Twenty One Pilots - Breach
In 2024, my top artist of the entire year was none other than alternative duo Twenty One Pilots. This was a big deal for two reasons. The first one being the fact that my artist lineup had only ever been classic rock artists beforehand and the second one being that I hadn’t even listened to the group since 2018 when they put out their 4th studio album titled Trench. This was due to the album they dropped in 2024, Clancy, which I think is one of their best records from all levels: writing, instrumentation, production, etc. The duo composed of Joshua Dun (drums) and Tyler Joseph (vox, multiinstrumentalist) were pioneers of the 2010s alt sound alongside acts such as Panic! At the Disco and Fall Out Boy but they didn’t actually reach arena or mainstream status until 2016 with their album Blurryface. The duo has only seemed to keep growing and fine tuning their work since then even if it takes more time than other artists.
Because the band has a reputation of releasing an album every 2-3 years, I didn’t expect another peep of new music until at least 2026 or later but Dun and Joseph are anything but palpable and on September 12th, a year and 4 months after Clancy, the duo dropped Breach - the final album that follows the fictional storyline of Dema, Clancy, and Torchbearer the band has been telling for a decade. Out of the album’s 13 songs, I selected 3 to fixate on because of their stand-out nature, their well-rounded representation of the album at large, and their sheer power. Those songs are Drum Show (track 3), Center Mass (track 8), Cottonwood (track 9), and Days Lie Dormant (track 11).
Drum Show, in contrary to most of the other songs off of Breach, does not follow the fictional storyline they’ve been building. Written by Joseph about Dun, the song is angsty with heavy bass and it talks of Dun’s experience as a teenager living with unsupportive and restrictive parents who weren’t very approving of his desires to be a drummer or a musician at that. The lines “completed checklist for today, now they have to let you out of your cage” and “feeling stuck between a rock and a home, two places you do not want to go” highlight the tumultuous feelings of living in a toxic household. Furthermore, the song notes how Dun was able to cope with his situation which mostly involved driving along to the music he wasn’t allowed to listen to at home. This is indicated in the lines “he drives fast just to feel it, feel it. He drives slow if his song’s not over. Drown it out, drown it out” and “He’d rather feel something than nothing at all so he swerves all around as his head starts to fall”. A hidden gem is Dun’s featured vocals, too, which has never been an addition to any studio recorded numbers by the band up until this point.
Center Mass opens up with a grainier sound accompanied by an old-timey esque piano which contrasts the rap approach at vocals that Joseph takes. The song revolves around themes of vulnerability, grief, and the want (or need) to disappear and turn small in times of emotional pain. A center mass is the area on someone’s chest that is typically an area of target when it comes to inflicting pain, specifically with a firearm, and it is symbolic for that aforementioned emotional distress. “I pull on my shirtsleeve to cover half of my face. Bring my arms closer to my body, get as small as they say. They call it center mass, that part they aim for. Shrink it down to nothing and forgetting what the pain’s for” is a leading line within the song that drives the meaning home. Additionally, for any die-hard fan, there is a clip that can be heard in the beginning that’s taken from fan footage of someone known as “the drum thief”. For context, this individual was an attendee at the band’s Manchester show in May of this year and they were seen taking one of Dun’s special drums used in their performance of “Trees” and walking off with it. This led to fandom-wide hysteria and new security measures (such as chaining the drums down) to be put in place.
Cottonwood is a slower, sadder piece from Breach but its impact is divine. For anyone who’s grieved someone who may not have treated them very well, you’ll want to get the tissues out because it nails such an odd sensation perfectly. It’s an extremely specific type of grief in comparison to losing a true loved one who was kind and uplifting during their lifetime and Joseph approaches it with graceful melancholy. He does a fantastic job at depicting the sorrow itself but also the contemplation, guilt, semi-forgiveness, and unresolved feelings. “Can’t believe you’re gone for good. Someone chopped you down” opens up the song, capturing the initial shock a death brings then the second verse builds into a stage of pensive questioning. “Most are blown down in a storm but the wind was tame. You weren’t waiting anymore. Were you sad or brave? No I don’t, I don’t condemn you.” Finally, one of the closing stanzas wraps things up with that aforementioned detail of feelings and thoughts that have yet to be settled with a fiery, repeated exclamation of “you tore me up more than you know”.
Days Lie Dormant was my favorite off of the entire record and that’s due to its hyper nature, its core meaning, and its oddly heartwarming lyricism. In a nutshell, the song illustrates the dullness of life when one is lonely or away from loved ones. The words sung by Joseph are powerful and a great reminder for anyone struggling with such a thing. “My days lie dormant cause I just can’t afford it to waste time in a city where no one knows your name…My days lie dormant cause I just can’t afford it to waste my time inside a place you’re not. Don’t make me waste my love, it’s everything I’ve got.”
Breach is the confusing, ADHD riddled younger brother of 2024’s Clancy. I wouldn’t go as far to say it’s better than any of the previous albums detailing the narrative between Clancy, Dema, and Torchbearer but it is certainly an impressive record on its own - especially for any fans of hyper pop, rap, alternative rock, and music that sounds like it’s from the future.
After the release of Breach, Twenty One Pilots has a plethora of live shows planned for cities like Hershey, Virginia Beach, Birmingham, Dallas, and Los Angeles for their Breach 2025 tour with opening act Dayglow. After tour, it seems that the duo is finally going to take some meaningful rest time to focus on themselves and their families (or starting a family for Josh Dun - congratulations!) according to this Instagram post from Tyler Joseph last month.
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Click here for a full, fan-made rundown on the story regarding Clancy, Dema, etc.