Top 3 Albums I Reviewed in 2018

Let's start 2018 year end lists with the easiest one to put together, her are my three favourite albums that I covered on this blog during the year.


2018 has been my most successful year in terms of covering albums on this blog, covering over twenty in the year. I am aiming for at least fifty in 2019, that way I should be able to expand this list to ten rather than three. But the rules are simple: I must have reviewed it in 2018. Let's get on with the list.


3. MØ - Forever Neverland


This sophomore album by the 'Final Song' singer and songwriter was a force to reckoned with in 2018. The kind of album filled with the kind of youthful exuberance that I found infectious from the start and refused to let go. If there's one thing I learned about myself over the course of the year, it was that I love music that focusses on a longing for youth that is framed self-awarely, and there's so many underrated layers to this album that fill into that category that work for me on so many levels. From songs about the stupidity at the core of the glorification of depression ('Blur'), to more conversationally written songs filled with detail about teenage love ('Nostalgia').


The amount of tiny nuances that fill up this album is amazing, and it's all combined with some of the most intricate pop production that puts Chvrches's 'Love Is Dead' to shame. From outstanding pre choruses on songs like 'I Want You', the intriguingly disjoined vibe that 'If It's Over' and 'Imaginary Friend' offer, to the gorgeous vocal production on 'Blur' and 'Beautiful Wreck'. All of these are amazing moments and the album is a fascinating case study on teenage attitudes in today's world. In other words, one of the best albums I covered this year.


2. With Confidence - Love And Loathing


I had no idea I needed this album until I got it. I was hoping after 'Better Weather' that With Confidence would understand their strengths as a band and put together a heavier, more brutal pop rock album that took more risks instrumentally. Quite literally the last thing I would have wanted from them to do was put together a frailer, overall less abrasive and poppier album. I have no idea who suggested this would be an even remotely good idea, but, whoever they are, they are a total genius.


In no way should this album work, but the detailed authentic storytelling goes so far beyond what I could have possibly expected. Jayden Seely paints an emotional picture of the girl that meant everything to him leaving his life and the rush of conflicting emotions that comes with such a revelation. He spends the album confused. Emotional, but having no clear idea what to channel those emotions into. He blames himself for what happened on 'Better', before channelling those same emotions into raw hatred and disgust for the girl in question on 'Icarus'. But then the album pulls an 'Astoria'. The moment that Seely tries to commit to getting over her on 'The Turnaround', she comes back into his life, just as emotional, lost and confused as our protagonist. 'Spinning' is the turning point where an overjoyed Jayden Seely thinks his dreams have just come true (again).


But one song later on 'Bruise' you understand that the girl didn't come back in search of love, just somewhere to numb her own pain. Or, as Seely sings himself, 'pressing on a bruise just to feel something', leaving them both lonely once more as Seely regrets letting his emotion get the better of him.


All of this builds to an emotional climax on 'Dopamine', but then you get the stunning final song 'Tails'. The emotions have settled and Seely clearly knows that his emotions will linger, but after two failed relationships with one girl, instead of chasing his tail and trying desperately to make it work, he is focussed on setting his sights forward, and focussing on other challenges life will throw at him.


And that's all without discussing Mike Green's production on these twelve tracks, which is great. Green has this talent and production instinct, particularly around the bass, that is unparalleled by most working in his lane. What. An. Album.


1. Lori McKenna - The Tree


There was no other album this year. It might not have been the album I listened to most this year, and it's certainly not the easiest album to listen to, but Lori McKenna and Dave Cobb put together yet another masterpiece with the follow up to their collaboration 'The Bird And The Rifle', 'The Tree'. Not only is the production as rich and organic as ever courtesy of Dave Cobb, but McKenna is on another level in terms of her writing.


'The Fixer' is the first real sign that McKenna has lost none of her natural talent as she paints a picture of a title character who seems to have all the means to fix whatever you throw at him, but he can't fix his broken relationship, and has no cure for the heartbreak. But that does not prepare you for the quite incredible album centrepiece 'You Won't Even Know I'm Gone'. The song tells the story of a breakup where the girl is trying to make it go down as easy as possible for a nameless guy as she moves out, emphasising all the mundane details as she prepares to leave the house for the last time.


