of A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, with the focus and clarity of Pretty. Odd."
In the UK on BBC Radio 1
the song, which was not released until 27th March was Scott Mills
' record of the week and went on to make the Radio 1 A-list on Wednesday 23rd March.
"The Ballad of Mona Lisa" re-entered the Billboard Hot Digital Songs chart at #142 upon the release of Vices & Virtues.
(who previously directed the video for the band's breakthrough hit "I Write Sins Not Tragedies
") and produced by Brandon Bonfiligo. The video was released on February 8, 2011, on MTV
's website shortly after midnight. In a review of the video, MTV News' James Montgomery remarked, "In a lot of ways, "Mona Lisa" is as much about saying goodbye to the band's past as it is about embracing its future ... which sort of makes sense, and not just because the video takes place at a wake."
The steampunk
-themed video bears many similarities to the video for "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", from the church setting to various camera shots (The top hat used in the clip of the dusty pews, is the same one used years prior for the music video for "I Write Sins Not Tragedies"). The video documents the steps for preparing and displaying a body before burial in the Victorian era
, from shutting the windows and covering up mirrors to laying the body out in white so loved ones could mourn. The twist in the video, however, is that it is revealed that the man who they're preparing for burial had been murdered by his fiance, as revealed by his ghost to a little girl who then shows the rest of the mourners. The video runs through traditions of mourning and stages a funeral in an alternative universe that splits the difference between the old west and the Georges Méliès
silent film A Trip to the Moon (1902). The similarities to "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" were not lost on Smith and Urie. "When we were talking about the concept, somebody had the idea to kind of tie in to the beginning of the "Sins" video, and we realized it would work with it", Smith said. "It was a nice homage to some of the first stuff that we had done with Shane", Urie added. "And also, for us, mostly, it was closure."
The League of STEAM
's full ensemble cast appear in key roles in the video. They also brought in additional cast members to further populate the scene and create a richer atmosphere with a unified aesthetic. With a newcomer by the name of Misty Rose acting as the betrothed of the deceased in which the wake is for. In addition, The League's Creative Director Nick Baumann acted as the production’s primary steampunk consultant. On the set for the video, shot in Newhall, California
in January 2011, nods to Panic! at the Disco's past were present, from a clock on the wall (the main one set to nine o'clock, in honor of their "Nine in the Afternoon
" video) to the dusty top hat resting on a church pew and the closing of the church's door (recalling "I Write Sins Not Tragedies"). Urie plays two separate characters, one "inspired by Sweeney Todd
and very Johnny Depp
," which Urie insists "was all [Shane Drake]'s direction." The ranch at which the video was shot was once the set for the HBO series Deadwood
.
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Panic! at the Disco
Panic! at the Disco
Panic! at the Disco is an American alternative rock duo, formed in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2005. Since its split, the band's line-up includes Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith . Former members Ryan Ross and Jon Walker left the group in 2009...
, released February 1, 2011 as the first single from the group's third studio album, Vices & Virtues
Vices & Virtues
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...
(2011). Vocalist Brendon Urie
Brendon Urie
Brendon Boyd Urie is an American musician and the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, pianist and singer-songwriter of Panic! at the Disco. He also plays drums, bass guitar, accordion, organ, cello, violin, and trumpet.-Early life:...
wrote the song to express personal struggles and convictions many years prior to its official production for Vices & Virtues.
The song has received positive critical reviews upon its release.
Background
"The Ballad of Mona Lisa", written by lead singer Brendon UrieBrendon Urie
Brendon Boyd Urie is an American musician and the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, pianist and singer-songwriter of Panic! at the Disco. He also plays drums, bass guitar, accordion, organ, cello, violin, and trumpet.-Early life:...
, was one of the first tracks composed for the band's third album, Vices & Virtues. As a song written before the band even began recording their second album, Pretty. Odd.
Pretty. Odd.
Pretty. Odd. is the second studio album by the American rock band Panic! at the Disco. Recorded at the Studio at the Palms in Las Vegas with additional production at Abbey Road Studios in London with producer Rob Mathes, the album was released March 21, 2008 on Decaydance and Fueled by Ramen Records...
