Twenty One Pilots Albums, Ranked

Before"Clancy" drops, I took a look back at the alt-pop duo's discography.

On February 29, Twenty One Pilots dropped their new single “Overcompensate” and announced their upcoming album, Clancy. The song is classic Twenty One Pilots, centering on frontman Tyler Joseph’s multifaceted rapped-sung vocals and Josh Dun's intense drumbeats, and promises to continue the elaborate storyline the alt-pop band has been weaving through their last several records. As an exciting new era looms for the duo, I took a listen back through their discography to rank their rich, diverse catalog.

Note: This ranking does not include the group’s second independent release, Regional at Best, released in 2012. This is for a few reasons:

• Five of the songs on Regional at Best were re-recorded on the band’s major-label debut, 2013’s Vessel, making much of my commentary redundant.

• Joseph has characterized Regional at Best as “a glorified mixtape” made to sell at shows, not a fully considered album.

• Since the band’s major-label signing, Regional at Best has been unavailable to purchase or stream through any legal means, making it difficult for me to reference it.

5: Scaled and Icy (2021)

Poor Scaled and Icy. Twenty One Pilots’ most recent album is also, by any metric, their worst-regarded one, facing mixed reception from music critics and fans alike. Though not without its highlights, this 2021 LP is, to my ear, by far the duo’s weakest record. Indeed it’s the only one I do not consider good overall. After the dark, nigh-grandiose Trench, Scaled and Icy was recorded as an intentional change of pace for Twenty One Pilots, a short and sweet shot of colorful, uplifting pop for the Covid-beleaguered masses, in the vein of their early pandemic single “Level of Concern.” The album’s title even refers to the circumstances of recording during pandemic lockdowns: scaled-back and isolated.

Early singles “Shy Away” and “Choker” were promising, hinting at a more sophisticated successor to the chirpy, energetic synth-driven pop-rock of the band’s earlier albums. Yet much of the album simply falls flat, with disengaged-sounding vocal performances from Joseph and bland instrumentation that echoes the then-prevalent disco revival trend in pop. This may have been somewhat intentional— in the elaborate fictional universe constructed throughout Twenty One Pilots’ albums, Scaled and Icy is faux-upbeat propaganda produced by a dystopian society. But regardless of the metatextual intention, on Scaled and Icy, Twenty One Pilots often sound generic, a word that has never before been applied to their music.

Favorite Song: “Redecorate”

With its dark, contemplative sound, “Redecorate” feels more of a piece with “Trench” than the rest of “Scaled and Icy.” Its detailed production and thought-provoking lyrics provide a showcase for Joseph’s rapping in perhaps its most mature form yet.

Least Favorite Song: “Saturday”

While not unenjoyable on its own terms, “Saturday” is the kind of smooth, easy-listening pop that could have been performed by anyone. Its generic pop-disco sound and repetitive chorus, centering on listing the days of the week (the most tired of pop cliches), embody Scaled and Icy at its worst.

4: Blurryface (2015)

Blurryface was the album that catapulted Twenty One Pilots from cult favorites to perhaps the biggest band to break through in the 2010s. Two of its singles, “Stressed Out” and “Ride,” hit the top five of the Billboard Hot 100. It was the first album ever to have every song on it certified Gold by the RIAA. But with that growth came growing pains. Blurryface is a great collection of songs, but, despite its rich thematic throughline, sonically, it’s a bit scattered.

Conceptually, Blurryface is a powerhouse. It’s the album that kicked off the decade-long narrative that looks to be coming to a close in Clancy, conceptualizing a struggle with mental demons as a fight against a malevolent entity. This would be expanded upon and grown into an entire fictional universe on the albums that followed, but even here, it gives the album’s emotional lyrics a greater sense of weight and stakes. By the time Joseph pleads, “I need your help to take him out,” on the somber album closer “Goner,” we’ve become well acquainted with the villain he faces.

