This is the sixth studio album from indie pop duo from Columbus, Ohio, twenty one pilots. There are two major eras in this band’s career. There’s the “God fearing, band forming” era, with Tyler Joseph starting off in a very Christian direction with self-titled and Regional At Best, and carving out a band with drummer, Josh Dun. It’s also where the band starts to flesh out their sound, culminating into Vessel, their major label debut. Then comes the DEMA era. This is where Blurryface skyrockets them into fame with singles like Stressed Out which garnered them, as of June 2021, 2.3 billion views on YouTube. They also build a lore that is basically a metaphor for Tyler’s own struggles with mental illness and how he can overcome that. This lore would be extended on Trench with the bishops of DEMA, an evil group running an evil city against Clancy’s rebellion of banditos or Tyler and his friends against the evil forces of depression. A very noble fight, indeed. I gave you this little history lesson here because I have a history with this band. I covered them fairly extensively in the past and my findings are mixed. I didn’t like self-titled or Regional At Best, but Vessel came through and impressed me. Blurryface then disappointed me only to have Trench blow everything they’ve ever done out of the water. Now, if you’re paying attention at home, there seems to be a pattern going on here. They had a crappy start as they get their footing, then have an idea on Regional at Best which doesn’t pan out, then they try again on Vessel with a few tweaks and it works. Blurryface had a lot of big ideas didn’t work out, but with a few tweaks, they tried again, and out comes Trench. They seem to alternate between bad albums and good albums often based on whatever new ideas they try and I am rather unhappy to report that this album is not an exception to this rule. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the bum year. Scaled and Icy is an album that gives me flashbacks to being bored out of my mind by self-titled. Dude, black midi’s Cavalcade dropped the DAY I was gonna listen to this album and I really chose this one? (Don’t worry, boys, your time will come soon after). I can’t say I’m all that surprised from the singles that didn’t really impress me, but wow, this was disappointing. Production sounded flat and lifeless, like it’s sheepishly going along the runtime. Composition isn’t nearly as inspired as previous efforts outside of a few bright spots. The lyrics make me want to roll my eyes into the back of my skull because it’s a new kind of band. This album wasn’t scaled back, but held back, and Twenty One Pilots really hold back, and as such they really drop the ball this time around. The dragon on this cover’s name is Trash…clearly warning me about what was to come.
PRODUCTION
Recording quality is fine, I guess. It definitely sounds high gloss and expensive, but there’s something missing here. The bass is there, but it’s kind of a sub-bass thing as opposed to a nice, warm bass sound, which is even worse with those groovier songs like Saturday. Drums sound kind of pedestrian and I’m missing that epic or peppy sound like I got on Trench or Vessel. I know they’re going for a more scaled back and isolated approach, but wow, this album really needs to beef up their drums, especially on a song like No Chances that could really use epic, pounding drums, especially on the choruses. A little reverb could go a long way, you know. It also sees vocals buried in the poppy uninteresting mix just like in the olden days of Regional At Best. I don’t remember hearing something quite like this in a twenty one pilots album from Blurryface onward and I’m scared. I know this was primarily recorded in Tyler’s own home studio in quarantine with a new family, but damn, get some clearer, punchier recordings! Trench was recorded in the same place, for God’s sake, and it sounds infinitely better! But more than that, I feel like the production is intentionally holding the album back. It’s muffled, muddier and just not as powerful as Trench, or even Blurryface.
Effects are kind of uninspired as well. You can hear the end rapping part of Choker go from the left channel to the right channel slightly as well as the opening boot up noise of Good Day, but there’s not really much going on. There’s some simple layering and elements of the album somewhat using the stereo sound, but it’s not all that interesting. The crowd sounds are kind of cool to add some cohesion, but it’s very negligible. But there’s a fairly egregious use of pitch shifted vocals in this album. It’s overused just a tad and it got lame, especially on No Chances, mother of God. I mean, Twenty One Pilots is no stranger to pitch shifting, but it is completely terrible on this album. But more importantly, this album, as Redecorate said, is following a “Scaled Back and Isolated” approach. Following this approach, the whole production just holds the album back from what it could be and yet, this album refuses to break out of its own shell.
