new twenty one pilots (Clancy) - first impressions / thoughts

this is probably gonna be super disorganized plz stick with it 

the album is SO GOOD?!?! the singles did not do it justice in my opinion. i liked overcompensate when it came out and every single after got less and less exciting. all of the songs are good in their own right, i just don't see songs like backslide as good single choices because they're lower points on the album. 

the tracklist is so well done! all of the songs flow together nicely and nothing feels out of place. midwest indigo - routines in the night - vingette is such a strong trio. 

when i heard the lore would be the most straightforward it's ever been on this album i was excited to finally understand what the flippin heck is going on, but honestly i couldn't tell you even vaguely the story of this album having listened through it a handful of times. i'll have to do more digging (reading genius lyrics annotations) to figure out what the album is even about. it's clearly a continuation of the story presented in trench and SAI but i can't for the life of me figure out what happens. the only songs that even reference lore (like trench as a setting and Nico) are overcompensate and paladin strait. 

trench felt much more lore-centered with entire songs dedicated to introducing and explaining concepts like vialism, the banditos, Nico and the bishops, Dema, and more. you can't avoid the story in trench, but if i didn't know that Clancy is a concept record i would have little clue. the references to lore are either so vague i can't detect them, or somehow contradict what the little "trailer" the band posted online to announce the album said. does Clancy meet Nico at the end of paladin strait?? i thought he was escaping?? was he unsuccessful??  was he lying?? and what do the other 12 songs have to do with it??

the music videos were pretty good (considering EVERY song has one). the only videos that seemed lore relevant were overcompensate and navigating. we get introduced to some newer concepts in overcompensate like the whole possession (not sure what to call it?) thing but then it's never mentioned again!!! the banditos are present in the overcompensate video listening to clancy (or not clancy, since they pull off his mask at the end and it's not him physically present) give a speech for like 90% of the video. they return in navigating, reconnecting with Clancy and basically taking him back in? (again i understand very little of the story). i'm sure more of this will make sense when the paladin strait music video comes out. or at least i hope so. 

i could loosely try and connect every song to the story, but what even is the story? like lavish could be about how certain people live in Dema, but it is probably also about the music industry. and vingette/navigating could be about Clancy's attempt to escape from Dema, but they could also be applied to broader life. there's little room for any broader interpretation on trench, like you can't make Nico and the niners or bandito about anything other than the story. 

these are just my first impressions/thoughts about the album, i know i sound critical but i really did (and still do lol) enjoy it! routines in the night and snap back are probably my favorite tracks atm.