Music Review: Twenty One Pilots' concept album 'Clancy' is an energizing end of an era
The end of an era has come for Twenty One Pilots, and what an ending it is.
The alternative pop-rock duo, made up of vocalist Tyler Joseph and drummer Josh Dun, have long been candid about anxiety and depression, themes often represented in Joseph's lyrics as he sings, raps and occasionally screams while Dun drums at an incredible pace.
Those topics have existed since the beginning of their career, but reached new creative heights on 2015's “Blurryface,” when the duo introduced a new concept album series that would carry them to 2018's “Trench,” 2021's “Scaled and Icy,” to its ambitious conclusion: 2024's “Clancy.”
For those of you who haven't been following the narrative with each release, here's a summary: In the cement-walled city of Dema on the lush continent of Trench, Nico, an embodiment of insecurity also known as Blurryface, controls the confined citizens with a group of mystical leaders called the Nine Bishops. Joseph is a citizen who gets out, is tracked down, escapes again, joins a rebellion, is recaptured and escapes again.
Leading up to “Clancy,” Joseph gains the same mystical power as the Bishops and prepares to return to Trench to free the other citizens.
It's a lot of pressure to put on a finale album that wraps up an almost decade-long arc, but “Clancy” more than delivers. Full of vim and vigor and crammed with nostalgic callbacks to past albums, it's a triumphant end of an era.
It begins with “Overcompensate,” an electrifying jumpstart to the album. “If you can’t see, I am Clancy/Prodigal son, done running, come up with Josh Dun/Wanted dead or alive,” Joseph raps in his familiar syncopated cadence.
The following tracks — “Next Semester” and “Routines...