twenty øne piløts is a duo from Columbus, Ohio consisting of lead vocalist, pianist, ukulele player, guitarist, bassist, keyboardist, programmer & percussionist Tyler Joseph alongside drummer, percussionist, trumpeter & backing vocals Josh Dun. Although their eponymous debut as well as Regional at Best & Vessel were decent, Blurryface near the end of my senior year of high school caught my attention since former Aftermath Entertainment in-house producer Mike Elizondo did a few tracks on there including what’s arguably Tyler & Josh’s biggest hit “Stressed Out”. Trench in the fall of 2018 went on to become their most acclaimed body of work yet & are looking to bounce back from the subpar reception of Scaled & Icy to release their 7th album.
“Compensate” is a great beginning to Clancy fusing pop rap, alternative dance, big beat, trip hop, electropop & industrial hip hop flying by the dangerous bend symbol whereas “Next Semester” was the best single working elements of post-punk revival, garage rock revival, power pop & dance punk talking about starting fresh the following semester. “Backslide” crosses pop rap, trip hop, alt-pop & even boom bap over onto 1 fearing of relapsing old habits prior to the synth-punk flavored “Midwest Indigo” finding the titular character Clancy returning home from college for winter break maintaining the indie rock, indie pop, power pop, new wave, synthpop & post-punk revival vibes.
The melodic “Routines in the Night” tackles a recurring theme throughout the LP & really tøp’s discography of fighting your demons at the night just before “Vignette” takes the synth-funk route instrumentally to talk about addiction. “The Craving” blends indie folk, indie pop, pop rock & folk pop expressing Tyler’s love for his wife Jenna Joseph while “Lavish” criticizes the lavish nature of luxury life, the unnecessary ostentatious award ceremonies/shows & the need for a false toughness in order to survive in the music industry over a neo-psychedelia, art pop, alt-pop, psychedelic pop, chamber pop, boom bap, pop rap & trip hop hybrid.
“Navigating” showcases influences of post-punk revival, dance-punk, garage rock revival, power pop, alternative rock & new wave depicting the endless battle with the brain, but then “Snap Back” primarily keeps it alt-pop with the exceptions of pop rap, trip hop, neo-psychedelia, alternative R&B & emo rap weaving themselves in additionally talking about wrestling with an addiction that threatens to come back. “Oldies Station” is a indie pop, piano rock, indietronica, neo-psychedelia & post-Britpop track encouraging to let depression roll off your back & persevere while “At the Risk of Feeling Dumb” nears the end of Clancy addressing the complexities of friendship and support during challenging times over an alt-pop emo-pop, trip hop, alternative rock & pop reggae beat. “Paladin Strait” ends on the synthpop tip tracin’ out a line Tyler has mapped 1,000 times.
These guys are sorta known for having a bit of a toxic fandom & even I myself will acknowledge that, I nevertheless still enjoy Blurryface & Trench since those are the 2 full-lengths contain my favorite material of theirs. What about Clancy here? It’s an improvement from Scaled & Icy few years back & I certainly can’t deny that. We get a cohesive story of the titular character named after the protagonist Trench introduced us to & the final chapter in their nearly decade-long conceptual series basing itself around alt-pop & indie rock primarily joined by pop rap, pop rock, indie pop, trip hop, dance-punk, synth-punk, indie folk, folk pop, post-punk revival, garage rock revival, power pop, pop rap, alternative rock, new wave, piano rock, synthpop, indietronica, neo-psychedelia, alternative R&B, post-Britpop, alternative dance, big beat, synth-funk, boom bap, emo rap, emo-pop & pop reggae as secondary genres.
Score: 3.5/5
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