21 Pilots Return After Year of Silence
7/17/2018
The band who gave us hits like "Stressed Out," "Heathens," and "Ride," have returned today with two new singles, and the reviews are in.
Disclaimer: I've never given them a chance until now, so I know next to nothing about the guys or their music.
This was the first thing we watched when we woke up this morning. It's been a few hours since then, so I am sitting down to watch again and record my thoughts. First, watch this:
Ok, so the video starts with one of the guys kneeling on top of a burning car. He says quietly, "We've been here the whole time. You were asleep. Time to wake up." Assumedly he is talking about the year or so since they toured/released anything.
The visuals in this song are pretty good, but the lyrics are weird in my opinion. In the chorus, he sings "Jumpsuit, jumpsuit, cover me." I know their lyrics are usually pretty deep, at least the few songs I've really listened to seem to have more to them than just words. The verses in this song follow that expectation, I think. But, I still just can't get past the chorus. It seems too simple for them.
Anyway, in the video it looks like the guy comes into contact with a rider on a white horse (pretty common visual representation of Death). It seems like Death is prepared to take his life, but he only leaves black marks on the guy's neck. This happens during the bridge, which is a good breakdown. I like it. The melodies are nice, and the lyrics are simple but still good.
Oh, now there are some characters throwing yellow petals off of a cliff onto the guy and Death. He begins to run from death, and falls. Here the song turns "screamo." According to Kennedy, they've always been like this, but since I've never really listened to them, I had no idea. I wasn't expecting it.
Overall, the video and song are fine. I liked it better the second time around, so maybe it will keep growing on me.
Next up, the second single. No accompanying video for this one.
I listened to this once all the way through. These thoughts are from my second listen.
Overall, this is more what I expect from TØP. It sounds more like the songs that have made it to radio. They lyrics/rhymes/melodies are very catchy and interesting. He sings more about this "jumpsuit," so I'm curious to see what that is all about and where it goes.
The band also announced an album Trench that will be released on October 5th. They will kick off their 61-date tour of this album in Nashville on October 16th.
