Review: Stressed Out, Ride, and Heathens (all by Twenty One Pilots)

Every year or so, there's a new act that nobody would have expected to get as big as they did. For example, in 2015, there was Fetty Wap. He had four songs crack the top 40, three of which made the year-end. This year, it was a little indie group known as Twenty One Pilots.

This self-described "schizoid pop" group has only two members. Tyler Joseph is the singer, also performing plenty of other instruments, and Josh Dun handles percussion duties. The group began as a three-man group back in 2009, with Joseph alongside bassist Nick Thomas on bass and Chris Salih on drums. In 2011, both of them left and Dun joined, leaving us with our current group. They released independently until 2013 when they released Vessel under the Fueled by Ramen label, the same one that releases Paramore and Panic! at the Disco's albums. Their most recent album, Blurryface, was released in 2015.

At first, the duo only charted on the designated rock charts, but managed to cross over to the main chart in 2015. Eventually, in October of that year, Stressed Out began its rise. It would reach number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 a few months later. That year, Ride, another song from the album, also managed to make the top 10. Most recently was the song Heathens, released as part of the Suicide Squad movie soundtrack. I'm going to review all of these. Wish me luck.

Stressed Out is certainly a bizarre song. It's rap rock in the 2010's; most people would tell you that genre died with nu metal in 2003. Thankfully, it really doesn't sound anything like the Limp Bizkit or early Linkin Park you would associate the genre with. It's also rock without a guitar. The concept itself sounds like hell incarnate, but the song uses its more indie sound to its advantage. It's unsettling, but that's sort of the point.

The idea of the song is that these guys are "stressed out." Why are they stressed out? Because they're adults, and being an adult and working for money sucks. Joseph is reminiscing about the days when he had no responsibilities, when he'd imagine going to outer space and get sung to sleep. It makes me kind of teary-eyed just thinking about it, even though I'm still not technically an adult yet.

The song also benefits from some brilliant wordplay. My personal favorite is "out of student loans and tree house homes, we'd probably take the latter." Or, is it "ladder?" It's an incredibly dumb pun, but I adore it. Overall, the song does a great job conveying a nostalgic feeling. I'll admit that I didn't like it at first, but it's really grown on me.

Next up is Ride. While I'm not as crazy about the lyrics, the production doesn't confuse me, so that's a plus. This time, they're going for a semi-reggae style on the verses whilst being far more energetic on the chorus. Despite this energy, the song feels fairly dark. I'm not sure what it is, I'm not an expert in music theory, but the song manages to sound low and unhappy whilst simultaneously catchy and upbeat, which is rather hard to do.

Lyrically, there's not as much focus as in Stressed Out. Still, Ride can get rather... interesting at times. For example, the first verse involves Joseph thinking about this happy place where everything is okay, and it's always sunny and tropical (thus explaining the reggae influence). Then he starts singing about how he imagines his own death and how his "enemies" might view him as some horrible person. Then it gets into the second verse, which is rather odd in that it's sort of ranting about one combination of seven words: "I would live and die for you." Whenever we say that, it's a load of crap, and we all know it, but we don't like to admit it. We want it to be true. The rest of the song is rather simple, with the chorus and bridge letting us breathe, or continue to think about those two verses.

Overall, it's great. About on par with Stressed Out, maybe even better. Much more interesting to listen to. I'd say give it a listen.

I'll be honest, I didn't even have to relisten to the other two songs to remember all I needed to say. I could not say the same for Heathens, the duo's most recent hit. I had to relisten to this one twice just to get a good feel about it. Well, it's safe to say this is by far the worst of the three. All I remembered was that the production was godawful, and you know what? It really is bad.

The lyrics aren't important; Joseph's a psycho in an asylum, like the characters in the movie, moving on. What's wrong with the way this song sounds? For one, there's this monotone, robotic voice echoing Joseph's for the entirety of the song that absolutely grates on my nerves. I hate that freaking voice, man. There was also this odd croaking frog noise that would play randomly throughout, usually during the chorus and at the end of verses. Besides that, this song had absolutely nothing interesting to offer. Stressed Out at least sounded unique, and Ride sounded amazing. I know this part is especially short, but just pass on this.

