I'm always surprised they don't get more attention on here too, seems like the one big scene-adjacent band (if they can still be called that) that the majority of people here ignore
Especially considering some of the other bands or pop artists that do get a lot of attention on the site. Twenty One Pilots has their own dedicated super fan base so it doesn't hurt them, but it's still surprising to me.
Their past few albums did get some attention on here iirc. I wonder if many people aren't aware this is coming out due to the short gap between the album and the previous
I have been following this band since they’ve been playing dive bars in 2011 all over/around Ohio so I have considered them one of my favorite bands for close to 15 years now. I do think their audience/fan base has (obviously) shifted significantly from that era to Blurryface/Trench era and they kind of became pigeonholed to this teenie-pop type of band (despite their pretty dark material/lyrical content) Maybe that put people off around these parts? I don’t know, it was just kind of jarring to see them play at these bars with fellow college-aged kids and a very much 21+ crowd then go see them play a few years later in an arena where the vast majority of the audience was like, 12-year-olds and their parents. Nothing wrong with that (as my son’s first concert as a 10-year-old with his parents was a TOP show) but I feel like they may have this stigma due to their audience? They do seem like a band who *should* be huge on here but it’s kind of like a niche audience around these parts.
I’m in the chorus music league and someone posted a TOP song and the main sentiment of the comments was that TOP is cringey and especially that the rapping was really cringey. I really like TOP and don’t agree with their comments but I see where they’re coming from. Side note: the music league is really fun. Y’all should join. We’re in between seasons so it would be a perfect time to join.
I get the stigma a little bit, some of the rapping on their earlier stuff bothered me as well. I remember discovering them when Holding On To You was posted on ap.net, but not really liking the rest of their albums back then. I found a lot to love on Vessel afterwards, but then those Blurryface singles got big, way overplayed and the album wasn't to my tastes at all. The collab with Mutemath and Trenches made me do a 180 though... only for Scaled and Icy to put me off the band again lol. Clancy brought me back and it looks like this album will be another homerun. One thing's sure, following them as a fan of half their discography has been a rollercoaster.
I really loved Vessel back in the day, but haven't really been able to get into anything post-Blurryface.
Last album I listened to from these dudes was Scaled and Icy and it was awful. Enjoyed the singles on the last album a lot. Should probably check it out.
Scaled and Icy is slept on. It's a good album that leans pop and its theme is faking happiness when the world is dark. It's similar to Paramore's After Laughter in that sense. Trench was the album that really drew me in and Clancy is probably my second favorite. I have never really found the rapping cringe or anything, I think Tyler makes it all work because he's really invested into the music.
I don't understand why the Blurryface mega singles would put anyone off. They deserved to be as big as they were. When we look at the core bands that have huge popularity in this community, they have just as many poppy songs that can be universal anthems. I just will never understand why certain groups get put aside and others don't.
A friend told me this not long ago but it doesn't really make it work any better for me with that context. Shy Away is probably my favorite song by them though
Level of Concern is low key one of their best songs ever. Not on Scaled and Icy, but during that era.
That's fair. It was quite a jarring shift from Trench which hurts the album's reception a lot as well. Redecorate is a fantastic closer though. I tend to do a full discography playlist for my favorite artists and the Scaled & Icy songs actually spice up the mix quite a bit.
Yeah Redecorate is a good one. There's like 4 songs on there I like. Trench was just hard to follow haha
Scaled & Icy is a very modest TOP record on a song-by-song basis (it's basically Diet Twenty One Pilots), but it's fascinating to me as an album experience. The sudden dark shift in the last two songs is really compelling. They're probably the darkest songs they've written and they come at the end of the brightest record they've written. Redecorate is one of the best songs in their discography too. Listening front to back knowing where the album lands gives the whole album this strange sense of forebode. It gives me a pit in the stomach feeling even though it sounds so happy. Far from their best album, but it's something.
this is also what intrigues me so much about the album...that absolutely massive shift on the last two tracks (both of which probably make my top 10 pilots songs) it's still not my favourite full album of theirs, but that also speaks to the quality of all their other albums
Did anyone get to go to a listening party today? My wife had back surgery yesterday morning, so I couldn’t make it out to my local record store. I just want this album in my hands.
Tyler saying that we wouldn't enjoy center mass during the listening party is insane, one of their best songs in their discography. Great album.