I don't usually review albums, since I don't really think I am informed enough to talk about music. But when you've played a single album on repeat for over two months, you feel the need to stuff earphones in people's ears and force them to listen to it because it's just that great. Such is the case with   BLURRYFΛCE , and since it's a bit rude and unsanitary to stuff my earphones in people's ears, and since I'm not particularly social, I can't come up with a better way to recommend it to you than to write about it.

Everyone had been telling me how absolutely splendid the album was and how I simply had to listen to it, and how fantastic the band was, but I spent a good several weeks refusing to pay any attention to either the band or the album, because I found the band a bit too weird and because I wasn't in the mood for the album. In case you've never heard of twenty | one | pilots, have you been living under a rock? This awesome guy from Ohio, Tyler Joseph, together with a couple of friends who eventually left, formed a band back in 2009 and put out two self-released albums before the band was (finally, thank the gods) noticed by Fueled by Ramen in 2012. Its other current member, Josh Dun, joined Tyler in mid-2011. Their older stuff is pretty impressive, songs such as Guns for Hands and Semiautomatic have been stuck in my head for a while and you should totally check their first albums as well. In other words, these guys are gems and deserve more attention, now go and listen to them on YouTube while I proceed to tell you all about Blurryface.

Perhaps I should've begun by telling you the genre, but that would have been pretty hard since the one thing that strikes you when you hear Blurryface for the first time is that the album has no single unifying genre. Each song sounds different, and is pretty different than the rest, and there is never a chance that you'll mix songs up as they're all so unique and surprisingly dissimilar. It combines various genres, such as indie pop, electropop, alternative hip hop, pop, rock, reggae. I know it sounds confusing and a bit what-the-hell-ish but it sure is something else, and somehow the songs manage to flow into each other smoothly, even naturally. It's a pretty upbeat album, one that makes you want to dancedancedance while screaming the lyrics at the top of your lungs (which gets rather easy to accomplish once you've played it like a million times), but if you listen to it more carefully, you kind of want to curl into a ball under the shower and bawl your eyes out, and that's the sort of music you want to listen to, I promise.

I was wondering how I should go about introducing the songs, and decided to go down the track list and talk a bit about each piece individually, but maybe a general into is also necessary. The album is titled Blurryface, after an original character from one of the songs, and I suppose everyone perceives it in a separate way, but at least to me it was about the hardships of a person I can deeply identify with, about life and love and other everyday troubles, and mainly about one's insecurities. The whole album is personal and reminiscent of a confession but is also universal, and that's one of the things I love most about it: it seems to me that everyone can find a part of themselves in the lyrics, something to relate to, and that's what good poetry is about. I say poetry simply because the lyrics - powerful, intense words that touch upon many nerves and soft spots - are nothing else but poetry, and poetry so good that it makes me feel a bit ashamed and bad about myself.

01 - heavydirtysoul

The album opens up with quite a catchy, genre-bending song, which at first put me off (I'm not sure rap is my cup of tea) but which, at present, is one of the songs I like most. I like this one in particular because of the chorus (it really hits home, and is perhaps the catchiest in the whole album) but also because the verses are directly taken from Tyler's Street Poems, which is why it contains some of the greatest lines in the whole album.

02 - Stressed Out

If I had to rate the songs in the album, this one would probably rate second. I know the lyrics by heart, and I think it was the first song I fell in love with. This is also the one that gives the album its title. I don't think I can say much more about it, so I'll just let the lyrics speak.

'I was told when I get older all my fears would shrink/ but now I'm insecure and I care what people think' 

'But it would remind us of when nothing really mattered/ Out of students loans and tree house homes we all would take the latter' 

'Used to dream of outer space but now they're laughing at our face,/ saying "wake up, you need to make money" '

03 - Ride

This is one of the most cheerful, and therefore most contradictory, songs on the whole album. I get pretty energetic when vacuuming and singing along to this one, but once I let the lyrics sink it, I think it's perhaps the most philosophical and most depressing ones.

