VIDEO REVIEW: Panic! at the Disco's "Ballad of Mona Lisa"

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VIDEO REVIEW: Panic! at the Disco's "Ballad of Mona Lisa"

POSTED: Wednesday, February 9, 2011, 7:00 PM

Filed Under: Critical Mass | Music | Video Song

Oh, to be a teen again — when you think every relationship and interaction has a cosmic significance worthy of grandiose metaphors. From their new album, Vices and Virtues, Panic! At The Disco's heartbreak song "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" brings all of that annoying magical thinking back. In it, they bemoan a woman who, um, has a hard-to-read facial expression and, according to her her painstaking manicure, is apparently a hooker. The music video, which makes the Halloween-came-early joke too easy, stars frontman Brendon Urie as a corpse and avenging spirit (in Wild West times, no less) who sings in the tavern and flaunts scary eye makeup and top hats. His assumed murderer/widow goes around sinisterly preparing the joint for his funeral, while no one suspects a thing . Then Urie's ghost appears to a little girl, who reaches into the corpse's pocket and holds up a note saying, "Mary did it." After this incontrovertible evidence is revealed, Mary almost gets away, but is stopped by an old-time net. Killah ending. How exactly does the note get there when they show the body being washed and dressed for the casket? And where did that flame reflected in Brendon Urie's eye come from? The band's videos are generally emo extravaganzas that aren't about anything, but the one for "Nine In the Afternoon" was incredibly sweet and at least didn't try to make sense. But for "Mona Lisa," I can't imagine anyone over 15 taking this seriously.

Christine

Posted 2011-02-11 04:46:26

I suspect that you need to be over 20 or 25 to appreciate the steampunk aesthetic and get the implications of the old traditions and rituals of mourning and funeral rites. The steampunk genre has a presence in music, art, fiction, and tv and film. I think it was a visually entertaining approach for The Ballad of Mona song's video, and was also a good fit for the supernatural aspects of a funeral wake depicted. I quite enjoyed it. And I loved that steampunk net gun!

Posted by Bianca Brown @ 7:00 PM Permalink | 1 comment

Comments (1)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:20 PM, 07/20/2011

haven't heard these guys in a few years! definitely a fun video production!! (HTML deleted)

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