Tours Through Discographies: Twenty One Pilots

   Ah, yes, Twenty One Pilots. The amazing alternative rock/hip-hop duo. I've loved this band for a long time now. I remember when Vessel was their newest album, and "Car Radio" and "House of Gold" were their "hits". This was long before the absolute smash hits everyone knows like "Stressed Out", "Rise", and "Heathens".

  That being said, I've always felt like sort of a Twenty One Pilots hipster. When I think of a band that I liked before they were big, I think of Twenty One Pilots. 

  As of the writing of this blog, I'm going to see them live the day after tomorrow, my first time seeing them. So it makes sense that this episode is about them, even though they were chosen, like everyone, by a family vote.

1. Twenty One Pilots (2009)

    The first two Twenty One Pilots album have a bit of an interesting story. They were essentially just made to be material to play and sell at shows, but, and I'll explain more with the next album, they decided to like retroactively get the rights and officialize this one so there's an official part of their beginning out there. This one's a pretty great album, and there's not really a track that misses, but I think the real charm of this album is it establishes them as a band you need to pay attention to. I even wrote a Communion meditation around my favorite track on this album, as the members are Christians and a lot of their lyrics are about their faith.

Favorite tracks: "March to the Sea", "Addict With a Pen", "Johnny Boy"

2. Regional At Best (2011)

   I wrote a whole blog about this album and explaining how it's their "lost" album. So if you want the full story, go read that one. But the gist is that they kinda made this album independently but then their labor Fueled By Ramen gave them the choice of either making this their big major label debut, or to make a new album to be their big major label debut. They chose to make a new album, but they loved a lot of what they did with this one and chose to make like half the new album be remade versions of songs from this one. So, this albums kind of in a weird spot - the original stuff that got cut from Vessel is quite good, but the stuff that got remade for Vessel is quite overshadowed in quality by those later versions.

Favorite tracks: "Forest", "Kitchen Sink", "Be Concerned"

3. Vessel (2013)

    This is one of my favorite albums ever. I remember being in high school and this album and The Heist by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis making me kind of a fan of rap music, and though my opinion on the genre as a whole has soured quite a bit, those two artists to this day let me know that not all of the genre is bad. This is also where Tyler's singing really finds its mark, not just his rapping. There's a lot of rawness and emotion - brutal honesty about mental health and what Tyler is struggling with. Great stuff. And the Regional At Best tracks that got remade are so much better here.

Favorite tracks: "Guns for Hands", "Trees", "Ode to Sleep"

4. Blurryface (2015)

   This is the album that really propelled them into the mainstream with the aforementioned smash hits that were "Stressed Out" and "Ride". This is also the first album of their lore - if you didn't know, they have a sort of running story with characters and everything that starts with this album and goes all the way through their new one. Some elements of Vessel were even kinda retconned to be part of the story. I won't talk too much about the story because I wanna focus more on the songs and subjects, but it's important to know. This album is great, and while it does feel kinda commercial, it's easy to understand why it was so successful.

Favorite tracks: "Tear in My Heart", "Goner", "Hometown"

5. Trench (2018)

   This one is considered by many to be their best album, and pretty much anything they make from then on is compared to this album as a benchmark of quality. I too would probably consider this one their best if I didn't have too much nostalgia for Vessel. It is, pretty much, a masterpiece. And there is so much core story lore that happens here. 

Favorite tracks: "Legend", "Neon Gravestones", "Pet Cheetah"

6. Scaled And Icy (2021)

   This one, on the other hand, is considered my many to be their worst. I don't. I like it. The sound is quite different from their usual stuff, but that's because at this point in the story they're essentially being brainwashed by the bad guys into playing music just to entertain them. It's a different sound for sure, but I think they did it well. It's bouncy and fun, but has that signature Twenty One Pilots mark of having depressingly honest lyrics behind the upbeat sound.

Favorite tracks: "Redecorate", "Choker", "No Chances"

7. Clancy (2024)

    The new one! As I write, this album came out not even three full months ago. The show my sister and I are going to is the first one of this album's tour. If you're wondering why the title is a man's first name, it's because Clancy is one of the big characters in the lore. This is sort of the climax, and the end (for now) of this fictional story they'd been taking us through. It's big and exciting, and is sort of a return to form after Scaled And Icy. But even then, they get a bit more rock-y here than they have before, which was cool to hear. It's a great album.

Favorite tracks: "Next Semester", "At the Risk of Feeling Dumb", "Navigating"