And, just like MØ, McKenna reflects on her teenage years on 'The Lot Behind St. Mary's' to amazing results, before 'Like Patsy Would' ends the album on a tear inducing note. It's amazing how little there is to say about this album, and yet it's the best I have ever covered on this blog.


Let's hope 2019 can measure up. More year end lists on the way.

Review of: 'A Brief Enquiery Into Online Relationships' by The 1975

It's always hard going into an album like this one. An album by a band that have had plenty of positive reviews thrown their way, and yet has slightly slipped through for you personally and you've ended up not giving them all that much of your time. That's The 1975 for me. An act I've only ever found the time to enjoy in small doses. That doesn't mean to say that I wasn't listening when 'Chocolate' and 'The Sound' were generating a lot of hype in the UK. And while those are great songs, they did not give me the motivation to check out either their self titled debut, or their follow up 'I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It'.

But then 'Give Yourself A Try' happened. It did take an awful long time to grow on me, but once it clicked, Matthew Healy's message to a younger generation that admire his music to forget about what other people think of them and stop trying to change themselves in order to fit in with what could be considered the social norm, and simply try and accept themselves for who they are ended up having a surprising amount of weight. Combined with having a lot of small, intricate details in the writing, and being a well produced song in its own right, I was actually kind of looking forward to a new album from The 1975.

But then you get the album title: 'A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships'. I went from looking forward to this album, to being genuinely excited when I heard this is what they were going to be calling it. It almost sounds like it was made for me. A deconstruction of the online environment and how socially anxious teenagers can see it as an escape and an opportunity to bond with others outside of real life situations, and how venerable people (not just teenagers) can be prayed on by people looking to exploit them. See my review of MØ's 'Forever Neverland' to understand why that's a concept that is likely to appeal to me.


My only hope going into this album is that it wouldn't be brief as the title suggests that it will be. I was looking forward to a layered, well written deconstruction all framed to address the problems with the online teenage relationship. Did we get that with 'A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships'?


Yes and no. This is not the first time this has happened this year. The 1975 have delivered an album that I did not expect, and am not sure if I even wanted, and, just like With Confidence before them, still manage to deliver a detailed, thematically dense if not cohesive album. You see, however much The 1975 discuss issues of youth culture and teenagers in their lyrics, the thematic arc of this album is broader than I was personally hoping for: relationships as a whole. Whether that be the typical teenager-social media relationship on  'The Man Who Married a Robot / Love Theme' and in the subtext of 'Give Yourself A Try' and 'Sincerity Is Scary', or how young minds can struggle to make the right decisions in relationships like how frontman Matty Healy admits to cheating on his girlfriend on 'TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME' or a few songs later on 'Be My Mistake' when Healy tries to hook up with another girl as he struggles to acknowledge the fact that in order to find 'the one', he is going to make some mistakes, even if those mistakes weigh hard on the young mind.


The album does get more distinctly personal in its final third. 'It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)' tackles Healy's issues with heroine addiction before 'Surrounded By Heads And Bodies' where we get an underwritten, ambiguous look into the rehabilitation process.


But then you get the songs that more aimed at society as a whole like 'Love It If We Made It' where Healy lists everything he thinks is wrong with society, with the implication on the hook being that Healy would be impressed if humanity makes it through. 'I Like America & America Likes Me' falls into similar territory with a strong message as Healy voices his opinion on guns in America.


But then you get a song clearly directed at the band teenage audience: 'Give Yourself A Try'. The message being to trust yourself and who you are and what you stand for rather than some filtered version of yourself that you project onto social media. One line did stand out to me, though: 'Jane took her own life at sixteen / She was the kid who had the box tattooed on her arm'. What was in that box, no one will ever know.


But that moves us onto the production, and it might honestly be where this album lets me down a little bit. Don't get me wrong, the razer tight guitar that anchors the main melody on 'Give Yourself A Try' is awesome, but when the band use a similar tone on the sluggish 'Inside Your Mind', it doesn't fit anywhere near as well, no matter how many effects you throw on it. Or take 'I Couldn't Be More In Love', a song that could have worked if Healy wasn't pushed into a vocal range that really does not flatter his voice.


