How does one speak about a band that has continuously been there for them in their darkest and lightest times? A band that has some of the most wild creative abandon despite being on a major label? I was a teenager with Twenty One Pilots, I played “Tear In My Heart” at my wedding, I have seen them live more than any other artist (and will again this fall). There is a Twenty One Pilots shaped space in my heart, and every few years I have the sweet relief of my heart becoming whole again. Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun have a way of writing about life in no other way another artist has come close for me. Despite feeling like you’re going to go mad if you think too much about it, the concepts presented in Clancy are some of their most accessible yet.

I was talking to Jeremiah about the lore as I rewatched their Youtube livestream where they premiered each track with its respective video. He isn’t as attached to the band as I am, and not all of the backstory is interesting to him, and that’s fine; I’m only a little bit salty about that. I was waxing poetic on the concept of the album, and as I was talking through my theories, I said that I felt that this was their most vulnerable and honest album. Each track cuts straight to the point, from “Vignette”, a clear reference to addiction, to “At the Risk of Feeling Dumb” talking about checking in on people who might be experiencing suicidal ideation. I said it does feel like the final chapter of this time in the Twenty One Pilots story, if only because it feels like Tyler is hiding less and less behind metaphor and facing his struggles head-on. 

As aforementioned, the band released a video for every track, and therefore they had to push the album release date back a week to accommodate that. From a sonic perspective, people who disliked Scaled and Icy will feel at home with Clancy. I feel like it’s the best of Blurryface and Trench mashed up into a powerhouse album. It hits hard all the way through, although I wish they put the single version of “The Craving” on the album rather than the acoustic version that made the cut. Otherwise, a no-skip album for me. And that’s not to say “The Craving” is bad, as Tyler always puts a song for his wife on their albums, but the acoustic does sort of take you out of the “escaping a cult with nothing but torches and electrical tape” vibe. In their livestream, Tyler said he wanted the acoustic version to be the one that was “preserved” on the album, and it does help give some perspective on that choice.

The limit does not exist to Tyler’s genius and talent for weaving together ideas. The parallels are as always, wild, but I won’t get into it here for sake of time and interest – people far more dedicated than I have a sub-Reddit where you can find out anything you’d like. From the fictional island “Volsoy” meaning “island of violence”, a clear reference to “Migraine” from 2013’s Vessel, to the video for Clancy’s track regarding regression, “Snap Back”, showing Tyler shaving his head a la Vessel’s “Car Radio”, I am continuously impressed every time I come across a new chunk of familiarity amidst the new. 

If there’s one thing I need to express about this album, it’s how worth the wait it was. I am almost never as pleased with a project as I expect to be, but with Clancy, there’s no doubt that this is a masterpiece, and is honestly an immediate favorite album of mine from the band. Sometimes I have trouble finding my footing with a group of songs and there are half-empty playlists of a certain era of a band and there’s a whole set of albums or singles that just go conveniently forgotten for me, and I don’t feel this way about Clancy. It’s already so close to my heart. I just see so much of myself here, from my insomnia represented in “Routines In the Night”, my anxiety in the bridge of “Navigating” where Tyler sings softly, “I kind of feel like everybody leaves”, in “Snap Back” where I cry when I hear “I’ve been praying that my elasticity returns”, regarding needing to be okay with the changes occurring in my life. I have truly grown up with this band, and they’ve been such a large part of that growth. It’s hard not to wax poetic here, it will get nauseating and too emotional but I think you get the gist.

I have spent years of my life in a metaphorical back room, hair frizzy, half-empty energy drink cans strewn about. Red strings loop endlessly around and around from bulletin board to bulletin board until I’m the one stuck in my desk chair like a butterfly in a chrysalis, loops of yarn tangling in the wheels and I am spinning slowly. I have made it to the final chapter of Trench / Blurryface lore and I am exhausted, but I am complete. But is the Clancy story truly over? The end of album closer “Paladin Strait” seems to suggest otherwise. Here we go – please keep arms and legs in the burning car at all times.

5/5

by Nadia Alves

Nadia Alves has been a music enthusiast since she can remember. Going to shows is her main pastime. The other is being upset when she can’t go to shows. This is her first official venture into writing about music. You can follow her on Twitter.