The 14 track-listed album from Twenty One Pilots is anything but a blur, it is a key defining record in the band’s career. Having produced three albums already, Twenty One Pilots needed to show the listener a different style – something they hadn’t heard before – otherwise the album was at risk of being a flop. Blurryface goes above and beyond the many talents of Twenty One Pilots, making this album a definitive hit album of the summer.
The album opens with ‘Heavydirtysoul’ which has a deep techno sound (think The Prodigy, yet more happy). The album has a mixture of this deep techno sound in the aforementioned ‘Heavydirtysoul’ as well as ‘Lane Boy’, before dipping into indie territory with the tracks ‘The Judge’ and ‘Hometown’. It’s clear to the listener that Twenty One Pilots have constructed an album that doesn’t have a clear ‘mood’. One minute it’s upbeat and happy, the next you’re listening to ‘Doubt’ and ‘Goner’, which are flooded with dark lyrics and sad solemn tones.
The album seems to idolise summer, in ‘Ride’, Tyler Joseph announces “I just wanna stay in the sun, where I’m fine” – a feeling I’m sure we can all relate to as the days get longer and *hopefully* warmer. Joseph’s lyrics give the band’s sound an distinctive edge; the typical all American rock band aura is clear in this album, and rightly so, as the band may be an international success but they were a small Ohio band first. In comparison to their early work, it’s clear that Twenty One Pilots have matured and become bigger and better.
As the band are over in the UK in November, one song from Blurryface that promises an incredible live performance is ‘We Don’t Believe What’s On TV’. With its upbeat rhythm and catchy chorus, this is the song that will get the crowd moving. Overall, this is an album that would appeal to any music fan, and is certainly a record which is set to make the American band an even bigger success than they already were.
Words by Brigid Harrison-Draper