'Like who would you live for? Who would you die for?/ Would you ever kill?'

04 - Fairly Local 

Fairly Local is quite important to me (so much so that it's part of one of my prospective tattoo designs) and I think a lot of people from my background can relate to it. It's rather different from the other songs in the album, quite futuristic and alienable, but I love it a lot for the electro sound. As always, it's the lyrics that make it so special. A self-study, a judgement of one's self, an estimation of who a person is: that's how I'd define it, though I'm not sure this is what Tyler meant.

'The world around us is burning but we're so cold/ It's the few, the proud, the emotional'

05 - Tear in my Heart 

In my personal list, Tear in my Heart wins a deserved third place. In its essence, it's a love song, and quite catchy, and it makes me ache for someone to sing it to. Really emotional, and quite catchy as well. I find myself humming it every so often, and I swear, it's lovely.

06 - Lane Boy

For whatever reason, Lane Boy became my ultimate favorite and I can even rap the first part really fast (I'm still working on the second part). It clings on to your heart, rips it out and eats it raw. This one is mainly about adults telling us what to do and who to be, and about us, young people, finding ourselves and standing our ground, and being whoever and whatever we want to be.

07 - The Judge

Honestly, this one is weird. It's this really upbeat, ukulele song, that seems like the least serious, least important song on the album, but as its title suggests, it's not quite so simple. This is perhaps the most philosophical one, and it delves into religion and personal beliefs, and other topics which blend surprisingly well with the song's cheerful tone. On top of that, it's rather catchy, so you often find yourself singing happily,

'I'm a pro at imperfections/ and I'm best friends with my doubt'

08 - Doubt

Doubt reminds me a lot of a cheesy pop song I might hear on the radio, and on the surface, it's precisely just that. It has the sound, it has the beat, it has the rhythm to be the next summer hit -- But there's again the thing with the lyrics being just a bit too deep for the public.

'Scared of my own image
Scared of my own immaturity
Scared of my own ceiling
Scared I'll die of uncertainty
Fear might be the death of me
Fear leads to anxiety'

09 - Polarize 

Polarize is, without a doubt, one of the catchiest songs ever written, and one of the best to sing along - and dance - to. Moreover (what a surprise!) it hits you right in the feels if you decide to pay attention to what you're screaming at the top of your lungs.

10 - We Don't Believe What's on TV

The other romantic song on this album, We Don't Believe What's on TV is one of those songs you're just dying to sing to your partner when you're both feeling particularly cheesy. On the other hand, it's a bit down, and just a ta-a-d depressing at times. Still, it's one of the best songs on the album, it sounds pretty upbeat.

'We don't believe what's on TV/ because it's what we want to see/ and what we want we know we can't believe/ We have all learnt to kill our dreams'

'I need to know that when I fail you'll still be here/ cos if you stick around I'll sing you pretty sounds'

'I used to say I wanna die before I'm old/ But because of you I might thing twice'

11 - Message Man  

I used to skip this one a lot, mostly because the meaning is pretty evasive and I still can't exactly pin it down. I love the rap part, though, and I am almost done memorizing it. Personally, I believe it's one of the weaker songs on the album, yet it's still pretty great.


12 - Hometown

I relate to Hometown a lot, I might even say it hits home. It's a very nostalgic song, rather melancholic and distinctively slower than the rest. It sounds a lot like Fall Out Boy's stuff, which makes me like it even more.

13 - Not Today

'This one's a contradiction because of how happy it sounds/ But the lyrics are so down' 

 14 - Goner

Goner is the ballad of the album, a sad, quiet song, more suitable for crying than for dancing. All you need to know about it is that it hurts like hell, and it will probably make you cry.


To sum up, these 52:23 minutes are a religious experience. If you need to feel a lot, and listen to some meaningful, inspiring poetry, combined with innovative, creative music, you just HAVE TO listen to   BLURRYFΛCE .