But Blurryface is also an album that saw the band work alongside four different producers, and it sounds like it. The record is full of standout tracks that see Twenty One Pilots growing into true pop superstars. “Tear in My Heart” is a sweet, raucous pop-rock track, “Lane Boy” blends spare hip-hop verses with skittering electronic breakbeats, “Not Today” climaxes with Sgt. Pepper’s-esque marching band bombast. It’s no surprise that Blurryface was massive, it’s an album full of catchy tracks that appeal to nearly any taste. But this genre diversity leads to an album that sounds unsure of what it wants to be, even as its individual pieces work well on their own.

Favorite Song: “Heavydirtysoul”

Twenty One Pilots have, throughout much of their work, purposefully eschewed guitars. But on the moody, driving “Heavydirtysoul,” they prove you don’t need guitars to evoke a hard-rocking intensity and grit. With speedy, skillful rapping from Joseph in the verses, a passionately sung chorus, and a powerful drumbeat from Dun underlying the whole thing, “Heavydirtysoul” is a showcase of everything the duo does well.

Least Favorite Song: “Stressed Out”

“Stressed Out” was the single that broke Twenty One Pilots through to mainstream success, but it’s an oddly unrepresentative song for them, with none of the drama and drive that usually characterize the band. Honestly, “Stressed Out” kind of bores me.

3: Twenty One Pilots (2009)

On their debut self-titled album, Twenty One Pilots are a very different band. For one, they’re literally made up of different people; this is the only record to feature the lineup of Joseph, bassist Nick Thomas, and drummer Chris Salih. The songs on this record tend towards the longer side, with many stretching over 4, even 5 minutes. Sonically, there are hints of the expansive, genre-bending style that would come, but here, they’re largely rooted in piano-centric balladry. The hooks aren’t as immediate and sticky, the raps are closer to spoken-word poetry than hip-hop-derived.

But with this sparer style comes a rawer sense of emotional vulnerability, and Joseph’s raw strength for songwriting shines through, even in its more unrefined form. When listening to Twenty One Pilots, it’s easy to imagine the band’s career taking on a different trajectory, one where piano elements and slower songs remain more central to their sound. Knowing what happened in our timeline, this debut album remains a somewhat out-of-place curio in the band’s catalog, but it’s full of plenty of gems.

Favorite Song: “Taxi Cab”

The melancholy, heartfelt piano ballad “Taxi Cab” has become a fan favorite, and for good reason. Its swaying melodies strike a nostalgic, emotional chord, and the song’s lengthy, playful rap verse, full of evocative imagery, remains one of Joseph’s best.

Least Favorite Song: “Before You Start Your Day”

“Before You Start Your Day” isn’t a particularly bad song, it’s just a very slight one, with extremely spare instrumentation and vocals. Most of its ideas are done better elsewhere on the album, and perhaps its most lasting impression is the truly uncomfortable lyric in which Joseph calls eyes “the slits in your face.”

2: Vessel (2013)

Vessel, Twenty One Pilot’ major label debut, showcases a band in transition. It showcases a sound that has grown far more uptempo than their slow, piano-driven debut, but without the grander ambition of the records that would follow. The sound of Vessel leans into pop rock, accented by chirpy synthesizers and frequent rap breaks, an eclectic mix that allowed the band to break out at a time when the alternative space was moving away from guitar-driven rock. Songs like the cinematically grand “Ode to Sleep,” the anthemic “Holding On To You,” and the moody, slow-building “Car Radio” remain fan favorites, and for good reason. Throughout the album, Joseph’s hooks and melodies are bright and sticky. Lyrically, the album sees Twenty One Pilots focus on the themes of struggling with mental health and Christian faith, with the latter applied in a thoughtful, judicious manner as to avoid ever coming off as preachy.

Really, the one downside to Vessel is its poor production. The entire album’s instrumentals are unmodified GarageBand presets, which occasionally drags down otherwise well-written songs with a sheen of flatness and cheapness. Paired with Joseph’s still-developing, often nasal vocals, and it sometimes feel like Vessel might benefit from a remaster or rerecording. But it’s a true testament to the band’s energy and songwriting prowess that despite any production quibbles, the LP remains an incredible listen, and a stellar showcase for a talented band on the rise.