Then there's the instrumentally meandering songs 'How To Draw / Petrichor' and 'Inside Your Mind'. I would throw 'The Man Who Married A Robot / Love Theme' into that category, if the narrative itself didn't ring as true as it ended up doing for me.


I certainly don't love every song on this album, probably pushing it just short of greatness for me, but when the production clicks, this album is a force to be reckoned with. The slick watery groove on 'TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME', the intimate vocal pickup emphasising the vulnerability on 'Be My Mistake', and the stunningly well balanced lush pop hook on 'It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)' are all highlights here.


And I'd be doing a disservice if I didn't mention the closing track 'I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)' for it's comments on meme culture connected with the idea of death, and even if I'm not a fan of the blaring hook, the production on the first verse is breath-taking with it's minimalist melody partnered with Healy's almost hopeless vocal delivery. Moments like this are more than enough to redeem the stiff, lumbering tracks like 'Love It If We Made It' and 'Sincerity Is Scary'.


In conclusion, it's almost ironic that inconsistences across the board muted this album's impact for me. If the album was more brief (as the title of the album suggests) we could have got a more consistent and therefore more impactful project overall, but, as it is, I still enjoyed this album quite a bit, even for its floors.


3.5 / 5


Best Songs: 'It's Not Living (If It's Not With You)', 'Be My Mistake' 'TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME', 'Give Yourself A Try'


Worst Songs: 'Inside Your Mind', 'How To Draw / Petrichor'

Review of: 'Runaway' by Passenger

It's been too long since we've talked about Passenger. I'm very aware that I'm (very) late to the party on this one, it came out in August after all, but I did want to discuss it at some point. Going back to my review of Passenger's seventh studio album 'Young As The Morning, Old As The Sea', I can easily see that it's not a great review. After all, I didn't really criticise, and yet ended up rating the album abnormally high. The album is only decent at best, with the brighter, more reflective moments being the most revealing and the most interesting. A very light 3 / 5 at best, if that, certainly not the 4 / 5 I gave it at the time. I was planning on covering his follow up album 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf' when it was released a year later, but on account of it not being interesting whatsoever, I decided to pass on that one.

But, a few listens through 'Runaway' convinced me that it was going to be worth covering, mainly because, for the most part, it's a return to form for Passenger. After two releases that have lacked a lot of meat or anything worth caring about, the introduction of a brighter instrumental pallet, more developed mature song writing, and a performer capable of selling all of it with considerable ease makes for an album that's pretty damn good. And the interesting thing is if you popified the production and writing a bit and gave the album to someone like George Ezra, whose career is built on these kind of songs, some of these songs could be considerable hits.


So, how did we get here? The change in production style is a huge part of all of this. 'Young As The Morning, Old Of The Sea' had the unfortunate tendency to default to much drier, uninteresting tones, or unspectacular arrangements. And while 'Why Can't I Change' could easily fit into this category, more often than we get brighter instrumentals that are just a lot more interesting. 'Ghost Town' and 'To Be Free' might be exceptions to this rule, but both of those songs work in their own subtle way. 'Eagle Bear Buffalo', 'Runaway' and especially 'Let's Go' have a enough unique texture that they work just fine as catchy songs. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have 'Ghost Town' with the more brittle, frail approach in the production that I like a fair bit, and Passenger underplaying in his vocals has always been great, he sounds really good on this album.


Speaking of underplaying, the track 'To Be Free' is the slow piano ballad on this album, and it sounds amazing, and the intense storytelling you get in the lyrics has always been one of Passenger's strengths. But how does the song writing hold up across the rest of the album? It's a bit of a mixed bag. Take 'Why Can't I Change' as a good example of why I don't think the writing entirely works, or is at the very least inconsistent. On the song, Passenger is clearly looking for some form of sympathy for finding it hard to change (and potentially adapt to a changing musical climate that is leaving him behind), but why is it a bad thing that he's not changed? It just seems like a really odd reason why someone would want sympathy.


