Hi, everyone. Breachthony Outtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new twenty one pilots album, Breach.

Here we have the newest and eighth studio full-length LP from Tyler Joseph and Josh Dunn, the Ohio music duo known as twenty one pilots. This thing is a quick follow-up to last year's Clancy, as well as a momentous mark in the band's discography, because conceptually, the ongoing storyline has been moving since the band's 2015 record, Blurryface, is apparently concluding with this album, with a final face-off with the Blurryface character, I guess.

So what shape the band's storytelling will take from this point forward, I guess we'll just have to see. And while there hasn't always been a draw for me personally to the duo's music, twenty one pilots' storytelling, the narratives behind their records, have been a massive selling point among some of their most hard core fans. And I will admit, even for me, when the music itself is compelling, the lore does add an extra layer of intrigue, like on the band's 2018 record Trench, which I was quite taken with.

But all the symbolism and mythology aside, what is clear is twenty one pilots is serving up yet another buffet of their trademark mix of indie, emo, punk, pop, rap, too, with plenty of mental health-minded lyrics.

But I will say, stylistically and musically, there does seem to be more of a focus this time around on various music trends of the early to mid 2000s. For example, I wouldn't call this album or twenty one pilots metal by any stretch of the imagination, but it's hard to ignore the obvious melodramatic rap rock stylings of bands like Linkin Park turning up on key tracks such as "The Contract", as well as the opener "City Walls", where the guitars just feel toned down for a more palatable presentation.

I do think some magic is lost in the process of that change in evolution, especially with the former of those two tracks, "The Contract", featuring all of these springy autotuned lead vocals. But when the duo isn't channeling Mike Shinoda and the gang on this thing, they're actually looking to some of the best and brightest commercial highs the indie scene had to offer around the same time period.

Like, "Robot Voices" sounds like exactly what you would get if you reimagined the Postal Service as a low-key rock band. And it's actually pretty incredible, even if most of the musical nods are pretty clear, right down to Tyler Joseph's polite and articulate delivery on the verse vocals. I mean, also take note of the lyrics on the track about seeking love and being shut off from the world and then reassured by robot voices that this love that you're interested in is fine. Then with tracks like "Raw Fear" as well as "Garbage", we get a bit of hope-core indie pop with a touch of MGMT, and a hefty dose of life philosophy coming through on the lyrics.

For the most part, I find these tracks to be okay. I just don't think they are novel or interesting spins on the very obvious influences they're taking off from. Meanwhile, tracks like "Downstairs" provide a bit of a tone shift, being a slow, heavy power ballad type track. And while the heavily manipulated lead vocals, blown out bass, and plinky keys might not be the best delivery method, I see the vision in the song, and there's a lot of heart there in Tyler's vocals. And I do think the song adds very well to the record's overall themes of being contained within something, a perception, a belief, a feeling feeling or expectation, maybe even something material, and then breaking out, moving on, or as it were, breaching.

I also very much love the wild, rowdy fun and sense of freedom that we get from "Drum Show". The song "Center Mass" provides a little bit of slick, groovy pop rock that reads as almost Incubus-influenced at points. That is until it undergoes this very powerful progression that eventually hits upon a really grandiose finale.

Now, while many of my favorite moments on this record do occur in the second half of the tracklist, I do think "Cottonwood" and "One Way" create a bit of a one-two lull in the progression of the album that's just not necessary, especially with the instrumental on the former of those two tracks just sounding so stiff and sterile. I mean, I think they're fine, respectable songs. They just could have been produced or presented in a way that felt a bit more organic or engaging.

And while I concur with the voice note on the record talking about how "Days Lie Dormant" is a strange transition from one way, I still I do think "Days Lie Dormant" is in the running for the best track on the album. It is such an amazing anthem that somehow builds itself off of many different sounds and influences from a myriad of different indie titans. You've got the pulsating anthemics of the Killers, mixed with some of the straightforward, plucky post-punk guitar work of Interpol. Then for good measure, within all of that, you have some cute whistle passages a la Peter Bjorn and John. Yet somehow all of those elements work together. Once again, on this track, we have more lyrics like, "My days lie dormant / It's feeling less important / To waste my time inside a place you're not / Don't make me waste my love / It's everything I've got," where we're just continuing on this track of we're breaking out, we're leaving, we're escaping.

These themes of a love that doesn't necessarily work or seems maybe a bit off-kilter or misunderstood, that is very much echoed on the following track, "Tally", where it's really being agonized over whether or not the mistakes that have been made across the length of the relationship? Are they being held against the protagonist of the record all this is being told from forever? Are things being moved on from? Are things being forgiven? It is a little confusing, but I imagine on some level, intentionally so, because there definitely is an anxiety and a frustration to the emotions being dealt with on this track.

However, the final moments of the album, "Intentions", creates, in a way, at least a little bit of assurance that in the end, ultimately, what does matter are the intentions that you go into various interactions and life experiences with.

Now, with that being said, am I in love with the production and instrumentation? Not necessarily. Am I in love with this album in general? No. There are too many points, in my opinion, where the performances and again, the instrumentation come across just a bit too derivative and plain. But still, with that being said, I did like quite a few songs off of this album, just like I did with Clancy. That's why I feel, at least for me, personally, both of these albums are mostly in a similar range. I really truly loved and enjoyed a handful of cuts here and there. Felt like the rest of the album, for the most part, was fine and disliked maybe a few cuts. Feeling like twenty one pilots were maybe embodying some of these very obvious alt rock and indie influences in a way that felt either too derivative, lacked vision, lacked creativity, or showcased maybe a misunderstanding of what made some of these sounds appealing in the first place.

With that being said, though, I still did enjoy a lot of the lyrics and the overall themes and concept of this album, too, and ultimately what it means for the final moments of this ongoing twenty one pilots story, which is why I'm feeling a decent to strong 6 on this album.

Anthony Fantano, twenty one pilots, Forever.