Album Essentials: Twenty One Pilots - "Blurryface"

By Dave Swanson - Summit FM Contributor

Straight outta Columbus, Ohio, Twenty One Pilots have certainly made, and maintained, a name for themselves over the past fifteen years or so. After entering the game with a couple of independently released albums, the duo of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun got snapped up by a Warner Brothers subsidiary, which aided their ongoing ascension with their third release, ‘Vesser.’

Released in 2018, their second major label release, 'Blurryface,' put them over the top in a handful of ways, not only outselling their previous releases, scoring over a million copies sold, it also hit the top spot on the Billboard charts, and ultimately won a Grammy Award for “Album of the Year.” Not bad for a couple kids from mid-Ohio!

'Tear In My Heart,' 'Lane Boy,' 'Fairly Local,' 'Ride,' and 'Stressed Out' were all released as singles, each one generating a buzz with 'Ride' hitting Top 5 and 'Stressed Out' making it all the way to the top. Perhaps part of the secret in not even a secret, but simply the way their fans relate to their music and lyrics.

“Music can connect people on an intimate level. What Josh and I are trying to do is represent anyone who has some of the questions that we have,” Tyler Joseph told The Standard, back in 2015. “When you write music that expresses doubt or concern, or talks about some of the darker things that a developing human goes through, people will come out of the woodwork to listen to someone else say it out loud.”

While touring the album, the band went from playing clubs to hitting arenas around the world. “When you zoom out, you might think, ‘Oh that was pretty nuts’”, Josh told NME. “But we’d been on tour since 2011 playing shows every night so you’re too close to realize it." Though the two albums that followed were also big success stories, they failed to match the glory of 'Blurryface,' which seemed to have been the right album at the right time. Their tale is far from over, however, a new album, 'Scaled and Icy’ is set for release in May of 2024.