Blurryface by Twenty One Pilots | Teen Ink

Blurryface by Twenty One Pilots MAG

November 24, 2015
By L.J.Barnes. GOLD, Powhatan, Virginia
L.J.Barnes. GOLD, Powhatan, Virginia
15 articles 0 photos 53 comments

Favorite Quote:
Avoid roasted cabbage, don't eat earwax and look on the bright side of life!
~Angela the Herbalist


Listening to Twenty One Pilots is a unique musical experience. In fact, even classifying their genre is a challenge. Some songs feature a ukulele, making you feel that you are on a beach in the sunshine. Others are full of heavy electronic sounds and rapid-fire rapped lyrics, reminding you of hip-hop. In fact, I don’t think even Twenty One Pilots know exactly how to label their music. In their newest album, “Blurryface,” Tyler Joseph raps, “This is not rap, this is not hip-hop/Just another attempt to make the voices stop.” Making it clear that it doesn’t matter how you classify the music; the band exists to keep people sane.

The album is centered around the fictional “Blurryface” character, symbolizing the insecure and fearful person inside us all. The songs address this hologram, the ghost that forces us to act out of fear and insecurity. While the general concept of Blurryface is an interesting idea, the music is lacking. The chord patterns are boring and simple, the drums too repetitive, and many songs have weird key changes in the middle. Yet while the musical quality of the album feels like the work of a teen garage band, the lyrics are gold nuggets.

The lyrics question whether we are truly evil to the core (“What I wanna save I’ll kill/Is that who I truly am?”) and look at our longing for the days when “Momma sang us to sleep, but now we’re stressed out.” The stunningly strong conclusion is “Goner,” where the lyrics croon, “I’ve got two faces/Blurry’s the one I’m not, I need your help to/Take him out.” We aren’t strong enough to fix ourselves and our problems; we need something or someone to help us before we, too, become a goner.

“Blurryface” addresses and indirectly answers the questions we all feel in our hearts but have a hard time expressing. For those looking for a flawless record, look elsewhere. Because as Twenty One Pilots explain so well, “don’t trust a perfect person and don’t trust a song that’s flawless.” But for those who are looking for meaningful and insightful lyrics that artfully explain the humanity in us all, “Blurryface” is for you.


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Oliver Fans said...
on Oct. 11 2016 at 6:55 am
Twenty One Pilots are gifted at presenting something that seems very simple on the surface but is a multi-layered gift. Those that are open to receiving that gift are never the same.