Twenty One Pilots’ Last Dance

When I was fourteen, I believed Twenty One Pilots to be eternal–something that would always be there regardless of how much time continued to pass. I learned that the interests you obtain at that age stay with you forever, no matter how far you go or how much you think you’ve forgotten.

A lot of artists' momentum was killed with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic; maybe some of you are even thinking, wait, Twenty One Pilots still exist?

They do, and they’ve been telling a story to the few, the proud, and the emotional for over ten years now. A story that began with the release of Blurryface in 2015, continuing through Trench (2018), Scaled And Icy (2021), Clancy (2024), and finally, coming to its conclusion with Breach this year. 

Every album is an evolution from the last, a new sound experiment, and further exploration into the world Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun created. 

With Clancy’s announcement in early 2024, my interest in Twenty One Pilots was reignited. All it had taken was the initial twenty seconds of Clancy’s first single, "Overcompensate,” for me to be thrown back into the mind of my fourteen-year-old self, a perfect nine years after Blurryface.

I remember vividly how many people said after their first listen that Clancy felt like it needed to be a deluxe album, that it felt unfinished. Another near-perfect year later, Twenty One Pilots announced their eighth studio album, Breach.

Leading up to the release, Tyler made a post on Instagram with a few messages for the fans.

Not only was a new album coming, but it felt like the end. 

This gave the upcoming release extra weight, carrying dread and excitement hand in hand. Preceded by singles like “The Contract” and “Drum Show,” Breach finally became ours on September 12th alongside a lengthy music video for “City Walls.”

Breach is an homage to the band’s entire career, full of callbacks to old songs and live show traditions.

It is a nod to their former selves, and a nod to fans' former selves too (even the cover is evocative of Blurryface). Twenty One Pilots have an enormous, highly dedicated fanbase – most of whom have been here for years – which is why I believe the band’s career has headed in this direction: a fan-focused one, with complex lore and history that really only makes sense to those who take the time to understand it.

Twenty One Pilots have never cared about having a lot of fans; they have always cared about having some fans that are just as dedicated to the band as they are. 

The album opens with “City Walls,” reminiscent of opening tracks like Trench’s “Jumpsuit” with thick bass and heavy drums and an outro identical to Blurryface’s “Heavydirtysoul.” The bridge even slows in tempo like “Jumpsuit,” a gentle pause before returning to that electric build-up that explodes in a scream. 

There are lyrics in this one calling back to “Migraine” and "Holding On To You” on Vessel, some of their most popular live songs, especially among older fans. 

As one of the older fans myself, my first listen of Breach was emotional and charged: I was both fourteen and twenty two at once. Tyler Joseph was in my ear, but this time, instead of being an angsty adolescent, he’s “a little softer than he used to be,” a husband and a father of three. I could hear the years that had passed in his voice, and then I felt those same years rest on my shoulders. 

The second track, “RAWFEAR,” represents those years past and wisdom gained really well, with lyrics like, “life is just forever, never slowing down,” and “learning all that really matters is a slow and painful lesson,” backed by the altered screams of Tyler’s two daughters. 

Tyler’s growth is not the only growth represented in this album, however – and if you’d told me eight years ago that I’d be hearing real-life recorded Josh Dun vocals on a real-life released Twenty One Pilots song, I’d say you are out of your mind.

But that’s what the album’s third track is all about: “Drum Show” is Josh’s gospel, evolving from someone too afraid to perform facing the crowd to a Grammy award-winning drummer who regularly performs in front of thousands – and now singing to them, too.

The drums are incredible and powerful in any Twenty One Pilots song, but Josh really gets center stage on “Drum Show.” The thing about percussion instruments is they force you to feel them (there’s a joke in here somehow about how drummers control the entire show, from genre to tempo) and I feel as though the song is mixed so that the drums are equal with Tyler’s voice, harmonizing like the instruments are an extension of Josh Dun himself.

Maybe the most impactful part of the song (aside from Josh Dun singing) is how drastically Tyler’s vocals shift after Josh’s bridge. Before, his voice is controlled and maintained; afterward, he becomes completely unhinged, both of them equally vulnerable and heightening the intensity of the song.

“The Contract” is another highly charged song on the album; the only single proceeding “Drum Show,” an intentional choice to set the tone for the upcoming era. 

But to me, “Downstairs” is easily one of the strongest tracks on the album, unhurried at a runtime of five minutes and twenty-six seconds. It is the one track that sounds most like it came from a different album entirely, and that’s because it is actually a reconceptualized demo from 2011.

“Downstairs” was born during the development of Twenty One Pilots’s one and only independently released album, Regional at Best. 

Regional at Best is hugely loved by the fanbase, our hidden gem, despite being removed from circulation when the band signed to Fueled By Ramen in 2012. Despite Tyler scrapping the demo, Josh kept returning to it over the years; he proposed its reconceptualization, creating an extremely emotionally effective track with twenty-three-year-old Tyler Joseph singing alongside his current self.

The loose ends of this story really come together in the final two tracks: “Tally” is about being appreciative of those who love you despite your ups and downs, while also having a hard time trusting that love. Twenty One Pilots has been painting an image of the cycle of one’s mental illness for over a decade: the personification of one’s inner demons and the constant fight to stay afloat. 

This band understands that you cannot always be at your best, and you will always come back from your worst. 

“Intentions” starts with the reversed instrumentals and vocalizations of the final track on Vessel, “Truce.” The track opens up with, "I am starting it all over once again,” a line violently familiar to those of us who know what it’s like to feel trapped in a cycle. 

The lyrics are kept short as the lesson is simple; it’s been the same lesson all this time: “The sun will rise and we will try again.”

No matter how many times you fall, it is always worth getting back up. Learning is part of living: “Intentions are everything / Intentions will set you free.”

I don’t necessarily want to say this is Twenty One Pilots’s best album, but… it really might be. Breach is both Blurryface’s counterpart and its opposition; it is the answer to a long-ago proposed question.

There is a return to the recklessness of Blurryface, this time with lessons learned and years of experience under the band’s belt. While Blurryface was a tightly fitted suit, something sharply disciplined and held together in a vise, Breach is stepping into one’s most comfortable outfit. 

There is freedom to move and breathe and a confidence in one’s own decisions; this is the evolution of Twenty One Pilots, the individual growth of Tyler Joseph alongside his best friend Josh Dun, and how their growth has impacted the lives and growth of thousands of others. 

I take it back, I do want to say it: Breach is Twenty One Pilots’s best album.

The duo’s final tour for the foreseeable future will begin September 18 in Cincinnati, OH. To all who will be attending: dance extra hard for me, too. 

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