So yeah, that's my three-song-in-a-row review. Overall, they're really not that bad. Their sound is really all over the place and at times confusing, but that's really all the bad I can say about them as a group. Though Heathens was ultimately worthless, I don't regret doing this at all. Stay tuned for my next post where I discuss... I don't know. Whatever I feel like doing?

Stressed Out: 8/10
Ride: 8.5/10
Heathens: 4.75/10

Review: Cheap Thrills (Sia ft. Sean Paul)

For my first review, I wanted to get a good look at the Billboard Hot 100. After ten weeks of Drake's immensely mediocre "One Dance" reigning at the top, a new number one has been crowned. I was immensely happy, not because the new number one was of a song I liked, but because One Dance was finally showing signs of weakness. If you haven't guessed from the title, that song is Cheap Thrills by Australian singer-songwriter Sia Furler, with guest verses from Jamaican singer Sean Paul.

This song is rather notable for a number of reasons. For one, it's Sia's first number one as a solo artist, and second as writer (she wrote Rihanna's Diamonds, which reached number one back in late 2012). Funnily enough, this song was also written for Rihanna, but she decided not to record it. The Sean Paul verses are also important in that it's his first number one in ten years (his last one was Temperature, from his The Trinity album).

As for the song itself, you may be thinking to yourself "What are you talking about? Sean Paul doesn't have any verses on this song!" To tell the truth, I've been referring to the official remix this entire time. The original just features Sia without Sean Paul, and to be honest, I'd say both versions are on par with each other. It really depends on whether you like your pop straight-up or with a bit of reggae influence.

 

 (note: dancer in video not actually Sia)

Now, onto the song itself. This song invokes one basic idea: You are broke as hell and you don't care  because goddamn it, you just want to have fun. It's a premise that's been done before, I admit, but you've got to retread sometimes. I'd even argue that it's on par with Thrift Shop, the song most people think of when they hear "song about being cheap." A lot of that has to do with Sia's vocal delivery, as well as the lyrics.

I don't know if I'm the only one, but Sia's singing voice is like pure ear candy to me. I look forward to hearing her about as much as I do Anthony Kiedis on an RHCP album. And while I'll admit I haven't liked everything Sia's done (example being her appearance on David Guetta's Titanium, if only for how boring it was), she's still one of the better pop artists out there right now. Like how her delivery perfectly conveyed the absolute angst of Chandelier, she makes a song that normally feels like a Rihanna song work perfectly for herself. Sean Paul is also a welcome presence, giving us something fun, energetic and authentic to separate it from the wannabe dancehall and downbeat snore factories that have dominated the number one spot since February with the likes of Pillowtalk and Work.

Lyrically, the song is as simple as the above synopsis suggests. Sia's getting ready to hang out with someone, dance, and have a good time. Though we don't know where she is, we can tell that she's rather excited for this get-together. She's doing her hair, she's putting on make-up, she's wearing high-heels. And what is she going to do? She's going to dance. She's going to dance, she's going to enjoy the music, she is going to have a fun time. You can't stop her, she's having this awesome time without a single dollar spent because she's cheap, and she loves cheap thrills.

So overall, Cheap Thrills is great. Besides some questionable production choices in a few spots, there's not much wrong here. It's definitely a stand-out from This is Acting, the album this was off of. I'm going to have to give the song an 8.5/10, again, great song, fun beat, give it a listen, give the whole album a listen, there are good times to be had.

Introduction

Hello. I am Lukas, and I welcome you to Hearken to Silence.  So, what do I do?

I am a pop music enthusiast. I follow Billboard weekly, listen to the radio on a regular basis to get a good idea of what's hip and upcoming, the works. I will be writing reviews and articles about what's big right now, according to the Billboard Hot 100. There will also be reviews of older material as well as whatever I may find. It will mostly be single reviews, but expect the occasional album review as well.

Music isn't all I'm about, however. I'm also a video game enthusiast, specifically PC. Team Fortress 2, Overwatch, and League of Legends are my most played right now. You may also see stuff relating to television and movies, albeit rarely. So, yeah, I've got a ton going for me.Enjoy your stay.