*SPOILERS – BREACH AND CITY WALLS VIDEO / TWENTY ONE PILOTS LORE IN GENERAL*

Welcome back! Where do we start? It’s been 10 years (or longer if you’re a more conspiratorial Clique member) since we first heard the first inklings of the greater story wrapped up in Twenty One Pilots’ albums spanning from 2015 until now with the release of Breach. For the double album truthers from last year’s Clancy release, Friday was a day of triumph – a day of all the little dots they’ve connected over the years finally paying off. 

I don’t know how much background I ought to toss in here, as there are fans much more dedicated than I who have a better grasp on the sprawling narrative Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun have laid before us here, but to quote Tyler’s official statement on the album from his Instagram, “…the end of [the] story takes place in the music video for ‘City Walls.'” How do we reckon with the ending of “City Walls” and then continue on with the rest of the album? I was initially confused when the album opener finished off the lore when I saw the tracklist pre-release day. Once I heard it in its entirety I realized there was no other place for it than Track 1.

The “City Walls” video ends in the unthinkable, but in a way, a lot of fans saw it coming. When we consider DEMA, the fictional circular city in Trench, and what it represents, Tyler wrapping himself in that red curtain shouldn’t have come as a shock. We’ve been going around and around with the guys through each album cycle, discussing the nuances of how mental health struggles impact daily life for a decade plus now. The only thing that changes is our particular circumstances when these albums are coming out, how we react to them, and the themes they choose as overarching for each project. 

I think that Clancy and Breach both have a really heavily featured theme of grief. Tyler lost some of his family members over these writing processes (mentioned in “Navigating” on Clancy and “Center Mass” on Breach) but it also feels like grief for what could have been. There are a lot of allusions on Breach, particularly where we see them looking back at their younger selves and trying to make sense of what happened then (“Drum Show” for Josh and “Downstairs” for Tyler). This album is so double sided in a way I feel like we haven’t seen before – we equally see the struggles of Josh and Tyler. 

Breach contains multitudes, I could do a track-by-track analysis but I will spare you, dear reader. Each of the songs on the album samples other songs from the band’s discography musically  —  which is crazy when you start picking it apart. I feel like this album has the most community involvement, lots of co-writers which I generally don’t feel like Twenty One Pilots is known for — the lead single “The Contract” was co/written by Yungblud, and “Robot Voices” was actually previously released by a different band, Blanket Approval (as “My Soft Spots My Robots”), and re-worked by Tyler. On “Center Mass”, we have recordings at the beginning from the Clancy tour last year, including a TikTok referring to the now infamous “Drumgate”, when a concertgoer took the “Trees” drum with them after the show ended. “Downstairs” is a 2011 demo that finally has seen the recording booth. And if all that wasn’t enough, playing the final track, “Intentions”, in reverse, is Vessel’s final track “Truce”, a fact mentioned by Tyler in a recorded message for the listening parties that happened at record stores before release. 

So knowing all that, what makes Breach fresh, what sets it apart from their seven other albums? For one, I think this is Tyler’s strongest performance vocally, specifically on tracks like “Tally” and “Downstairs”. We also have Josh Dun contributing vocals on “Drum Show”. Next, this album is so cohesive, and I feel like sometimes when I listen back to other projects I feel the band has struggled with that. They do generally have a sort of frenetic energy that is a hallmark, but I feel like Breach really has a sense of control despite still feeling like a natural progression of their sound and keeps it familiar. 

I do genuinely believe this is a no-skip album, but standouts for me are “Garbage”, “Center Mass”, “Cottonwood”, “Days Lie Dormant” and “Tally”. I truly believe that not only is “Tally” one of the best things the band has released in their career, but also perfectly encapsulates the story as a whole, just neatly packaged in a 3-and-a-half minute bow. Jeremiah said it’s my favorite because it sounds the most like Vessel and that may be true, but it hasn’t been long enough for me to make that call. The melody of the first line pretty much directly correlates to “Car Radio” and it does make it feel immediately close to home, but it’s such a hard hitting track and they chose it as the penultimate song on the album. I really feel like the chorus, “You want a tally, I lost the count / You want to love me, I’ll let you down / Still now, you believe in me somehow” and the bridge, “I just figured you were keeping track of every time / I let you down / I breached your trust”, just sum it up so well. We often are blinded by our mistakes and failures so much that we can’t see those that are trying to love us through it all and be of help. It just hit me really hard in the feels guys. 

The album ends with “Intentions”, the aforementioned reverse “Truce”. The latter is a battle cry for us Clique members, as we remember that, “The sun will rise and we will try again”. On the other hand, “Intentions” is a more introspective ending to it all, with lines like, “You will fail most every day” and “Intentions will set you free / Just try to be”. It sort of lets us off the hook and keeps on the hook at the same time. We may feel at a loss of how to handle what life throws at us, but we are ultimately responsible for how we react, and that is a joyous thing. In the end, even though we see Tyler / Clancy become a Bishop, a representation of everything he hates and struggles with, we are also left with a sense of empowerment. We have the choice everyday to put on the heavy robe of insecurity, doubt, fear — or we get to choose instead to take those things for what they are and still choose hope and sunlight, a second chance.

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.