Collectibles #34: Panic! At The Disco - Vices & Virtues Box Set (2011)

Vices & Virtues is Panic! At The Disco's third studio album, following A Fever You Can't Sweat Out (2005) and Pretty.Odd (2008). The band has undergone several transformations over the past few years, both virtually and physically.

For their second album, they famously dropped the "!" from their name and simply became Panic At The Disco. For this third album, they reinstated the "!" after two of the original members, Ryan Ross (guitar) and Jon Walker (bass) walked out of the band in 2009 to form their own group The Young Veins, which is currently on hiatus. P!ATD are now represented as a two-man-band, fronted by Brendon Urie (lead vocals, guitar, piano) and Spencer Smith (drums).

The box set for their Fever album was totally tricked out and I had high hopes for this new box set as well. But its contents are not as lavish and polished as the Fever one, which had a really nice red velvet interior and much more interesting items, like the phenakistoscope and fake newspaper.

This Vices box set feels lightweight and flimsy. Even the certificate of authenticity is printed on thin stock paper, making it feel like a flyer rather than a certificate. And there isn't a single interesting item at all, just the standard stuff - postcards, fold-out poster, lyric booklet and a round postcard with the clock face printed on. Heck, even making the hands of the clock movable will make it that little bit more fun.

The CD contains four bonus tracks and the bonus DVD contains four clips - the music video for first single The Ballad of Mona Lisa (which is a decent rock track, but not mind-blowing), the making of the Mona Lisa video and two documentaries titled In The Studio with "Nearly Witches" (about the recording of a children's choir for the track Nearly Witches) and Get Me Out Of My Mind (the making of the Vices & Virtues album).

This box set is limited to 6,000 worldwide and is available in limited quantities in Singapore. I think this is purely for the collectors only, nothing really to die for.

Front of the slipcase

Back of the slipcase

The box opened up, revealing the Vices and Virtues sides

The two sliding drawers

The two drawers fully extended and removed

The Vices side (the dark side)

The CD contains four bonus tracks

The rather flimsy certificate of authenticity

The "bad" Spencer and Brendon

The Virtues side (the good side)

The wholesome Spencer and Brendon

Bonus DVD not available anywhere else