Ever since their debut in 2009, musical duo Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun have established their artistic project, better known as “Twenty One Pilots” in the world of music. Throughout the years of their vast discography, the two have told many stories, the most commonly resonated among fans and casual listeners alike is the story of a character named Blurryface, whose tale continues to be expanded with every new album. The pair’s newest work, “Breach,” briefly touches on elements that explore the familiar character’s backstory and tell new stories with fresher perspectives while incorporating an experimental style to polish these works of a new era.
Released as their eighth studio album, “Breach” makes contact with new grounds in terms of sound and message. Compared to past albums, the latest appeals to audiences that may be enjoyers of multiple genres of music, as many songs on this new addition includes a diverse range that blends well with the duo’s typical and distinct style. Many notable tracks make up the latest work. Let’s dive into the tracks that best define the expression that the duo seeks to share with the world’s musical audience.
“City Walls”
It’s an obvious cliche that the first song would be a gripping beginning to any album, but Twenty One Pilots follows this idea in a stunning way. “City Walls” starts with a slow buildup to a quick transition into quick drumbeats and melodic harmonies overlapped with a rhythm similar to hip-hop.
As the song progresses, the chorus is more firmly spoken as the harmonic style the main vocalist Tyler Joseph adopted counters the initial tougher-seeming rap that made up the first verse. Among the final lines of the chorus and the second verse, elements of electric keyboards and synth instruments are included to connect the voice with the melody.
Nearing the latter half of the song, a slower, more emotional part of the song is drawn out, backed up by melancholy piano and vocals that echo as they fade into synths. A build up of drums link to a rendition of the main chorus featured in a higher octave performance, as Joseph lets his screams ring out to back up his soft-spoken words, letting the song fade out at the end of the climatic chorus in a singular note.
“RAWFEAR”
Following “City Walls,” second track “RAWFEAR” opens with reverberated piano chords tied into distorted screams which soon move into a quickly distributed first verse. To back up Joseph’s energy, a drum track follows as the fast pace trails into the chorus, more calmly dispensed rather than the opening verse.
The chorus is once again repeated as Joseph claims of how he is moved by “raw fear,” describing life as “just forever, gripping feels, never slowing down.” Rhythmic echoes of warped samples of the singer’s voice back up the repeated chorus verse for the second time around. Nearing the middle of the track, the tempo escalates as “aahs” and “oohs” respond to Joseph’s frantic line distribution, interpreted by many to be an artistic replication of a breakdown.
As the song comes to a close, the chorus is sung for a third and final time after the isolated vocals of the aforementioned bridge, a bassline briefly appearing behind the singer’s voice. The song concludes with samples of the introductory screams utilized as descending synths that mold into a few final piano chords before the listener is met with silence.
“Drum Show”
Right off the bat, the third song on the album, “Drum Show,” starts with a bass strumming a rapid riff with low-octave notes, a hi hat tapping swiftly as Joseph nonchalantly echoes into the microphone, “puttin’ on a drum show.” Once this line is spoken, the drums kick in in their full glory, the volume of the bass rises, accompanied by an additional guitar in a quick crescendo that ends seconds after it started to make way for the first verse.
The first verse carries forward, albeit the line distribution is slow, but to be soon followed by the chorus, met with a more harmonic variety and higher notes from Joseph. As the title suggests, the decibel of the drums increases, going hand in hand with the rest of the rhythm section, leading them forward in a reverberating vocal performance.
Leading into the second verse, the fast pace continues, fading into a quick rap and soon after, into a repeat of the chorus. The bridge comes next, which starts off with echoes of distorted guitar and slow lyrics from drummer Josh Dun, the bittersweet lines, “I’ve been this way, I want to change” transition into a scream straight from the heart. By the time the chorus loops once more, both members of the duo duet over guitar and synth melodies, the song closing with an abrupt stop in the track.
“The Contract”
The fifth song on the album, considered by many fans to be the best composed on the album, begins with a compelling echo that ends up faded behind speedy piano keys within seconds. It’s in “The Contract” that Joseph plays around with autotune enhancement as he chants in the first verse, “I don’t sleep much, that’s crazy, how’d you know that?”A rapid hip-hop beat accompanies what comes next, which is a rap verse, something special about the sound of Twenty One Pilots.
Rock blends with rap as Joseph belts his lyrics with a scream in his throat, as well as elements of autotune used to let his vocals ring out. A guitar is heard in the background soon after his verse finishes, faded samples of his previous lines mirroring the harmony of the current point in the song. The bridge is constructed with a relatively slowed down rendition of the beginning, a motif of a past Twenty One Pilots song, “HeavyDirtySoul,” briefly heard as Joseph continues on with one more repeat of the chorus, allowing his voice to crack with emotion and anger as he does so.
Multiple motifs and rhythms that belong to past albums and songs have been noticed by long time fans of the musical artists. For example, upon a second or third listen, the vocals sampled at the start of the track sound similar to the beginning vocals of a previous song of theirs, titled “Jumpsuit.” To wrap up “The Contract,” Joseph sings the line “I promised you a contract,” before the track meets a sudden stop.
“Tally”
Taking a massive jump further down to the twelfth song on the album, “Tally” starts off with a rather pixelated riff that repeats twice before a heavy drum hit and guitar downpick start a series of spread out strikes that accompany the intro to Joseph’s rap. The drums soon pick up the pace of the song and escalate in speed.
Vocals become tainted with a reverberated effect as stronger chords emerge from the rhythm section, promoting an epic solidarity to Joseph’s voice, which climbs up an octave and explores a higher range for the chorus. Rapid taps on an electric keyboard back up both the first and second rounds of this verse, Dun on the drums toying with the use of the hi hat of his set. Tying it all together, synth use in this song is through the roof, as seen in all chorus parts of the song.
Sampled tracks of Joseph’s voice fluctuate between both ears of the listener as soft piano unites with a hushed synth and consistent hi hat which maintains a firm tempo all throughout the bridge. The final round of the chorus is met with a high note by Joseph, the vocalist reaching his highest note on the album in this final moment of the twelfth track. As synth, drums, guitar, and vocals blend together in an ethereal blend, the song ends the same way it began: drums and guitar combining to create fierce yet rhythmic taps to wrap up.
In its entirety, “Breach” is a melting pot of the past and present stories told by Twenty One Pilots. The tales that have already been fleshed out, and those that are still unfolding, leaving many fans with an infinity of questions. A vast number of fans speculate that this album could be the last album, as the decade-long story of one character named Torchbearer has concluded upon the release of this work. However, the remainder of the fanbase suggests that this is merely the end of an era, and newer, greater works are yet to come. Better yet, the place where “Breach” left off may hint that those superior masterpieces may already be set to arrive in due time. While the album’s release implies the conclusion of several familiar tales, many await what is next to come from Twenty One Pilots; though fans already have their expectations for the duo’s next move, many more are taking their time on the ride “Breach” has offered them.