Favorite Song: “Guns For Hands”

The moving lyrics to “Guns For Hands” capture Joseph grappling with the pressure of his newfound fame. He realizes that his music has brought him fans who relate to his struggles with depression and suicidality, but also feels the emotional weight of realizing that their wellbeing rests, at least partially, on his music. Sonically, its chirpy, energetic blend of piano and synthesizer, backed by Dun’s punchy drumming, is Twenty One Pilots at their very best.

Least Favorite Song: “The Run and Go”

Much of Twenty One Pilots’ discography relies on the juxtaposition of heavy subject matter with upbeat, cheery instrumentals. They even call out this pattern in the lyrics of “Not Today” from Blurryface: “This one's a contradiction because of how happy it sounds/ But the lyrics are so down.” “The Run and Go” goes a bit too far in that happy direction, with repetitive instrumentation and a whistled hook that risks entering “background music in a commercial” territory.

1: Trench (2018)

Coming off of the album that made them mainstream superstars, Twenty One Pilots had every incentive to sand down their edge and craft an album with greater mass appeal. Instead, they swung in the opposite direction, crafting an album that’s denser, more ambitious, and far less pop-minded than its predecessor, but also proves to be the duo’s most accomplished work yet.

Conceptually, Trench picks up the baton from Blurryface. While that album externalizes Joseph’s mental struggles as a singular malevolent figure, Trench instead turns it into a dystopian society from which he must escape. The LP is packed with lyrical worldbuilding for the hardcore fans to decipher, but even the casual listener can pick up on the album’s mood, and its sense of endeavoring to escape from an all-consuming gloom. This mood is enhanced by the album’s rich, atmospheric production, courtesy of Paul Meany, otherwise known as the multi-instrumentalist frontman behind the alt-rock project Mutemath. Rich, textured synthesizers layer with chunky bass lines and hard-hitting drums, creating a truly cohesive sonic world.

Joseph has made his name as a multifaceted vocalist, and on Trench, his prowess is on full display. On “Levitate,” his nimble rapping flows freely over a skittering drumbeat, he displays a sweet falsetto in the chorus of the groovy “My Blood,” and in the outro of the hard-rocking opening track “Jumpsuit,” he unleashes a fierce scream. The album also contains the band’s most emotionally stirring lyrical moments. “Neon Gravestones” is a pointed anti-suicide lament. “Legend” is a touching tribute to Joseph’s late grandfather, pictured on the cover of Vessel. Closing track “Leave the City” ends the album with an honest, practical sentiment regarding mental illness: “In time I will leave the city, for now, I will stay alive.” Overcoming your issues takes time, but for now, it can be enough just to keep on going, no matter how imperfectly. For an album that ostensibly is about crafting a fictional world, it remains deeply down to earth.

Favorite Song: “Bandito”

At five and a half minutes in length, “Bandito” is the longest song on Trench, and it uses that time to fully immerse you in the gloomy world of the album’s fictional universe. Hypnotic synths and drums circle Joseph’s soft vocals, creating a contemplative mood, rising in a slow burn into a grand, cathartic synthesizer climax. It’s a remarkable feat of contemplative songwriting that rewards repeat listens, and an exemplar of the band’s maturity and evolution away from easy hooks and traditional pop structure.

Least Favorite Song: “Smithereens”

“Smithereens” is the album’s requisite love song, but, in an inversion of the band’s typical dynamic, it’s actually the dark production that clashes with the upbeat lyrics. Another similar-minded song, “Tear in My Heart,” used frantic, energetic piano to convey the excitement and nervous energy of romance. “Smithereens” by contrast, makes Joseph’s love for his wife sound oddly ominous. Paired with some awkward lyricism (if you didn’t know Tyler Joseph weighs exactly 153 pounds, you do now), “Smithereens” is an outlier on an otherwise nigh-immaculate record.

Over the last fifteen years, Twenty One Pilots has proven to be one of the most unique acts in popular music, and show no signs of stopping. As the release of Clancy in May approaches, I’m excited to hear how Twenty One Pilots continues to evolve and grow.