Twenty One Pilots: An Album A Day

An Album A Day is posted 5 days a week, Monday-Friday

It’s always interesting with a band or artist who get a large following around a song or album to go back and look at their earliest music. By doing this we can see how much their style has evolved from their earliest work to what they’ve become known for. In the case of Twenty One Pilots (stylized as twentyonepilots) their self titled studio debut is vastly different from anything off of their more well known albums ,Vessel and Blurryface.

Each of Twenty One Pilot’s three (ish) albums have each brought a different level of success and marked new phases in the band’s career. The band first gained a large indie and local following through the self release of two albums, Twenty One Pilots and Regional At Best. After selling out shows around their local Columbus, Ohio area they ultimately signed to Fueled By Ramen and put out Vessel, an album that included new songs as well as polished versions of Regional At Best tracks. The release of Vessel marked the band’s phase of having moderate national success.

The phase that Twenty One Pilots is currently in is the mainstream level appeal and stardom that their third album Blurryface has brought. While Vessel had a few hits, nothing can touch the overplay of Stressed Out from Blurryface. With three pop radio (Stressed Out, Ride and Heavydirtysoul) hits as well as the success of Heathens from the Suicide Squad soundtrack it’s safe to say that Twenty One Pilots have made it.

Going all the way back to their 2009 debut however, we find a very different band. Although the main lyrical themes of lead singer and songwriter Tyler Joseph are still there, namely mental illness, death, Christian themes and interesting wordplay, the style is much less engaging. With the exception of Isle of Flightless Birds, Fall Away and possibly Johnny Boy, all of the tracks on this album are slow piano ballads. Whereas the blending of pop, rap and rock elements on later albums make Tyler’s lyrics dynamic and full of impact, on this album a lot of them just come off as melodramatic and whiny.

           The more up tempo rap style can be found in parts of songs like Taxi Cab, but overall a lot of tracks become forgettable because of their slow pace and similar feel. I don’t just put the blame on Tyler being a less experienced songwriter however, I chalk it up to his bandmates as well.

While Twenty One Pilots is currently a duo consisting of Tyler and drummer Josh Dun, back in 2009 Twenty One Pilots were actually a three piece band.

Dun wasn’t even in the band yet, with it consisting of Nick Thomas on Bass and Chris Salih on Drums behind Tyler. My theory is that either Thomas and Salih didn’t let Tyler be as creative and weird as he would later be or simply that Dun facilitates Tyler’s pursuit of less conventional musical ideas. Either way, this album doesn’t stand out nearly as much as their other work because it simply feels too safe on a lot of tracks.

Overall it’s not a bad album, in fact some of my favorite tracks from this band such as Implicit Demand For Proof, Trapdoor and Taxi Cab are on this album. It’s just no where near as good as the more diverse and engaging content found on Vessel and Blurryface. While it's fun to look at this album and see some of the early threads of the band's current style, I would recommend just checking out the highlights and skipping the rest unless you're a die hard member of the Skeleton Clique.

Album On Google Play

Album On Amazon

Album On ITunes