Twenty One Pilots - Scaled & Icy

Is it possible to experience 21 pilots without knowing the context of the band? I assume it is, but i can't because i already know the concept. This is a concept band. That's nothing like Mac Sabbath, or Okilly Dokilly, or Hayseed Dixie, who are gimmick bands, it's more like MLWTKK, or SPK, or KMFDM, or Coheed and Cambria, bands with an actual mythos inside which their being a band at all takes place. I suppose they also pair up with bands like Local H or my beloved Carpenters: duos comprised of an instrumentalist and a drummer. Twenty One Pilots has a whole lot of context, more on par with my previously mentioned Kult Kids and C&C comic book factory. 

The band exists inside the reference to a play by Arthur Miller. Quick plot synopsis: Joe Keller makes airplane parts, finds out he made a bunch of crappy ones that will probably malfunction during some important part of WWII, and he has to decide if it's more important to recall those parts and spend the money to make better ones, or use the money to support his family and hope they don't malfunction like they are going to. Money wins, 21 pilots die, Joe Keller commits suicide. Real sunshine and daffodils stuff, like Mr. Miller was known for. So, Tyler Joseph uses that name as a reminder that when you're faced with a moral dilemma, doing the right thing is often much harder, more time consuming, and more costly than being a schmuck. Sometimes we have to do things we don't feel like doing, like honestly reviewing Billie Eilish's entire discography, but we suck it up like manly buttercups because we know it's right and we don't shy away from hard work that needs proper hard working. Sometimes they rock, sometimes they tangentially Reggae, often they rap, always they start from a position of timid introversion and coax themselves into unbottling something important then fade back into the shadows until the next thing. Hey, i said they weren't a gimmick, i never said they didn't have a schtick. 

Now as for reviewing this album, i don't know. I love pretty much all their singles, but i love all the singles of the Beatles and Seether and wowzers did i crap all over their albums. I haven't heard any of the previous 5 Twenty One Pilots albums in their entirety. I've had nothing but awesome from the Made in Germany sign on the back, so i expect a high fidelity version of whatever it turns out to be... 

... alrighty then, we went from what i thought was a spacy sound set up to a hip hop track, then just went full on 70s dance pop. What the hell am i listening to? Ooooh, a double pun, "scaled back and isolated" in reference to the pandemic AND an anagram of "Clancy is dead" (Clancy was the protagonist from their previous album, Trench), a fact the band pointedly refuses to confirm or deny. Even better, their 2020 single "Christmas Saves the Year" has the statement "SAI is propaganda" written on it. Madam Coincidence is practically running naked through the streets of suburbia like a sexy frightening lunatic. 

Ok, enough of me, on with the warm clothes and the album. It's unanimously reviewed as a quarantine album, so i'll throw all that in one of these garbage cans and ask the real important questions: is it dumb? Do i ever want to listen to it again? Does it have any redeeming qualities beyond the obvious problem of not being able to tour so that they can properly continue the story of Trench (i don't know what that story is, i just know that's what they said was the hard part of figuring out what to actually do with this album)? Proper silent listening to the whole thing, go! 

Ok, if you don't like seriously unapologetic, carcinoma inducing electro-pop with a side of hip-hop, then you will not like this album at all. That said, it takes a bit of a turn toward the end. It's not what i was expecting at all, but it's not dumb, i want to listen to it again, and there is definitely a plot afoot. It is a hitting the pause button and deciding where to go next kind of album. I also have the urge to compare it to Lorde's Solar Power, but this is not in any way cynical or sarcastic, it's very straightforward and optimistic, and that is a tiny bit offputting. Did i mention it's Pop? There's standard hints of Reggae and Trap, but as Pop. There might be layers under there, but the overwhelming aura is one of "now is the moment where i consciously take a u-turn and take advantage of the world going crazy instead of me for a change. Now's the time i start taking care of me." 

Interesting.