'He Leaves You Cold' is another example. The way that Passenger is trying to make choices for this girl in who she wants to be with strikes me as a bit presumptive and unkind, even if he tries to use the girl's actions around the other guy to justify his case.


Then you get songs like the non descript, but certainly decent to good songs like 'Let's Go',  'Eagle Bear Buffalo' and 'Runaway' which are all Passenger in a very comfortable lane. But they are nothing in comparison to the best songs here: 'Hell Or High Water' and 'To Be Free'. The latter is Passenger reflecting on the chaos of a breakup and wondering whether it was simply fate taking its course, or if they could have somehow prevented it and spared themselves the pain. 'To Be Free' meanwhile is about Passenger's farther, originally from Vineland, New Jersey, and his journey that ends with him meeting his mother in nineteen-eighty-one. A touching story that grows all the more personal when the perspective is shifted in the song's dying moments and Passenger begins singing about himself instead of his farther. A great moment.


This and the closing track 'Survivors' are great moments of well framed reflection, with the closing track showing Passenger seeing everyone around him in a constant state of panic, and wondering if there is anyone else who is content with life, like he is.


But overall, I don't think Passenger will ever top 'Wicked Man's Rest' or 'All The Little Lights', but this is most certainly a return to form and I can certainly respect that. More of this please Mike. We need more song writers like you.


3.5 / 5


Best Songs: 'Hell Or High Water', 'To Be Free', 'Survivors', 'Eagle, Bear Buffalo'


Worst Songs: 'Why Can't I Change', 'He Leaves You Cold'

Review of: 'Forever Neverland' by MØ

I was looking forward to this one a fair bit. In fact, ever since she had her hit 'Final Song' I was looking forward to a new album from MØ. The only thing that I was disappointed going in to this this album was the fact that 'Final Song' was not on it. Bit of a shame, but the single was quite old, and potentially represented MØ's desire to recreate her image into something that may not be as accessible, but might be more refined and experimental. So, what did we get on 'Forever Neverland'

We got a killer slice of electrifying synthpop. In short, MØ's 'Forever Neverland' is a razor sharp, yet endlessly melodic pop album that may be occasionally thematically muddled and all over the place, but kind of works regardless. After all, 'Forever Neverland' is an album about, precisely that: youth, so it kind of makes sense that it would not be as thematically refined as say, With Confidence's 'Love And Loathing' that I covered in August, an album rooted in truth and honest feelings. 'Forever Neverland' however is anchored in youthful exuberance and a reflection on better times. It is easy to see as a bit cliché on the surface, but the personal details that MØ provides over the course of the album, particularly on songs like 'Nostalgia' allow this album to land with considerably more punch than might initially meet the eye.

And to begin exploring more precisely why this is, we need to talk about MØ's vocals across the album. It may be easy to place her among the ever growing list of female pop stars looking to imitate Lorde's vocal style, but, even if you do place her on that list, which I personally think might be a bit unfair, she is top tier. She has plenty of distinct presence that you could easily pick her out of a line-up of female pop stars courtesy of her more restraint delivery. She also tends to have more interesting vocal production than a lot of other pop stars like the murky multitracked vocals on 'Blur' and 'Beautiful Wreck' that took a lot of time to fully grow on me, but these are great moments on the album.

Something else that sounds great on this album is the meticulous and superbly handled production. The hook on 'Way Down' has a tonne of subtle momentum, as well as being one of the more accessible hooks on the album with how damn catchy that main groove is. That subtle intensity might as well be this album's trademark quality. It comes up again with the build up into the rickety synth drop on 'I Want You' that sounds so good against MØ at her most expressive vocally. The acoustic guitar on 'Blur' does sound a bit out of place against that vocal production, and the honking synth tone used on the drop does lack dimension and does not sound to far removed from something Marshmallow or The Chainsmokers might use, but it still sounds fine.

And that word 'fine' essentially describes the production on this album at it's worse. 'If It's Over' is the most blatant example with easily the most grading synth tone on the entire album. Furthermore, the vocal production that Charlie XCX gets on the bridge is also grading, and clashes with not only the production on that song, but all throughout the album.


