Twenty One Pilots - Vessels

Remember when Beiber was popular?....BAHAHAHA

In the days where the radio is dominated by the s%$t that is Justin Beiber, and Ke$ha, I always want to find good pop for people to listen to. The fact is I love pop, I don’t like most the crap that is on the radio, but I’m glad to see some well deserved pop acts getting some attention like Imagine Dragons, and Bruno Mars (yes haters, I like him too, shut it). So today, we got the major debut label of Twenty One Pilots, Vessels. Pilots, consisted of Tyler Joseph, and Josh Dunn, is a pop duo from Columbus, OH. The band popped on my radar after they got signed to pop rock super label Fueled by Ramen (home of Fall Out Boy, Fun., Gym Class Heroes, Paramore, I could go on.) So my expectations were I was going to get at least a decent pop rock album that maybe I would hear some of the songs on the radio soon. What I got though, was something drastically different from what I anticipated. Vessels is a pop album that is all over the place with genres. It has elements of hip-hop, folk, pop rock, reggae, and indie rock. Yet, somehow the band makes it all work.

The album starts with “Ode To Sleep”. The song sound dark at the beginning with the synths and lyricism, but then at about the minute 30 mark, it turns into an upbeat pop song by switching the two topics just talked about. It takes you off guard, but not in a bad way, more in a, “What the hell....this is COOL” way. Moments of drastic change like this come in multiple points of the album. I never thought I’d have the day where I would say an indie pop song turns into a hip-hop song with a reggae style synth beat in the back halfway through, but “Guns For Hands” does just that. I know, it sounds crazy, but just go listen for yourself. It works wonderfully, trust me.

Both members of Twenty One Pilots are also very talented musicianship wise. Josh, who drums, is a madman who bring brute and effective force to his drumming. It’s nothing complicated, but he sells it by making himself heard on each song within the album. The rest of the album is created by Tyler, who sings, plays the piano, and ukelele. Tyler is a great vocalist who has range, can sell screaming vocals quite well, and can sell the rap lyrics without it sounding hokey or forced in. It’s a hard balancing act he has as a vocalist, but he pulls it off with ease. One song he could be rapping like in “Holding On To You”, while the next song, he could be making a sweet song with the ukelele to his mother, which is the case with “House Of Gold”. It adds a sense of freshness as you don’t know what you are ever going to get out of these two.

The only problem I have with the album is the consistency. Yes, I’ve been going on about how great these songs are, but not all of them are. The album looses its steam after “Guns For Hands” as the last two songs don’t really have the same amount of flair as the rest of the album. It’s a shame as it keeps the album from being perfect to me.

The final verdict:  Vessels is the type of pop album that is starting to pop up more, and thank god it is. It’s doesn’t hold itself to one genre, and experiments with the idea of pop music and takes it into so many directions by mixing genres and ideas. It’s feels more fresh, and effective than just the same song over and over again like Beiber and Ke$ha pull with every release. I hope these guys get big, as it’ll give hope to many artist who want to try this idea, but are too afraid too. Twenty One Pilots has jumped to the top of my favorite bands list with only one album, and that’s pretty damn hard to do.

FINAL GRADE:  A-

CHOICE CUT:  “Holding On To You”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktBMxkLUIwY

Btw

This happened live when my girlfriend and I saw them...yes that is a drum solo in the middle of the crowd...