Twenty One Pilots Vessel: An Album a Day

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

   

    Continuing in my quest to review every album Twenty One Pilots have released, today I will be looking at their first album released after signing with Fueled By Ramen. While actually their third album overall, Vessel was the first album made on a major label and as such is where a lot of current Twenty One Pilots’ fans first discovered the band. As I have not listened to their second independent album Regional at Best I cannot say if this is a dramatic change from that album, but it certainly is a departure from their self titled debut.

    This album mixes moods a whole lot more than their debut, with a lot more aggression and even some happy sounding songs that contrast with the dark or sad lyrics. As I said when I reviewed their first album I believe that the missing ingredient was the chemistry that Tyler Joseph has with Josh Dun. It seems that Dun facilitates Tyler trying more experimental ideas and blending of genres as well as being a far superior drummer than Chris Salih.
    The blending of genres and experimenting with moods can be seen most clearly in the opening track Ode To Sleep. It’s been stated by Tyler that the reason this was the album opener is because it throws just about every element of their sound at the listener immediately. The track starts with an aggressive almost classical sounding synth line before the first verse turns into an electronic rap song. The chorus is then a happy pop song as Tyler sings about his temporary respite from his nightly demons. While the second verse turns back into a rap song it features some of the fastest rapping that Tyler has ever done. The dynamic from soft to heavy and mixing of genres perfectly encapsulates the album.

    There really isn’t a bad track on this album, and unlike their debut none of the tracks delve too deep into melodrama, making them all listenable regardless of mood. The closing track Truce is fairly somber, but it works perfectly to close out the album. The tracks that standout the most for me are Ode To Sleep, Screen and Trees. All three of these tracks feature the heavy use of metaphor and religious imagery that Tyler Joseph is known for in his lyrics.

    While Ode To Sleep mixes the metaphors of mental illness and emotional demons with literal spiritual warfare, Screen and Trees has Joseph seemingly speaking directly to God. In the case of Screen the lyrics seem to be Joseph questioning why he thinks he can hide his mental illness and brokenness from his creator, using the idea that he literally has a screen on his chest. The bridge features the repeated phrase “we’re broken people” which is a sing along line during live shows. This songs refers both to mental illnesses and the idea of sin, keeping Joseph’s typical mixing of Christian ideology and descriptions of his own struggles with depression and anxiety.

    Trees almost feels like a sequel song to Implicit Demand For Proof from their debut album. Whereas in that song Joseph is essentially calling out God and demanding He prove his existence, even if He does so by destroying him,  this time Joseph takes a less antagonistic approach. This one doesn’t come off as doubtful as much as unsure of how to know Him and painfully aware of his faults. Like a lot of their songs the lyrics both refer to the spiritual elements as well as portraying the mind of someone with terrible social anxiety. Which I suppose this makes sense, if you have social anxiety about talking to normal people then trying to talk to a supposedly all powerful being that you believe created everything should be pretty daunting.

    Overall this album is a huge step up in quality from their debut album, and while the lyrics are terribly different the delivery is. The rap verses mixed with melodic singing and occasional screaming adds a diversity and dynamic element to Tyler’s delivery that lets him convey his message much easier. Likewise the music is a huge increase in quality, being way more diverse and interesting to listen to. Many fans consider this to be the band's best album, especially since their next album would become a huge commercial hit and lead to the “it’s popular so it sucks” mindset of some of their older fans. While I don’t know if I’d say this is better than Blurryface, it is absolutely one of their best and has some of my favorite tracks from this band.


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