But, for every moment I don't like as much on this album, there are so many that amazes me. Diplo's production on 'Sun In Our Eyes' is nothing short of stunning. His chill, layback style is a perfect match MØ's performance and writing on that track: undoubtedly one of the best songs here, and one of the best pop songs of the year.


But now we need to get onto talking about the song writing, where MØ and her team of collaborators crafted a layered, thematically detailed, project with huge amounts of unique personality. And, make no mistake, this is easily enough to elevate this album into greatness, and to see the album have so little commercial success despite it having such a wide appeal is so frustrating. This album may be upbeat and happy a lot of the time like on 'I Want You', but it's also reflective on a youth well spent. I love how conversational a song like 'Nostalgia' feels with MØ painting a straightforward picture of the first time she was in love and packing it with the kind of unique, precise, personal detail that I love. 'I Want You' might play in much simpler territory in terms of exploring a first love, but the way the lyrics imply MØ's determination to just charge forward with her passion for this guy is an amazingly teenage sentiment that fits into the album superbly.


But there are also break up songs amongst the track list. 'Mercy' is the first big one, with MØ acknowledging she could have done better in the relationship, but is begging with her boyfriend to keep her. Is it melodramatic? Yes. But in a way similar to that of another pop album: Lorde's 'Melodrama'. This album worked by delving head first into the chaos and melodrama and using that to represent elements of the teenage mind. The same thing is going on here. The line 'I thought no matter what I did you'd stay with me' stands out particularly as it highlights how the teenage mind has a tendency to over fantasise and not often acknowledge that their actions may have consequences. MØ's failure to understand that the worst could happen and this guy could in fact leave her whenever he chooses, regardless of whether she likes it or not, has a lot of impact, being a teenager myself.


'If It's Over' is another one that fits into this category, but this time MØ and Charlie XCX seems a lot more understanding of their partner's decision. They just want to get over the guy in question and not bury themselves in the sadness of the situation. But the more vulnerable tracks on the album like the interlude 'West Hollywood' reveals someone who just want to get away from the chaos of life. This might be the most relatable sentiment on the entire album.


It's further expanded on songs like 'Red Wine', a song about alcohol with the subtext established all across the album hinting at how alcohol can be seen as a whole new world of exploration by the teenage mind, but, as you grow older, you begin to lose that, and alcohol becomes just another thing. The specific details like this one that are littered throughout the album are amazing.


'Imaginary Friend' is a tad broader in its exploration of the teenage imagination, but given what MØ goes through on this album, it's no surprise she feels the desire to retreat back into her imagination for a moment. But the teenage melodrama takes a gorgeous turn on the next track. School is an environment where students are under pressure to perform. This combined with social anxiety, depression (a theme that was established earlier on the album on 'Blur') and anything else that could be making life difficult for teenagers can sometimes get too much. This is part of the reason why I think 'Trying To Be Good' is one of the best songs on this album. Taking the stress of life in general and seeing MØ throw it all behind her in a reckless attempt to escape it all in that glorious hook ('And I'm sick of, sick of trying / So sick of, sick of trying to be good') sounds amazing, I love the song.


But then you get the closing track 'Purple Like The Summer Rain'. Will MØ finally come to terms with the ultimate impossibility of eternal youth, or will she try to keep living like a teen forever? While it's never explicit what MØ's intentions are coming out of this album, but it is certainly clever in the way it ends. Near the end of the track, MØ breaks into a monologue (To be a child again / To not have to worry / About the responsibilities of adulthood) all about how she would value eternal youth before repeating the line 'So what is a girl to do?' at the end of the track. Again, it's melodramatic, but it knows it, and it owns it. The song then ends abruptly with a click, as if someone is turning a light off. A clever way of showing MØ come to the realisation that no, you can't go on living like the way she does all across this album. Undoubtedly the only way an album like this could end.


