twenty one pilots - Scaled and Icy ALBUM REVIEW
JUST CROP THE COVER BETTER. IT WOULD’VE BEEN SO GREAT IF YOU COULD SEE MORE OF THAT STUPID DRAGON.
Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, better known as twenty one pilots, have been a very scattered band for me. I’ve always found their music enjoyable, though, don’t get me wrong. They haven’t put out an inherently bad album yet. Their two best in my opinion, Vessel and Trench, just mean that they were the most consistent releases, the albums I’ve returned to the most. Their other albums like their self-titled, their breakout Blurryface, and even their often overlooked Regional at Best just haven’t hit that hard even with their standout singles. Three years after Trench and a couple loose tracks, they’re finally back in full capacity with Scaled and Icy, their sixth studio effort. How did I feel about this? Let’s find out.
Let me just get this out of the way: I was very very VERY nervous about this album. Nearly every single on here just didn’t vibe with me. “Shy Away,” “Saturday,” and “Choker” were all just nondescript songs that just went in one ear and out the other. Before that, though, it’s worth going over the overall story that started with Trench. There’s a world called Trench, and our protagonist, Clancy, is living in this city called Dema. It’s a place that Clancy really admired as a child, but as he becomes older, the illusion of Dema being such a great place is fading. Many fans have interpreted this as an allegory to fame or even religion, which the band themselves have spoken about. So, long story short, Clancy tries to escape Dema but is captured by the authorities. That’s where we leave Trench and where we enter Scaled and Icy.
Why did I write up a little summary of the concept of their last album? Well, Scaled and Icy is a little bit of a sequel to Trench. At least for the final two songs, it is. A good majority of the rest of the album, though, is a legitimate torture chamber. I don’t understand what happened. Did I miss something? After doing some research, the first nine tracks are supposed to represent Dema propaganda and the censorship of Clancy. Hell, the title of the album is an anagram of ‘Clancy is Dead.’ I didn’t figure that out for myself, I saw that on Twitter. Nearly everything I loved about Trench and even their past albums just aren’t here. The production is so generic and bland, the writing doesn’t even sound like a twenty one pilots song most of the time, and Tyler just feels… off. Also, Josh isn’t even present on most of these tracks. I don’t care if it has to do with a concept, they’re a band and this might as well be a Tyler Joseph solo album.
In the 13 months I’ve been reviewing albums, I’ve listened to and written about some pretty disappointing albums. Scaled and Icy is one of the most disappointing albums I’ve subjected myself to in a long time. It feels like a completely different band made everything before this project here. I feel very bad for new fans because they’re gonna listen to this, think that this is fine, then go back to literally everything else they’ve dropped and see that this is just not on the level of quality that they think they should be on. It also doesn’t help that this follows up one of their best albums.
If you come out of this review with anything, let it be this: If the music isn’t great, saying that it is a part of a larger concept and that it’s supposed to be bad is a horrible and lazy excuse. Tyler and Josh have proven themselves time and time again that they are talented artists. They know how to make good songs, and Trench proved that they can make a very good concept album. It depresses me to think that they thought this was ready to be put out for the public to enjoy. Worst of all? I’m probably going to forget about it by this time next year. Putting out a bad album and being forgotten is so much worse than putting out a bad album and everyone remembering it. Thank you for attending my TEDTalk.
2/10
Listen here
YouTube Music
Scaled and Icy is a Fueled By Ramen release.
Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, better known as twenty one pilots, have been a very scattered band for me. I’ve always found their music enjoyable, though, don’t get me wrong. They haven’t put out an inherently bad album yet. Their two best in my opinion, Vessel and Trench, just mean that they were the most consistent releases, the albums I’ve returned to the most. Their other albums like their self-titled, their breakout Blurryface, and even their often overlooked Regional at Best just haven’t hit that hard even with their standout singles. Three years after Trench and a couple loose tracks, they’re finally back in full capacity with Scaled and Icy, their sixth studio effort. How did I feel about this? Let’s find out.
Let me just get this out of the way: I was very very VERY nervous about this album. Nearly every single on here just didn’t vibe with me. “Shy Away,” “Saturday,” and “Choker” were all just nondescript songs that just went in one ear and out the other. Before that, though, it’s worth going over the overall story that started with Trench. There’s a world called Trench, and our protagonist, Clancy, is living in this city called Dema. It’s a place that Clancy really admired as a child, but as he becomes older, the illusion of Dema being such a great place is fading. Many fans have interpreted this as an allegory to fame or even religion, which the band themselves have spoken about. So, long story short, Clancy tries to escape Dema but is captured by the authorities. That’s where we leave Trench and where we enter Scaled and Icy.
Why did I write up a little summary of the concept of their last album? Well, Scaled and Icy is a little bit of a sequel to Trench. At least for the final two songs, it is. A good majority of the rest of the album, though, is a legitimate torture chamber. I don’t understand what happened. Did I miss something? After doing some research, the first nine tracks are supposed to represent Dema propaganda and the censorship of Clancy. Hell, the title of the album is an anagram of ‘Clancy is Dead.’ I didn’t figure that out for myself, I saw that on Twitter. Nearly everything I loved about Trench and even their past albums just aren’t here. The production is so generic and bland, the writing doesn’t even sound like a twenty one pilots song most of the time, and Tyler just feels… off. Also, Josh isn’t even present on most of these tracks. I don’t care if it has to do with a concept, they’re a band and this might as well be a Tyler Joseph solo album.
In the 13 months I’ve been reviewing albums, I’ve listened to and written about some pretty disappointing albums. Scaled and Icy is one of the most disappointing albums I’ve subjected myself to in a long time. It feels like a completely different band made everything before this project here. I feel very bad for new fans because they’re gonna listen to this, think that this is fine, then go back to literally everything else they’ve dropped and see that this is just not on the level of quality that they think they should be on. It also doesn’t help that this follows up one of their best albums.
If you come out of this review with anything, let it be this: If the music isn’t great, saying that it is a part of a larger concept and that it’s supposed to be bad is a horrible and lazy excuse. Tyler and Josh have proven themselves time and time again that they are talented artists. They know how to make good songs, and Trench proved that they can make a very good concept album. It depresses me to think that they thought this was ready to be put out for the public to enjoy. Worst of all? I’m probably going to forget about it by this time next year. Putting out a bad album and being forgotten is so much worse than putting out a bad album and everyone remembering it. Thank you for attending my TEDTalk.
2/10
Listen here
YouTube Music
Scaled and Icy is a Fueled By Ramen release.
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