When Billboard caught up with Brendon Urie just a few weeks ago, the Panic! at the Disco frontman (really, at this point, he IS the band) told us, "I would have loved to see [Frank] Sinatra in the late '50s, early '60s -- like in the Sands in Vegas, just chain-smoking, drinking whiskey."
Sure enough, the music video for "Death of a Bachelor" -- the title track to Panic!'s upcoming album -- opens with Urie sitting alone at a table in an Art Deco jazz club, playing with a lighter and drinking whiskey.
Coincidence? Absolutely not. The latest P!ATD song oozes Ol' Blue Eyes vibes, through the distinct lens of Urie's voice and increasing sonic experimentation.
Brendon Urie on New Album: 'Should I Just Leak It?'
While the subdued but swingin' horns on the track bring to mind frequent Sinatra arranger Nelson Riddle, Urie adds a stuttering beat to keep the song from being a purely throwback affair. Similarly, clipped vocal loops serve as backup voices, instead of one continuous track.
But when Urie's voice hits those big notes with Sinatra-styled gusto, there's no denying he's drawing inspiration from the late legend -- and, for someone who came up in the pop-punk scene, doing a surprisingly adept job at it.
"Death Of A Bachelor -- it’s cool 'cause in the past I was writing most of everything, but this time it was actually all me and I got to record every instrument on this album, except for the horns, which was a huge deal for me," Urie told Billboard. "I did drums, background vocals and the background vocals I was playing different characters, I was doing operatic Queen stuff for songs like 'Victorious' and 'Emperor’s New Clothes.' That was just a lot of fun. And again, Sinatra creeps back in there, so there are a couple of songs I wrote trying to do like a Nelson Riddle arrangement."
Watch the video below and watch for the album to hit Jan. 15.