I needed this album. A glorious mess of teenage melodrama combined with tonnes of honest details, incredibly sharp pop production and wonderfully unique vocals. I can see this album doing it's job and connecting with the teenage audience it is looking for brilliantly. And that's the great thing: it can be layered, detailed, fascinating, and appeal to a target demographic without feeling pandering or overblown at any point. In other words, the kind of pop album Jess Glynne and her collaborators should be taking notes to. I was looking forward to a good pop album from MØ, but I was not ready for this level of thematic cohesion, detail and honesty. An amazing album that it pains me to see perform so badly commercially. I hope MØ gets another chance at mainstream crossover. Coming out of this album, she deserves it.


4 / 5


Best Songs: 'I Want You', 'Sun In Our Eyes', 'Nostalgia', 'Red Wine', 'Imaginary Friend', 'Trying To Be Good'


Worst Songs: 'If It's Over'

Review of: 'Always In Between' by Jess Glynne

I've said before in these reviews how female pop stars that appear to suddenly emerge out of nowhere and have ended up bursting into the mainstream in the past year or two have tended to have a varied shelf life. Anne Marie and Dua Lipa look like they're sticking around, but does anyone remember Raye or Mabel? They've both had huge hits, but have almost fallen off the face of the earth now. Why is this all relevant? Because Jess Glynne is one of the lucky few. 'Hold My Hand', 'Take Me Home', 'Rather Be', they were all huge hits, but thanks to smart marketing, it was clear that Glynne had never dropped out of the public consciousness when she was on a break in between albums.

Her comeback on the number one hit 'These Days' with Rudimental, Macklemore and Dan Caplen was an inspired way to make her triumphant return to pop music, and 'I'll Be There' and 'All I Am' were also pretty huge in the lead up to this album's release. It is quite weird to think that, if you wanted, you could make a perfectly reasonable argument that Jess Glynne is one of the most successful artists of the 2010s, and she's only two albums into her career.

And, based off the singles, I have some reasonable expectations going into 'Always In Between'. I hoped that it would provide a catchy, enjoyable, lightweight pop experience. On that basis, what did we get on 'Always In Between'?

We got a total mess. Never before have I ever heard a pop album be so instrumentally scattered, yet so bland and, on occasion, aggressively unlikable. If I give this album any credit at all it would be that it was a risky artistic direction for Glynne to go in, but it did not work whatsoever.

In order to explain why this album does not work, the best place to start is Jess Glynne herself. While certainly being a pleasant presence on most of these songs, when she's required to give a vocal delivery with a bit more attitude like 'Rollin'', I begin to realize that Dua Lipa could have knocked that out in her sleep, and done it a fair bit better. What I find more frustrating is when she's required to underplay like on 'Thursday', she does a fairly good job.

What I think is the bigger problem is the production on these songs. You'd think that for a pop star that relies on bright, glamorous, sweet, melodic production as much as Glynne does, her producers would not compromise a lot of the bouncy melodic grooves coming either from the synths or piano with such stiff percussion sitting at the front of the mix. I really wanted to like 'I'll Be There' for a great melodic hook, but by the second verse the percussion just dominates the mix.

Another issue is how lumbering and thin the songs can sound. '1 2 3' tries to fuse some thin pop production complete with skittering hi hats with horns desperately trying to give the song some anthemic presence that at no point properly materializes. 'Never Let Me Go' has a similar problem. It may open with a promising synth line before evolves into a thin acoustic guitar and a hook where the ugly atonal melody is hardly audible.

And that's not all. 'Hate / Love' is another lumbering, forgettable track, that could have done with some more vibrant instrumentation, and 'Rollin'' sounds like it's trying to be a kiss off track to a guy, but the production swamps out any melody on the hook before the overblown horns come in.

However hard I have been on this album, I will take the time to acknowledge that 'All I Am' and 'Thursday' are serviceable pop songs from a production perspective. 'No One', probably the best song on this album does have a lush, soaring hook that I liked a fair bit, even though it is a bit cliché with the whole 'they say your no one until your somebody to someone' gimmick.

