Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Twenty One Pilots, Fueled By Ramen 2018.
This is the first album I’ve heard from the American Duo, Twenty One Pilots, and it’s quite interesting.
The band consists of lead multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dunn and their breakthrough occurred with their fourth album, Blurryface (2015).
The album included two top 10 singles, Stressed Out and Ride and also the single Heathens, which was recorded for the soundtrack of the film Suicide Squad.
Blurryface also achieved a milestone unrivalled in the digital era, becoming the first album in which every individual song on the album was certified Gold, Platinum, or multi-platinum.
Blurryface won the band Top Rock Album at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards.
Twenty One Pilots produce an interesting mix of electro-pop and hip hop and their Andrew Donoho-directed videos have amassed over 75 million cumulative views.
Trench has only just been released but it has already achieved massive downloads making its success a forgone conclusion.
Later this month the band will be embarking on their world-wide ‘Bandito Tour’ which will include Australia starting in Perth on 7 December.
The thing I like about this album is that it includes a lot of melody.
Most songs include sung and spoken segments.
I’ve often found myself crying out for some melody while listening to many hip hop albums however the Twenty One Pilots mix of electro-pop and hip hop overcomes this problem.
Tyler Joseph has a good singing voice and he easily handles both the sung and spoken passages.
As with much modern music this album has a mix of guest artists who provide additional vocals.
