twenty one pilots - Level Of Concern

A few weeks (months?) ago twenty one pilots released a song that had been written while in quarantine, and for me it is quickly becoming the anthem of these times.

Anyone who knows me knows I am a fan of twenty one pilots’ music and have been for a while now, so when they surprised us with a new song Level Of Concern, I was excited to say the least. This song is so catchy; it will get stuck in your head for days. I love how the song still sounds like a twenty one pilots song but with the added element of DIY. Tyler Joseph does record a lot of music in his ‘bunker’ so it’s not like they haven’t done this before, but I think the quick turnaround of the song and the music video that accompanies it was something new to the band, who are used to periods of silence between albums and drawn out conceptual releases.

Lyrically the song discusses the anxieties of being in quarantine which is something that has been on all of our minds over the last few months. I think the way Joseph describes being in quarantine is in a way we can all relate to which is arguably one of the reasons it is becoming my isolation anthem.

This song is the first time twenty one pilots have used a guitar in the recording. It’s fun to see the experimentation here and the band still trying new things in 2020, especially as a band who have been known not to have a guitar player. The guitar is not overbearing in the track at all and I think that was a good decision as I think perhaps it would’ve taken away from the groove of the song which is one of my favourite parts musically. I also love the build-up of the song in the chorus from the piano to the bass to the guitar and how it creates depth in the overall feel of the song.

Something that stood out to me a lot in the song is the vocal. It’s very clean and arguably the best Joseph has sounded on a song. This makes me very excited to hear the future of twenty one pilots.

In this last week the band performed ‘live’ on The Tonight Show and did a new version of the song, which I also recommend listening to as they performed with some other guests and the addition of some of the other backing vocals, synths and trumpet really add to the song in a great way and I love both versions of the song.

That’s it for today, I just wanted to write something quickly and that song has not left my head for the last few days so here I am. I have some very exciting posts coming up soon that I am excited to share with you and hopefully they will help take this blog in a different direction too.

Thanks for reading.

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