By Jordan Barraud
After a year-long hiatus filled with cryptic messages for their fans to decipher, Twenty-One Pilots came back with a new album Trench, released on October 5. The fan base went berserk when the artists got back from their hiatus, expecting new music. The album consists of 14 songs: “Jumpsuit,” “Levitate,” “Morph,” “My Blood,” “Chlorine,” “Smithereens,” “Neon Gravestones,” “The Hype,” “Nico and the Niners,” “Cut My Lip,” “Bandito,” “Pet Cheetah,” “Legend,” and “Leave the City.”
Tyler Joseph, the band’s lead singer and songwriter, said Trench is a continuation of the story that goes along with Blurryface, their last album released in 2015, according to an interview published in Beats 1. Blurryface is a character who represents insecurities. Trench is a place, a world created by Joseph.
“I started coming up with this world, and it started to consume me. That’s all I could think about, I know every aspect of this world. I know what the weather’s like in this world, and I wanted to go there and write from that place,” he said in the interview.
The album paints a picture and story in your head. You can almost imagine what Trench (the world) would look like. Like all of the other Twenty-One Pilots albums, each song on Trench holds a deep meaning. For example the song “Legend” is about Tyler’s grandfather. In the interview with Beats 1, Tyler explains that during the writing of the song, his grandfather was in the hospital, and around when he finished writing the song, his grandfather passed away.
Another example is “Smithereens” an upbeat song dedicated to Joseph’s wife, Jenna.
“For you, I’d go
Step to a dude much bigger than me
For you, I know
I would get messed up, weigh 153
For you
I would get beat to smithereens”
Even though the lyrics in the album may have a deeper meaning behind them, the music is always fun to dance to or just to listen to. Elements of pop, reggae, rock, and more can be found in the music. My opinion may be biased, because I am a big fan of Twenty-One Pilots, but I would give this a solid five out of five. I do fully recommend this album to everyone. It has a little something for everybody.
