With album 2025 in Vienna

Twenty One Pilots: Squaring the circle

On "Clancy", the Twenty One Pilots complete their ten-year concept in top compositional form.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Atlantic, Ashley Osborn)

On their seventh studio album "Clancy", Twenty One Pilots conclude their conceptual story of a character in a fictional world and once again combine all their musical strengths from recent years. This makes their new work the best in a long time. In 2025, the duo will be performing at the Wiener Stadthalle.

For years now, streaming and algorithm culture has meant that traditional genre listener groups are increasingly dying out and it's all about the big picture. While many of us experienced our youth strictly divided into rockers, hip-hoppers or metalheads, festivals today are more about collective ecstasy. A misogynistic German rapper is lined up next to a 90s nostalgia party band. A serious indie artist can be found side by side with an established dancehall act. The younger the average music fan, the more tasteful and open-minded they are growing up today. Twenty One Pilots, now 15 years old, anticipated this all-encompassing embrace of different styles before it became a major trend. Their final breakthrough, the US number one album "Blurryface" with the top hit "Stressed Out", made them the most exciting band in pop overnight in 2015.

Ending the concept
Although the term pop can only be used as the crudest of over-descriptions for Twenty One Pilots. Like no other band, the duo Tyler Joseph (vocals, guitar, bass, everything else) and Josh Dun (drums) mix mainstream pop quotes with rap interludes, alternative indie twists and bold electronics. It was a recipe that worked at the time because a whole generation was thirsting for something that could make use of what was already there, but that shouldn't end up being a miserably boring rip-off. "Blurryface" was also the early beginning of a fictional story about the character Clancy, who fights against oppressors in the city of Dema. Fans of Twenty One Pilots could read the songs and messages as cryptically as "Swifties" read those of their idol Taylor Swift. Here and there, hidden messages, side-stories and hints whose respective soundscapes led in certain directions.

Frontman Joseph uses the metaphor-rich lyrics as an outlet for his own salvation, which is always in trouble and is brought back to a healthy center by the power of music. In the last few works, the rough narrative finally moved to the center of the action. While "Trench" was still something like the artistic development of the duo from Ohio, three years ago they lost themselves a little in poppy irrelevance with the Corona album "Scaled And Icy". Despite all the understanding for a deliberately light album in a dark time, fans missed the accessible angularity and the soul-breaking, more intense lyrics that Joseph implemented more rigorously on their predecessors. In this respect, "Clancy", now the seventh studio album, is not only the conclusion of the conceptual trilogy, but also a welcome return to old strengths.

Ride through the musical vegetable garden
As befits a concluding treatise on a story, Joseph and Dun once again blend all the strengths of their previous musical oeuvre. Although this runs the risk of indulging in too many musical gimmicks, it works thanks to the fresh and unspent approach that the two have managed to maintain despite all the songs they have written in recent years. Already in the opener "Overcompensate", which includes a German-language sample, you are called "welcome back to 'Trench'" and find yourself in the middle of squaring the compositional circle. Joseph then poaches through the acoustic vegetable garden with a fervent joy not heard since "Blurryface". "Midwest Indigo" conveys fickle uncertainty, "Snap Back" sounds dreamy and dark, while "Routines In The Night" indulges in electronic experimentation and yet remains accessible.

What is particularly impressive is how many sub-styles Twenty One Pilots can pack into a compact, three-and-a-half-minute song. The haunting "Vignette", for example, features Joseph's falsetto voice, leads into a rap and also mixes birdsong and theremin sounds. The special thing about it all: At no point does it sound piecemeal or forced, but rather chiseled from a single cast. The duo also hit the delicate notes with bravura. "The Craving (Jenna's Version)" is a declaration of love from Joseph to his partner and, despite its leisurely approach, does not slide into kitschy territory. All of this culminates in the secret highlight of the album - "Navigating". A dancerock lesson with serious content and interesting changes of direction, which only Twenty One Pilots manage effortlessly in this form. The duo bring their concept to a worthy close, both musically and in terms of content, with the closer "Paladin Stait", which lasts more than six minutes - be sure to stay tuned until the end!

2025 live in Vienna
Twenty One Pilots will be presenting their wonderful album "Clancy" live at the Wiener Stadthalle on April 13, 2025. There may still be a few tickets left at www.oeticket.com or www.ticketmaster.at - otherwise the US duo's comeback has been completely sold out for several weeks.