And, on that note, lets move onto the song writing. In short, it's cliché in the extreme. I've already talked about 'No One', but 'All I Am' might be the least subtle in it's cliché  pandering. Glynne literally sings to her fans 'All I am is you'. It screams of desperation than anything else. 'Thursday' might be a much better song, but it is a bit weird how Glynne sings how she's great just the way she is, but only on one day of the week. 'Won't Say No' is the most aggressively badly written track on the album where Glynne is so intoxicated by her boyfriend, she will not say no to him. I could maybe enjoy the song if it wasn't being played so straight.

But overall, this album is a total mess, yet is bland and cliché in the worst possible way. I was a lot kinder to Anne-Marie's 'Speak Your Mind' than a lot of people, and I can see a lot of people comparing these two albums, but at least Anne-Marie had '2002', 'Can I Get Your Number', and a few other decent songs. I can't say that Jess Glynne has the same.

2 / 5

Best Songs: 'No One', 'Thursday', 'I'll Be There'

Worst Songs: 'Never Let Me Go', 'Won't Say No'

The Secrets of 'Trench' - Part I

On 25 October 2018, critically acclaimed musical duo twenty one pilots released their fifth full length studio album after a lot of cryptic teasing, ‘Trench’. The album was praised and seemed to be a new, more interesting instrumental direction for the group. The crunching choruses and sweet pop hooks had been replaced with murky, swampy pianos and synths, and lyrically, the album was abstract, ambiguous, and raised a lot of questions that fans were left to decode. During this essay, I’m going to throw my hat into the ring and give you my take in terms of decoding the narrative through line of ‘Trench’. 

An appropriate place to start would be the cryptic website the band put up full of images and, most notably, journal entries signed by the mysterious figure, Clancy. During the first part of this essay, I’m going to be critically analysing these journal entries. The first entry sets the stage perfectly. It establishes that when he was younger, Clancy was enticed by Dema (the dystopian city that represents mental illness across the album): ‘As a child, I looked upon Dema with wonder’. Genius. Children are, after all, largely oblivious to the idea of mental illness as a whole, so framing Clancy as not being at all suspicious when he first sets foot in Dema makes perfect logical sense. Clancy expands, noting that he had a ‘deep affection for Dema’ when he was younger. This reinforces my previous point, but you could easily see this young Clancy as a teenage Tyler Joseph who perhaps fell into the trap of thinking mental illness should be glorified. There is further evidence for this theory as the track ‘Neon Gravestones’ directly deals with this issue. Tyler sings: ‘In my opinion our culture can treat a loss like it’s a win / and right before we turn on them, we give them the highest of praise / and hang their banner from a ceiling / communicating, further engraving / an earlier grave is an optional way / no’. This song is framed as a message to society, but it could also be interpreted as Clancy desperately trying to talk some sense into a young Tyler who is still not entirely sure what mental illness is and what he is going through. 

Clancy also proceeds to talk about Keons (the bishop associated with the song ‘Heavydirtysoul’ from ‘Blurryface’) is a bishop that he is ‘proud to serve’. There are very limited connections you can make between this detail and the text of the album, but it is still fascinating to note. 

The second entry does not quite provide us with the same level of detailed insight as the first, but it is interesting to note that Clancy has never considered Dema a home, but merely a place where he exists. If that doesn't some up mental illness, I don’t know what will. Lacking a feeling of belonging and consequently feeling everything you do holds no value in the great scheme of things. That concept undoubtedly makes up an essential chunk of the thematic arc of the album. 

It is also interesting the way the entry ends: ‘This hope of discovery alone has birthed a new vision of myself; a better version, I hope, that I will find a way to experience what’s beyond these colossal walls’. It is things like this that has led many people to believe that Clancy is the opposite of Blurryface, the titular title character from the bands previous album that represents all of Tyler Joseph’s insecurities and the irrational side of his brain. Clancy is instead thought to represent the hopeful, rational side of Tyler’s mind. 

The third entry offers a slight expansion to the universe too. Clancy writes ‘But what I call a sentence, other accept as normalcy. How do they so efficiently eradicate the dream within us?’ This is an unsettling detail. It must only make Clancy feel even more alone knowing that those who live among him have accepted mental illness as a part of life and do not have the motivation to fight it off that Clancy has. Obviously, we find out later on the album that the Banditos exist, a group of people trying to help people escape Dema who Tyler even acknowledges on ‘My Blood’, and on ‘Leave The City’ he sings the climactic line ‘In trench I’m not alone’. So clearly there are motivated people in Dema with him. This of course assumes that Tyler and Clancy are the same thing, and the general consensus does seem to suggest they are different entities as I discussed earlier. Either way, it’s an odd, unsettling, borderline uncanny detail. 