, it proved to be an inspiration for the production of Vices & Virtues. "A few of the ideas — like "The Ballad of Mona Lisa", specifically — was from an idea I had probably four years ago, before we even started touring on Pretty. Odd., and it was just sitting in my laptop collecting figurative dust on my hard drive, not really doing much," said Urie. "That ended up being a really good intro to the whole process." "I showed the band a couple times," said Urie, "but it just fell to the wayside, we never did anything with it. Other ideas beat it out or whatever reason it was.” He wrote the song dealing with his own personal convictions and struggles. "On the surface it can seem like just the story of drama between a guy and a girl," explains Urie. "But it's really about what I've been going through, an inner-struggle within myself, and fighting the dualities of my personality -- the side that fucks everything up and destroys everything and the other side that tries to pick up the slack. It's all growing pains." The song was also inspired by Urie's move from Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...
, where he's lived his entire life, to Santa Monica
Santa Mônica
Santa Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
with Panic! drummer Spencer Smith
Spencer Smith (musician)
Spencer James Smith is an American musician. Smith is a founding member and drummer of American rock band Panic! at the Disco. With the band he placed two studio albums, Pretty. Odd. and Vices & Virtues , in the top ten of the US Billboard 200 chart with the band's debut effort "A Fever You Can't...
. Urie notes that the move was "a huge part of growing up."
Musically, the song is similar to those produced for the band's debut album, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
A Fever You Can't Sweat Out is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Panic! at the Disco. Recorded primarily at SOMD! Studios in College Park, Maryland with producer Matt Squire, the album was released September 27, 2005 on Decaydance and Fueled by Ramen Records.Written and...
(2005); however, Urie explained in a 2011 interview that the song represented more of a new beginning. Urie said "It was a new start when Spencer [Smith] and I started writing, so it was gonna end up sounding different, sonically." The music has been described as a combination of buzzsaw riffs, punchy percussion and literate, multi-layered lyrics. The song's title is, of course, an allusion to Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa is a portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is a painting in oil on a poplar panel, completed circa 1503–1519...
, the famous Renaissance
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
-era oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
. The painting inspired Panic!, which pulls their style from the nostalgic romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
of the Elizabethan and Victorian eras. In a 2011 interview, Urie regarded the name and theme of the song as neither male nor female. “That whole thing with Mona Lisa was the idea that there is this character. For us, you look at the painting, and you can’t tell what this person is thinking. Not showing too much emotion, there’s this Mona Lisa smile masking what’s going on in that person’s head," he explained. "The song is about a battle in yourself […] an inner struggle in oneself. The duality in nature, where you see yourself as a bad person, and the good person trying to correct your bad habits. That’s what it was about. We thought that would be an easy way to describe how we were masking our own emotions and trying to figure out how we can solve the bad choices we make."
Release and reception
The single was announced in the December 2010 issue of Alternative Press. The track was originally titled "Mona Lisa", and was originally due for January 2011. On January 17, 2011, Fueled by RamenFueled by Ramen
Fueled by Ramen is an American record label which operates as a subsidiary of Warner Music Group, and is distributed by Atlantic Records. The label, founded in Gainesville, Florida, is based in New York City...
posted a 30-second clip of the track on their Tumblr
Tumblr
Tumblr is a website and microblogging platform that allows users to post text, images, videos, links, quotes and audio to their tumblelog, a short-form blog. Users can follow other users, or choose to make their tumblelog private. The service emphasizes ease of use. The site ranks as the 10th...
and YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
accounts. On January 21, 2011, the song leaked in its entirety, and Panic! at the Disco released a lyric video on YouTube on January 24, 2011. Shortly after its February 1 debut on the iTunes Store
ITunes Store
The iTunes Store is a software-based online digital media store operated by Apple. Opening as the iTunes Music Store on April 28, 2003, with over 200,000 items to purchase, it is, as of April 2008, the number-one music vendor in the United States...
, the single shot to #1 on iTunes' "Top Alternative Songs" chart, and remained a top ten favorite for the weeks following. The music video has had an even greater success: the video debuted at #1 on iTunes' "Top Alternative Music Videos" ranking, having also recently entered into heavy rotation across the MTV Networks
MTV Networks
MTV Networks is a division of media conglomerate Viacom that oversees the operations of many television channels and Internet brands, including the original MTV channel in the United States...
: MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
, MTV2
MTV2
MTV2 is a cable network that is widely available in the United States on digital cable and satellite television, and is progressively being added to analogue cable lineups across the nation...
, mtvU
MtvU
mtvU is a division of Viacom's MTV Networks which produces a 24-hour television channel that is available on more than 750 college and university campuses across the United States, as well as several digital cable packages...
, MTV Hits
MTV Hits
MTV Hits is an American music video channel that debuted on May 1, 2002. The format of the network resembles that of the classic MTV before the additional of other programming to that network in the 1990s and their slow decline of music video programming...
, and Logo
Logo (TV channel)
Logo is an American digital cable television channel owned by Viacom's MTV Networks division. Launched in June 2005, the channel's programs are geared towards the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community...
's NewNowNext PopLab. The video received 120,000 streams on MTV.com within the week of its debut there and, as of 6 July 2011, has over 10,000,000 views on Fueled By Ramen
Fueled by Ramen
Fueled by Ramen is an American record label which operates as a subsidiary of Warner Music Group, and is distributed by Atlantic Records. The label, founded in Gainesville, Florida, is based in New York City...
's official YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
Channel. In Australia, "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" held the top position on iTunes' "Top Alternative Songs" chart for months following its release. The single's greatest charting success was in Australia where it reached #21 on the ARIA
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...
singles chart, spending eleven weeks on it.
"The Ballad of Mona Lisa" has received positive reviews upon its release. Two journalists from Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
reviewed the song positively. William Goodman of Spin, regarding the single, described the song as "an anthemic power-rock ballad with dark and personal undertones," while John MacDonald, in a review of the band's first official live show of the Vices & Virtues Tour
Vices & Virtues Tour
Vices & Virtues Tour is a concert tour by American rock band Panic! at the Disco. The tour will be split into three legs. The first leg is called "An Intimate Evening With Panic! at the Disco". It began on January 23, 2011 and currently has twelve shows listed. The second part will be after the...
, commented "At the Bowery
Bowery Ballroom
The Bowery Ballroom is a music venue in the Bowery section of New York City. The structure, at 6 Delancey Street, was built just before the Stock Market Crash of 1929. It stood vacant until the end of WWII, when it became a high-end retail store. The neighborhood subsequently went into decline...
, Panic! swung the song's sinister faux-cabaret verses into an absolutely towering chorus -- one that's destined to get blasted out of every sports bar and strip mall in the country over the next few months." USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
called the track a "midtempo rocker" in lieu of a "ballad." Many journalists have noted the similarities between "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" and A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
A Fever You Can't Sweat Out
A Fever You Can't Sweat Out is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Panic! at the Disco. Recorded primarily at SOMD! Studios in College Park, Maryland with producer Matt Squire, the album was released September 27, 2005 on Decaydance and Fueled by Ramen Records.Written and...
. Prior to the song's official release, Wendy Rollins, disc jockey for Philadelphia's WRFF
WRFF
WRFF is a modern rock FM radio station located in and licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by Clear Channel Communications and is known on-air as "Radio 104.5."-WRCP-FM:...
(Radio 104.5) described the song via her Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
account as "sounding a whole lot like A Fever You Can't Sweat Out." Emily Tan of AOL Music regarded the song's sound as "bringing fans back to the sound they were introduced to when the band first broke onto the scene." The track was described by Alternative Press as "[having] the upbeat pop energy of A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, with the focus and clarity of Pretty. Odd."
In the UK on BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
the song, which was not released until 27th March was Scott Mills
Scott Mills
Scott Robert Mills is a British radio DJ, television presenter and occasional actor, best known for presenting The Scott Mills Show on BBC Radio 1...
' record of the week and went on to make the Radio 1 A-list on Wednesday 23rd March.
"The Ballad of Mona Lisa" re-entered the Billboard Hot Digital Songs chart at #142 upon the release of Vices & Virtues.
Music video
The video of "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" was directed by Shane DrakeShane Drake
Shane C. Drake is an American music video director originally from Redding, California. He has directed videos for bands such as Trivium, Paramore, Fall Out Boy, Panic! at the Disco, Angels & Airwaves, Flo Rida, Timbaland, Blindside, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, The Almost, Hawthorne Heights and...