COMPOSITION
How the hell can you say that this album has more instruments than ever before but also say it’s scaled back? I feel like there’s more going on with this album than any Twenty One Pilots album prior to this, at least from an instrumental standpoint, but if it was scaled back, wouldn’t it be more stripped down? Tyler Joseph apparently taught himself guitar, if he is to be believed on Never Take It, and I swear to God, it’s the lamest guitar solo I’ve heard this year. The acoustic guitar on Formidable is kind of fun, I guess, but I realized this: he traded his ukulele for a guitar. The diehard stans who all spent money on a ukulele will not be happy. The bass doesn’t really have warmth to it, but the groove on Bounce Man is the only good part of that song. I yearn for another My Blood, but I will not get it. I find the drumming on Shy Away pretty good, helping with the energy of that song. Josh Dun has always been an anchor to Twenty One Pilots, even with the sinking ship that is this album. Pianos are back in the fold and they’re going for a honky-tonk vibe on songs like Good Day and Mulberry Street, and it works for that faux chipper vibe that is quintessential to the Twenty One Pilots brand, and it’s not that bad. The electronics aren’t nearly as urgent as I would like them to be most of the time, but when they are urgent, it really makes it known that Twenty One Pilots is actually showing us some emotion. I like the little synth thing on Good Day that reminds me of Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, just wish it was on a better song.
Structure is a lot more scatterbrained than what I’m used to from this concept album era of Twenty One Pilots. The promotion for this album was nowhere near in depth or as exciting as Trench and that spirit bleeds into here. Song structure is nothing to write home about. There are no epic ballads or bangers to be seen here, just standard pop songs, which isn’t all that bad. In fact, I find more than a few moments here to be pretty catchy like Choker, perhaps more catchy than I’d like to admit. I guess the straight-swing transitions are handled a little better than Blurryface and aren’t all that jarring particularly on Choker. I feel like they borrow a lot from their contemporaries though, and it makes for an album that you’ve heard before. Shy Away kind of sounds like Phoenix’s Lisztomania or Fitz and The Tantrums’ More Than Just A Dream or some other indie pop song you’ve heard before. Formidable oddly sounds like There is A Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths and Friday I’m In Love by The Cure, The Outside sounds like Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die-era Panic at the Disco. I think you get my point here. For a duo that prides itself on relative experimentation and mashing of genres to varying degrees of success, they really made songs you’ve probably heard before if you even briefly heard an indie song released in the last 10-15 years. No Chances is going for a trap beat to cool things down after trying desperately to go epic in its chorus, trying to break out of its own cage. It doesn’t work. Album structure is pretty boring too. On Trench, they had a bit of a loose problem-solution cycle going on and Blurryface had that concept that just kept it from being absolutely terrible. On Scaled and Icy, I hear none of this. These are a bunch of pop songs with no real compositional cohesion, and it feels like they realized this too late, and they scrambled to fix it with No Chances and Redecorate at the end. It doesn’t work. In fact, Redecorate is a good song, but if it had adequate buildup leading to that closer, it could have been even more of a gut punch. Composition, as frustrating as it can get, doesn’t do enough to make me angry, just to bore me to tears.
LYRICS
The lyrics are the true cause for concern on this album. What the hell happened here?! Let’s start with Tyler Joseph. He’s not that bad actually. He’s got that shy vocal thing that has become his trademark as of late and that kind of works for a more reserved effort from the group. He’s not off key, nor is he doing any weird phrasing like he did on self-titled. It’s alright. I don’t wince at any of his performances, at least not because of his voice. His rapping has taken a massive backseat on this album, however. He goes from Levitate to The Outside in three years. How?! What is this hype man in the back of that song? Why is he there? Does this song or album really need to be cornier? He really scaled back on the emotion of his voice as well. I want the screams from before, please. Add some gusto to this record, I am begging you!