Journal entry four is a bit of a contradictory mess. Clancy has been framed as this lonely figure who does not share his dream of leaving Dema with anyone. So why all of a sudden do we have the plural pronoun ‘we’ turning up and suggesting he’s not alone in his quest. Two possible explanations: either the ‘we’ is referring to both Tyler and Clancy, or, the more likely one, ‘we’ is referring to Clancy and the Banditos, but there’s no direct reference to them at any stage in the text of the journal entries up to this point, making this explanation sound both plausible and unlikely. You could make the argument that Clancy’s relationship with the Banditos is established in the trilogy of music videos released to accompany the journal entries, but we’ve already established that the general consensus is that Tyler (who we see in the music videos) and Clancy (who the journal entries are signed by) are different entities; there is no clear answer. You see why trying to come up with a timeline that pieces together all these events is so challenging. Twenty one pilots certainly don’t like making it easy for anyone. The rest of the entry details Clancy’s plan. 

Clancy is revealed to have escaped Dema in the next entry. It is truly fascinating the way that he goes about describing how he feels having escaped: ‘I feel weightless. I knew that place had always held me down, but for the first time, I can feel the levity I had hoped for’. This quote from the fifth entry makes it pretty explicit that there is some link between these events and the song ‘Levitate’ from the album, a song that sets the stage about what goes on in Dema and links it to what goes on in popular culture as a whole. We will discuss this link in greater detail when we come to discussing ‘Levitate’ in our track by track analysis. 

Clancy may have escaped, but the terror of Dema remains: ‘I can see it back in the distance, and I’d be lying if I said that it wasn’t constantly on my mind...I feel betrayed by what I assumed was my home – if I ever end up back there, I want to be able to look at it in the same way’. Haunting when you take on board what happens next. We’ll get to it. 

The rest of the entry reflects of the wonder of having escaped Dema and entered Trench, the long road back to civilisation. Clancy describes it as ‘vast’, ‘endless’, and, most oddly of all, ‘open. Not precisely what you and I would associate with a trench. Perhaps this is used to further emphasize how controlling the bishops of Dema were that something as deep and lonely as a trench can make Clancy feel so free. But what might be most chilling is the line ‘I wonder who else is out here’. This is truly chilling as it is a key concept that makes up the climactic moment on the album’s closing track ‘Leave The City’ where Tyler sings in the song’s dying moments ‘And though I’m far from home / In Trench I’m not alone’. More on this in a bit. 

The final entry is perhaps most well-known for the being a bit of a big reveal. Up to this point, people who were studying these entries at the time of them being released had assumed that Tyler and Clancy were the same person. This changed everything. Clancy talks about finding someone else (probably Tyler) travelling through Trench, and watching a bishop (probably Nico) possess them. The details are few and pretty abstract, but the bishop is described as possessing Tyler by doing something with his hands: ‘outstretched hands smeared his neck’. This is exactly what we see happen to Tyler in the music videos. The penny drops, Clancy is not Tyler Joseph. 

By no means the only interesting bit of this entry though. Clancy, shaken by what he has seen, runs away quickly as he confronts the idea that he might not be alone in Trench. He then questions why he even left Dema in the first place, describes Trench as ‘endless and hopeless’, and then says this: ‘At least Dema is a place that I know, and at times like this, I miss a lot about what I know. This will be much tougher than I imagined. Nothing out here is familiar. I've witnessed the presence of others for the first time today, and I feel more alone than ever. Cover me’. Make no mistake, this is powerful stuff. Clancy, after nine years and faced with an opportunity to escape Dema for good, is second guessing himself in the vast emptiness of Trench, ending it with the final use of the recurring phrase ‘cover me’. Sound familiar? It should. Part II where we will discuss the music video trilogy is coming.