(who previously directed the video for the band's breakthrough hit "I Write Sins Not Tragedies
I Write Sins Not Tragedies
"I Write Sins Not Tragedies" is a song by American rock band Panic! at the Disco, and is the lead single from their debut studio album, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out . It was released on April 27, 2006 on both compact disc and 7 inch vinyl. The song was written by guitarist Ryan Ross. The song...
") and produced by Brandon Bonfiligo. The video was released on February 8, 2011, on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's website shortly after midnight. In a review of the video, MTV News' James Montgomery remarked, "In a lot of ways, "Mona Lisa" is as much about saying goodbye to the band's past as it is about embracing its future ... which sort of makes sense, and not just because the video takes place at a wake."
The steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
-themed video bears many similarities to the video for "I Write Sins Not Tragedies", from the church setting to various camera shots (The top hat used in the clip of the dusty pews, is the same one used years prior for the music video for "I Write Sins Not Tragedies"). The video documents the steps for preparing and displaying a body before burial in the Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
, from shutting the windows and covering up mirrors to laying the body out in white so loved ones could mourn. The twist in the video, however, is that it is revealed that the man who they're preparing for burial had been murdered by his fiance, as revealed by his ghost to a little girl who then shows the rest of the mourners. The video runs through traditions of mourning and stages a funeral in an alternative universe that splits the difference between the old west and the Georges Méliès
Georges Méliès
Georges Méliès , full name Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès, was a French filmmaker famous for leading many technical and narrative developments in the earliest cinema. He was very innovative in the use of special effects...
silent film A Trip to the Moon (1902). The similarities to "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" were not lost on Smith and Urie. "When we were talking about the concept, somebody had the idea to kind of tie in to the beginning of the "Sins" video, and we realized it would work with it", Smith said. "It was a nice homage to some of the first stuff that we had done with Shane", Urie added. "And also, for us, mostly, it was closure."
The League of STEAM
League of STEAM
The League of S.T.E.A.M. , a.k.a. the "Steampunk Ghostbusters", are a Southern Californian performance art troupe popular in the steampunk community and specializing in live interactive themed entertainment.- The League :The League of S.T.E.A.M...
's full ensemble cast appear in key roles in the video. They also brought in additional cast members to further populate the scene and create a richer atmosphere with a unified aesthetic. With a newcomer by the name of Misty Rose acting as the betrothed of the deceased in which the wake is for. In addition, The League's Creative Director Nick Baumann acted as the production’s primary steampunk consultant. On the set for the video, shot in Newhall, California
Newhall, California
Newhall is the southernmost and oldest district of Santa Clarita, California. Prior to the 1987 consolidation of Valencia, Canyon Country, Saugus, Newhall, and other geographically proximate settlements into the conglomerate city of Santa Clarita, it was an independent but unincorporated town...
in January 2011, nods to Panic! at the Disco's past were present, from a clock on the wall (the main one set to nine o'clock, in honor of their "Nine in the Afternoon
Nine in the Afternoon
"Nine in the Afternoon" is the first single from the second album by Panic! at the Disco, Pretty. Odd. It is the band's first song release that did not include the exclamation mark at the end of the "Panic" in their name, and was also the first song written for the album. The video was filmed on...
" video) to the dusty top hat resting on a church pew and the closing of the church's door (recalling "I Write Sins Not Tragedies"). Urie plays two separate characters, one "inspired by Sweeney Todd
Sweeney Todd
Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as then antagonist of the Victorian penny dreadful The String of Pearls and he was later introduced as an antihero in the broadway musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and its film adaptation...
and very Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...
," which Urie insists "was all [Shane Drake]'s direction." The ranch at which the video was shot was once the set for the HBO series Deadwood
Deadwood (TV series)
Deadwood is an American Western drama television series created, produced and largely written by David Milch. The series aired on the premium cable network HBO from March 21, 2004, to August 27, 2006, spanning three 12-episode seasons. The show is set in the 1870s in Deadwood, South Dakota, before...
.
Track listing
Charts
| Charts (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
89 |
| US Alternative Songs (Billboard) | 24 |
| US Rock Songs Rock Songs Rock Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine which ranks the airplay of songs on alternative, mainstream rock and triple A radio stations. The first chart was published in the issue dated June 20, 2009. "Know Your Enemy" by Green Day was the first number-one song. The Rock Songs... (Billboard) |
50 |