I’m going to be totally honest here, Scaled and Icy was a huge letdown of an album for me from a band that hadn’t disappointed prior. Of course that means I was going to walk into Clancy with a bit of trepidation. But I was a fool for thinking that way! Twenty One Pilots have rounded out this era with certified hits.
It’s no surprise that “Overcompensate” remains one of my favorites off the album. It was just too good! Plus, I think it best represents older albums of theirs that were my favorites. Similarly, “Next Semester” threw it all the back to Vessel days, and for that I’ll be forever grateful. In fact, for all of the accompanying music videos for these tracks, Tyler even looks the same as he did back then. I don’t truly know if he got his hair shaved off (I didn’t watch the livestream), but it’s almost like they’ve come full circle. I also believe there is no changing Josh. He’s just going to do him forever and a little unaware.
As I alluded to already, but almost every song off this album was a success to me. As I said in Cage the Elephant’s review, the slow songs just aren’t doing it for me these days, so naturally I wasn’t all in for “The Craving” or closing track, “Paladin Straight.” Though I wasn’t focusing too hard on the lyrics to the latter, to me it sounded like a culmination of everything they’ve ever put out into the world and it only makes sense that they’d end this era with the uke. And though “The Craving” was at the bottom of my list, I loved the almost last lyric in the song: “now I see intentions don’t mean much.”
Most of the songs off this record also have some unique quality to bring to the table. Like, who knew you could remix a bird screech into something cool and usable like they did in “Vignette?” As most people are like to do, I too find myself comparing to other music if the reference seems to be there. That was the case for a lot of tracks here, as well. For instance, “Oldies Station” really made me think of One Direction. And similarly, “At the Risk of Feeling Dumb” sounds just like something ATEEZ would release. It’s a ‘bop,’ as the kids say, and the drop beat is so cool. They also manage to keep it cool with songs like “Snap Back” and “Lavish.”
Speaking of, “Lavish” just might take the top spot for me on this record. It’s so dang catchy and the simple video is honestly hilarious. They essentially made a lyric video with them finding the words throughout Columbus, chilling in a limo, and just being generally weird. I love to see it. Trust me, even just one listen will have you singing the chorus. I, like some of the commenters on YouTube was also surprised to find out that Tyler just felt like this song was ‘okay.’ A crime. I sure hope it surges in popularity so I can potentially hear it live! “Midwest Indigo” is another one of those tracks off the album that just kills start to finish. There are some great synths at the start and just throws some really early 2000s emo vibes.
All in all, this new record absolutely nails the landing, and I continue to wish these two home state homies nothing but the best. They deserve it.