Artist: Twenty One Pilots
Album: Blurryface

Blurryface, the fourth studio album from American duo Twenty One Pilots, has plenty of musical moments that make it a solid record. It’s true that lead vocalist and songwriter Tyler Joseph has a reedy voice, and the album is fragile in certain places like the opening track number, ‘Heavydirtysoul’, which is perhaps the weakest song on the record. There are times when you wish the band would just continue with the thread of the current song.  Despite these weaknesses, the sheer musical diversity of Twenty One Pilots’ new album Blurryface gets a solid 7.5 out of 10.

There is no standard formula for reviewing and rating an album. Two critics will generally rate albums differently, but it’s important for a reviewer to maintain some sort of internal logic for a reader to have any sense of reliance and consistency in the feedback.  Since this is the first time this review column is appearing in this space, an explanation of sorts of my rating scale is in order.

In this era of shrinking attention spans and instant gratification, it has to be asked whether the album is a dinosaur destined for extinction. The sales figures do suggest this may be the case.  Total album sales halved in the U.S. in the period between 2007 to 2014, falling from over half a billion units in 2007 to just over 250 million in 2014.  Singles have always existed separately from albums, but the digital age has made it much more convenient to download just those three songs from the album that you like without having to purchase it in its entirety.  Yet for serious music listeners (Musicheads, in my lexicon), the album still remains the best way to sink your teeth into an artist, to suss out whether the hooks in the hit you heard on the radio lead to anything deeper, and whether the musician has the capacity to challenge and surprise the listener.

An album is more than a random collection of songs assembled together.  A song is a snack; an album is a meal. It captures a particular moment or phase in an artist’s life and at times can be as revealing and insightful as any other work of art.  We listen to successive albums from a particular artist expecting progression and evolution. Artists who fail to achieve this and remain tied to one groove generally end up as one-record wonders.  This is as true of experimental prog-rock as it is for mainstream commercial pop.

To be selected for the review in this column, an album must be listenable end to end.  I will not waste my time writing about, or ask you to waste yours reading about, albums which I can’t bear to listen to without skipping through tracks.  A bonus 0.1 is awarded for each track that gets replayed before you move on.  Artists will be a mix of new and old, and a selection from each reviewed album will generally also be included in my playlists on Spotify, so interested readers can sample before purchasing/ downloading.

And now we can move back to Twenty One Pilots and their new album, Blurryface.  Twenty One Pilots are a duo from Columbus, Ohio; home of Ohio State University, one of the largest college campuses in the U.S.  Given that background, you would expect either something based in noise and distortion or something based in college art rock.  Twenty One Pilots sound nothing like that, and over the past few years have come up with an unclassifiable sound which is uniquely theirs. Blurryface is the band’s fourth album; but since the first two were self-released, this is their second album on a major record label.

Musically, Twenty One Pilots cover a lot of ground in the 14 tracks on the album. The standout feature of the album is the constantly changing sound, which is rooted in ska/reggae but includes obvious influences of rap, synth-pop, drum/bass, and straight-ahead rock n roll.

Tyler Joseph is not content to hit one groove and stick to it; throughout the album he keeps on skipping through genres like the Energizer bunny on speed.  The effect could have been a disjointed album.  Instead, even though at times there is so much going on in terms of beats, breakbeats, rhythms, counter-rhythms, it still flows together as a uniform whole; a tribute to the quality of the song structures and arrangements.  This is critical because Blurryface is a modern rarity.  It is a concept album which explores the linkages between creativity, uncertainty, commercial success and questions of identity.

Lyrically, the album is superb. Joseph addresses the inherent conflict in the desire to be original and the desire to be commercially successful. This ties in with the insecurities and pressures he feels as he tries to fit in and meet expectations that others have of him; themes which are universal. On ‘Lane Boy’ (a song addressed to the label) he sings, "Don’t trust a perfect person and don’t trust a song that’s flawless."  Even though the mood of the lyrics is generally dark, it is offset by the soaring music which lifts the entire mood; something reminiscent of the great Morrisey/Marr partnership of The Smiths.

The band really begin to hit their stride by the third track, ‘Ride’ as drummer Josh Dun’s rhythmic dexterity matches Tyler Joseph’s musical variations.  From then on, it’s a great non-stop ride which will have you tapping your feet and bobbing your head without stopping.  There is even a love song for good measure, ‘Tear In My Heart’, which contains the lines, "You fell asleep in my car, I drove the whole time/But that’s ok, I’ll just avoid the holes so you sleep fine/I’m driving here as I sit, cursing my government/For not using my taxes to fill holes with more cement."

Lines which are eminently relatable to someone used to driving on Karachi streets.  The pace of the album doesn’t really relent until the last track ‘Goner’.  Joseph sings "Though I’m weak/And beaten down/I’ll slip away/Into the sound," as a gentle piano riff builds into a thundering, most satisfying climax.

Blurryface sees Twenty One Pilots take a more aggressive musical stance from their previous work, particularly their last album Vessel.  Even though the piano still holds center-stage, the ukulele only makes sporadic appearances, most notably on ‘We Don’t Believe What’s On TV’.  The band, however, has grown in stature and introspection and as long as they can keep on managing that, they will keep on growing their audience.