The Ohio-born rap-rock team known as Twenty-One Pilots dropped their highly anticipated third label-released album earlier this month: a monstrous rap-rock concept album called "Trench."
And oh man, did it live up to fans and critics expectations.
It's hard to encapsulate what makes this album work in so little words, so some corners will have to be cut, and some mystery will need to be kept unrevealed.
At its core, "Trench" is an entirely new direction for the band. The album tells one cohesive narrative from start to finish, while also experimenting with entirely new sounds and arrangements foreign to the band on any other of their past projects.
The story, at its core, follows a narrator as he is trying to escape the city he once grew up in, a fictional, prison-like concrete jungle known as DEMA. Each of the nine districts of the city is ruled by a bishop, all of whom coerce the city's residents to practice the religion, known as "vitalism." The narrator joins a group, known as the bandits, who are bent on escaping the city and traveling through a mysterious surrounding wilderness full of valleys and rough terrain... this wilderness, in fact, is known as "trench."
Trench: How Twenty-One Pilots Tell a StoryPolyphonic / YouTube
And honestly, that's all you need to initially know about the story. It's relatively straightforward with each track lyrically toying with different motifs (the bishops, the neon lights they worship, the vultures that feed off dead DEMA residents). What the album does well in this department is function as a concept album, but still remain accessible to casual listeners. You don't necessarily have to know who "Nico" is or what the jumpsuit represents to become immersed not only into the story but into the emotions being conveyed and explored by lead singer Tyler Joseph.
The album is just as rewarding whether you want to play it while cruising down the highway, or while "nerding" out over the intricate, thematic layering from track to track.
Sonically, as I said, this album is an entirely different landscape, mainly because that's what the album feels like every song has its own instrumentation that presents almost an area of this "world" Joseph has created. The synths, piano, and bass construct a space for the vocals to explore and navigate. This is largely thanks to MUTEMATH's lead singer, Paul Meany, who helped co-write and produce much of the material on this project. Anyone who has heard his band's latest album, "Play Dead," will clearly notice his touch in many of the switch-ups, luscious and spacious backing instrumentation, and brutally vibrant lyricism on "Trench."
Seriously, almost every track off this album is a success.
A few highlights have to be the opening combination of the siren screeching, dirty bass-infested "Jumpsuit" and the crisp, silky smooth free-verse rap that is "Levitate." "Morph" not only has some of the most intricate lyricism on the entire album but also sees the duo experimenting with R&B flair and Kendrick Lamar level existential verses; "My Blood" is a definite standout with its sentimental lyrics of love and affirmation mixed with a falsetto-driven disco-funk chorus.
"Nico and the Niners" brings an entirely new, darker, more mature approach to the often predictable and fan-serviced ukulele tracks that litter every 21P project; "Bandito" serves as a slow-burning climax to the album. Where a lot of the motifs and themes of the narrative are given a thoughtful, introspective conclusion; and finally, "Leave the City" is the piano ballad to end all piano ballads, with lyrics and a vocal performance meant to be heard during the band's Bandito Tour this Fall.
With only a couple of missteps (sometimes the tracklisting doesn't necessarily flow well together, like the beautifully sentimental Neon Gravestones followed by the pop-driven, radio-friendly "The Hype," and Smithereens, while a touching song dedicated to Joseph's wife, doesn't necessarily fit the narrative or sound of the album) Twenty One Pilots "Trench" proves to be the definitive rap-rock album of 2018: with thoughtful and playful lyricism and varied yet consistent production, Twenty One Pilots have effectively dropped the best album of their career.
