This Is Gospel - Panic! At The Disco

[Life_Journey_of_Matt]

This is an interesting one. So I listen to Spotify while I work, and depending on my mood I'll listen to anything from classical to country to rock. Just yesterday one of the Panic! At The Disco songs in a playlist of mine came up, and I decided to click on the band's name and see what they've done more recently. I saw that they just released a new album so I clicked on the first track to check it out. The song had a curious title, This Is Gospel. As I started listening, it seemed I was hearing someone's very raw, very personal perspective of their painful journey away from the church. Initially I thought, "Well, he could be talking about any faith. Any denomination." However, after a couple of times through, I started doing a little research to see if I was even close in my interpretation.

To my surprise, I find that Brendon Urie, who wrote the song, "grew up in a Mormon family in Las Vegas" according to an interview from 2008. http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2008 ... mandmusic8

It goes on to say

Mormonism didn't set Urie apart from other kids - 70% of his schoolmates subscribed to the religion - but at 15 he drifted somewhat from the faith. He started smoking weed and listening to jazz and punk, and formed Panic with Ross and drummer Spencer Smith. When the band first started, Urie would have to skip rehearsals to go to church, but as he became more rebellious, he started rowing with his parents and staying away from home.

I then found an exclusive on MTV about the new album, which states

As Urie previously told MTV News, while much of Too Rare is an ode to Panic's Las Vegas roots, he's also writing about his own personal experiences. First single "Miss Jackson" finds him repenting for previous relationship wrongs, and one of his favorite album tracks, "This Is Gospel," lived for months on his laptop before he found the courage to share it with his bandmates.
"There are quite a few songs that are very personal, about things I've been through with different people in my life."

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/171104 ... tion.jhtml

With all that, I'm pretty sure this song is about him leaving the church and the various effects his experience has had on him.

There's a lot of feeling in the music and the lyrics, but the video is actually quite powerful visually as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGE381tbQa8

It would be so interesting to sit down with him and pick his brain about this one.

[Curt Sunshine]

My children like their music.

Another popular band right now that is comprised (entirely?) of Mormons is "Imagine Dragons".

[Life_Journey_of_Matt]

Symbolism I see from the video:

1. Surgery he doesn't seem to want. [Being raised in the church feeling like he didn't have a choice. People trying to fix him when he doesn't feel broken.]
2. Baptism in a coffin. [The deadening feeling of just conforming to doctrines and practices that he's grown apart from.]
3. Ropes from within entangling him and constantly trying to pull him back. [Possibly pressure or guilt from family members, his own questions or uncertainties or doubts, the relentless reactivation efforts of the church, etc.]

Anyone else have any thoughts?

[mackay11]

I found the song and video a moving experience. I can feel some empathy with him. Although I don't want to go completely, I can feel the worry of the ropes that I would have to disentangle from if I were to leave and the well-meaning people holding them to try to make me stay.

Lyrics:

This is gospel for the fallen ones
Locked away in permanent slumber
Assembling their philosophies
From pieces of broken memories

Oh, this is the beat of my heart, this is the beat of my heart [x2]
The gnashing teeth and criminal tongues conspire against the odds
But they haven’t seen the best of us yet

If you love me let me go
If you love me let me go
‘Cause these words are knives and often leave scars
The fear of falling apart
And truth be told, I never was yours
The fear, the fear of falling apart

Oh, this is the beat of my heart, this is the beat of my heart [x2]

This is gospel for the vagabonds,
Never-do-wells and insufferable bastards
Confessing their apostasies
Led away by imperfect impostors

Oh, this is the beat of my heart, this is the beat of my heart [x2]

Don’t try to sleep through the end of the world
And bury me alive
'Cause I won’t give up without a fight

If you love me let me go
If you love me let me go
‘Cause these words are knives and often leave scars
The fear of falling apart
And truth be told, I never was yours
The fear, the fear of falling apart

Oh, the fear of falling apart
Oh, the fear, the fear of falling apart

[x4]
Oh (This is the beat of my heart)
The fear of falling apart