When Twenty One Pilots announced new album Scaled and Icy, their rabid fan base went to work decoding its curious title. Anagrams were crunched — could it be “sand delicacy”? something to do with “lice candy”? — until the riddle was solved. The hidden message in Scaled and Icy is “Clancy is dead” — a reference to the protagonist of the US duo’s previous album, 2018’s Trench. The discovery yielded a fresh wave of speculation. Is Clancy really dead?
Cryptic meanings and conspiracy theories have a long tradition in pop music. The Beatles fans who puzzled over Paul McCartney’s imagined death were precursors of those who scour Twenty One Pilots’ songs for clues to a larger conundrum. Pop stars have always opened up alternative worlds to their fans, a shared space for fantasy and role play. But whereas The Beatles didn’t encourage wild guesswork about McCartney’s mortality, Twenty One Pilots — products of the internet era — have assiduously created the alternative world surrounding their music.
Vocalist Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dun set it in motion with 2015’s Blurryface, which was named after a character played by Joseph, an avatar for the singer’s deepest insecurities. Passages of rapping gave this anxious persona the appearance of a milquetoast Slim Shady (“My name is Blurryface and I care what you think”). Meanwhile, songs clicked through different music genres like a trail of hyperlinks.
Trench expanded this conceptual approach into a convoluted dystopia involving evil bishops, brainwashing and the perplexing Clancy. With lyrics addressing mental health issues, the make-believe carried a serious purpose. For all their flights of fancy, the duo are earnest in outlook.
These two albums have proved immensely successful. Blurryface is the first album ever in the US to have each track certified as gold or platinum-sellers. The catchiness that drives their songs forward is present on Scaled and Icy, but the album fumbles the ball. Its tracks are caught between servicing the concept and existing in their own right.
“Good Day” announces a switch to a brighter mood after Trench. Jaunty piano-pop creates a forced mood of positivity, to which Joseph adds an ambivalent gloss. “I think I’m all right,” he cries. “Choker” uses skittering drum-and-bass to soundtrack a tale of failure, but palliates it with overly sentimental vocal melodies. “Saturday” is an escapist pop number so determinedly upbeat that it makes going out resemble a chore (“On Saturday, Saturday, Saturday, we paint the town”).
The band’s dedicated followers, known as the Skeleton Clique, will no doubt work hard at uncovering Clancy’s role in all this, whether dead or alive. But it’s an unengaging puzzle for the rest of us. The forces of darkness rally in the last two songs, when Joseph permits himself to rap rather than just sing (there is less rapping here than the previous albums). “I don’t want to live like this,” he announces in the final number, “Redecorate”, contradicting the earlier tone of brightness. The result suggests indecision, not an enigmatic layer of mystery.
★★☆☆☆
‘Scaled and Icy’ is released by Fueled by Ramen
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