Lyrics on this thing are an absolute doozy and it goes right down to the word choice. Tyler uses words like “low key” and “manifest”, which he has never used before and it really comes off as pandering to a youthful market that Twenty One Pilots has in the palm of their hands already. I winced at that jarring change of pace. I feel that this was done on purpose. A lot of what I don’t like on here may have been done on purpose. This whole album’s vibe, at least as far as their marketing was concerned, was supposed to be this propaganda piece. Clancy has been captured by the evil forces of DEMA and now he’s singing songs that say “everything is fine, nothing to worry about”. And I did get that on Good Day and Choker as well as On Mulberry Street, closing out with No Chances with the evil voices that I imagine are in red robes like the Hellfire scene in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and then Redecorate at the end. Hell, maybe this could be a metaphor for the mask that people wear when they’re miserable but don’t want others to worry about them or just think no one will. But this album doesn’t quite commit to that fully. In fact, it’s the least cohesive album of this DEMA era that started with Blurryface. There’s Never Take It, a song against conformity to divisiveness in the news and cautioning its effects on mental health similar to We Don’t Believe What’s On TV (a way better song), but it’s on an album that’s supposed to be an act of conformity! Do you see the problem here? I guess the “don’t educate yourself too much” line could fit into there, but still, there’s a bit of a rub there. It’s also way too shallow to make a political commentary impact for my tastes. There’s also The Outside, a sign that this band is getting old, as Tyler laments about the monotony of the music industry and what will eventually replace them in the circle of music industry life. They are conforming to the same tired cliches that they’re complaining about here. It’s ironic. Good Day is so cliché Twenty One Pilots that it hurts and not even it prepares you for what you are about to experience. Then, there’s Bounce Man: a song that about someone leaving for Mexico, I assume to escape the law (probably DEMA), and yet is as edgy as an orange. It’s like you’re casually seeing this guy off to Mexico and you’re having brunch with him before you drive him to the airport as he goes on vacation to Cancun. Where is the urgency? But at least the band kids will like this wholesome song, amirite?! But the best parts on this record where there’s clearly some sort of emotion to it. Shy Away brings out the screamed vocals at the end, Mulberry Street is a fun arrogant song, Formidable is a great song about Josh Dun and the bond between him and Tyler. Redecorate is this closer that is standing up to the suicidal voices in one’s head. It’s standing up to do something as simple as cleaning your room and it’s a straightforward, powerful song about clearing your mind and fighting off that little voice in your head that hurts you. I know what Twenty One Pilots can do, which is proven on songs like Redecorate…so why aren’t they doing it with every chance they get?
CONCLUSION
This album is the worst album of the DEMA era of Twenty One Pilots that we’re finding ourselves in. You have a FIRE BREATHING DRAGON on the cover and the actual album shows a fraction of that power. I chart my ratings in Excel because I’m a total nerd and I do that kind of thing, and while the band was on an upward trend, all signs pointed to this album sucking because the one before it was amazing. It’s still on an upward trend thanks to Vessel and Trench carrying the load, but boy, was I ever right about my predictions for this album. Production completely holds this album back on what it needs to be to be anywhere near interesting. Composition has this same thing going to. It’s scaled back and it’s holding itself back, and after an explosive, immediate album in Trench, I’m left scratching my head as to why they would intentionally take that element away that’s been so crucial to the appeal of their music back to the days of Vessel. It really wears its influences on its sleeve while criticizing the very artists they’re borrowing from for being too boring. It’s really worth an eye roll or two. It’s also the most scatterbrained album I’ve heard from Twenty One Pilots. Even self-titled had the whole “I Love You, Jesus Christ” thing going for it. I feel confused as to what this album is going for, but mostly because of lyrics. Tyler Joseph’s voice is fine, as it’s subdued for a more subdued album, but it’s what he’s saying that bugs me. These lyrics are lame, cliched, shallow and tacky most of the time, and they don’t even have the decency to fit their own narrative that it teased at. And oh my god, revolutionary idea here, the best songs are the ones with the most gusto to them. This is an album with emotional peaks in a non-feeling valley and wouldn’t you guess it, I latch onto those emotional peaks a lot more. On his review, Anthony Fantano was confused as to why this album failed so hard when they just released a fantastic record in Trench three years prior, and I know the reason why: this is their bum year. Hopefully they’re just trying something out, and the good ideas that cropped up on this record are magnified for the next one. But until then, I was let down by Scaled and Icy. It’s an absolute disappointment and regression from a group who has potential to be consistently good. They just had to get out of their own way, and they very much got in their own way on this record.
I'm giving this one a Decent 4/10.
FAVOURITE TRACKS: Choker, Shy Away, Mulberry Street, Formidable, Redecorate
LEAST FAVOURITE TRACK: Bounce Man
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