Jul 15, 2026 · 3 hr 9 min · 11 segments
Sound the charge, into glory ride, as Album Clubs look at the maddening effect Twenty One Pilots' ragga-pop Blurryface had on rock, the most metal band of all Manowar's debut Battle Hymns, Turnover's…
This, this is a mountain of an Album Club in some ways, because we will, you know, we start these Album Club packs with the biggest artist of the bunch, you know? It might be a, an arena filler or a stadium filler or whatever.
And obviously, in terms of size, Twenty One Pilots are of course that band this time.
Uh, this is one of the only albums we will ever cover in this segment, I think, at least of the 21st century, that has actual, like, massive pop zeitgeist effecting Billboard Top 10 singles on it, right? There are two songs on this album that surpassed 2 billion Spotify streams.
And that of course gets us started on an Album Club that is more of an assessment maybe of something that reared its head to us as fans of rock and alternative music, and had an effect on us, than something that we have primary ownership over.
Twenty One Pilots are, in usual TNM coverage, be it weekly news, reviews, whatever, not a band that we cover.
When that very funny saga earlier this year happened of someone in the crowd nicking one of their drums and getting staked out at a hotel by security guards, I, I laughed in private.
And it is a conscious thing, that the thing that Twenty One Pilots are is not a thing that, that we feel, or I feel, based on the standards that were set before me as well, uh, TNM is around to cover, right? And that's not even a dig on people who may love Twenty One Pilots, although we might take some digs from time to time during this chat by the time this is over.
Um, but, you know, every outlet that is dedicated to a niche or a subculture has to set some parameters of what and what isn't relevant to that.
But on Album Club, we can look a little bit more at history and wider culture, I suppose, and things perhaps from outside our usual reach that affected our little sphere and, uh, enacted trends that made themselves a fixture of discussion in that sphere.
And once the dust has settled on something as well, I think, g- go back and muse upon it.
And that is what I wanted to do by putting forward Twenty One Pilots' 2015 album, Blurryface, which is something that I have thought of for doing for this reason, um, you know, very early on i- really into us doing Album Clubs.
But as I say, now that 10 years have passed, the dust has somewhat settled, it feels like this is the best time to do it.
Because in one sense, I think 10 years past the, the cultural peak and exposure of the, the Twenty One Pilots phenomenon, and, you know, now we have new beasts to contend with as well in our day-to-day life as rock fans, it makes me feel a little bit like, "What was all that about?" In a curious sort of way.
But on the other hand, and, uh, I know take this with a grain of salt 'cause it's Rock Sound, who are one of the primary characters in this story from a UK perspective, but when I saw that Rock Sound-
Mm
... have, for its 10th anniversary, put together a tribute covers album for it, the likes of which we have seen for, you know, American Idiot or The Black Album and so on, featuring everyone from current acts like Bambi Thug or As D- December Falls, through to the fucking Red Jumpsuit Apparatus covering this album It did make me think, you know, wow, like this album is clearly c- like, viewed as a, a seminal classic for a certain demographic of people.
Maybe Blurryface is to a certain demographic in the 2010s what The Black Parade was a decade before.
We are coming at this with the, the undeniable bias and angle of people who were not part of this.
I can't speak for certain, but I'm going to assume none of us are what you would call Twenty One Pilots fans.
We will discuss it track to track, and if there are merits, but I get the feeling from my colleagues in the lead-up to this, there might be a bit of ribbing of this album that is about to go on.
And so if you are looking for someone to a- assess exactly what this album may mean to its generation of fans who it really touched in that way, that is not the perspective you are likely to h- hear here, I, I am afraid.
If that disappoints you, I apologize, but maybe that is a perspective you can find elsewhere.
This, this is a mountain of an Album Club in some ways, because we will, you know, we start these Album Club packs with the biggest artist of the bunch, you know? It might be a, an arena filler or a stadium filler or whatever.
And obviously, in terms of size, Twenty One Pilots are of course that band this time.
Uh, this is one of the only albums we will ever cover in this segment, I think, at least of the 21st century, that has actual, like, massive pop zeitgeist effecting Billboard Top 10 singles on it, right? There are two songs on this album that surpassed 2 billion Spotify streams.
And that of course gets us started on an Album Club that is more of an assessment maybe of something that reared its head to us as fans of rock and alternative music, and had an effect on us, than something that we have primary ownership over.
Twenty One Pilots are, in usual TNM coverage, be it weekly news, reviews, whatever, not a band that we cover.
When that very funny saga earlier this year happened of someone in the crowd nicking one of their drums and getting staked out at a hotel by security guards, I, I laughed in private.
And it is a conscious thing, that the thing that Twenty One Pilots are is not a thing that, that we feel, or I feel, based on the standards that were set before me as well, uh, TNM is around to cover, right? And that's not even a dig on people who may love Twenty One Pilots, although we might take some digs from time to time during this chat by the time this is over.
Um, but, you know, every outlet that is dedicated to a niche or a subculture has to set some parameters of what and what isn't relevant to that.
But on Album Club, we can look a little bit more at history and wider culture, I suppose, and things perhaps from outside our usual reach that affected our little sphere and, uh, enacted trends that made themselves a fixture of discussion in that sphere.
And once the dust has settled on something as well, I think, g- go back and muse upon it.
And that is what I wanted to do by putting forward Twenty One Pilots' 2015 album, Blurryface, which is something that I have thought of for doing for this reason, um, you know, very early on i- really into us doing Album Clubs.
But as I say, now that 10 years have passed, the dust has somewhat settled, it feels like this is the best time to do it.
Because in one sense, I think 10 years past the, the cultural peak and exposure of the, the Twenty One Pilots phenomenon, and, you know, now we have new beasts to contend with as well in our day-to-day life as rock fans, it makes me feel a little bit like, "What was all that about?" In a curious sort of way.
But on the other hand, and, uh, I know take this with a grain of salt 'cause it's Rock Sound, who are one of the primary characters in this story from a UK perspective, but when I saw that Rock Sound-
Mm
... have, for its 10th anniversary, put together a tribute covers album for it, the likes of which we have seen for, you know, American Idiot or The Black Album and so on, featuring everyone from current acts like Bambi Thug or As D- December Falls, through to the fucking Red Jumpsuit Apparatus covering this album It did make me think, you know, wow, like this album is clearly c- like, viewed as a, a seminal classic for a certain demographic of people.
Maybe Blurryface is to a certain demographic in the 2010s what The Black Parade was a decade before.
We are coming at this with the, the undeniable bias and angle of people who were not part of this.
I can't speak for certain, but I'm going to assume none of us are what you would call Twenty One Pilots fans.
We will discuss it track to track, and if there are merits, but I get the feeling from my colleagues in the lead-up to this, there might be a bit of ribbing of this album that is about to go on.
And so if you are looking for someone to a- assess exactly what this album may mean to its generation of fans who it really touched in that way, that is not the perspective you are likely to h- hear here, I, I am afraid.
If that disappoints you, I apologize, but maybe that is a perspective you can find elsewhere.
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