Released on June 22, Brendon Urie serves electronic beats and high energy with Panic! at the Disco’s most recent album “Pray for the Wicked.”

Though the name Panic! at the Disco remains, the band has been reduced to just Brendon Urie, and this album acts as a solo project for the artist. For the band’s first two albums, the group was comprised of members Brendon Urie, Spencer Smith, Ryan Ross and Jon Walker. Ross and Walker departed after their second album “Pretty. Odd.”, and Smith departed after fifth album “Death of a Bachelor.”

Fans of Panic!’s early work may be dismayed that the band’s early acoustic and cabaret-influenced sound is long gone and has been replaced with synth-based pop hits.

However, bands evolve, and Panic! at the Disco’s new sound is fun, energetic and still retains the artful lyrics that characterized the band’s early work.

The album features themes of success and stardom, while managing to also imbue an undercurrent of cynicism in the lyrics to many of the songs. One song acts as a microcosm for these ideas is the opening track “F*** A (Silver Lining)” where Urie sings, “We’ve been falling, falling; it’s like we fell to the top, I was born to cut a million, cut my teeth and made a killing; Now I’m dodging, dodging, everything you think that I’m not; archetype of television, was lost in thought but held the vision.”

The song has a bittersweet view of success, and just like much of the album, speaks to the sugar-coating that often covers up strife, specifically in the life of a musician and as a general worldview.

Though the sound of the album differs greatly from early Panic! albums and continues to expand off the sound of the previous synth-based album “Death of a Bachelor,” the touches of theatricality that long define Urie’s sound still remain. The album feels bombastic and emotional, despite the move toward a more “mainstream pop” sound.

Fans of Urie’s may need to wave goodbye to the mellow, acoustic tracks that once made appearances on previous albums, but should not dismiss the band’s newer works. “Pray for the Wicked” is fun, engaging and not without thematic substance—these tracks just also happen to double as songs that could light up any party.