If you would like to read the previous installment of this series, which is about Fall Out Boy, you can find it here .
Hailing from the shores (or skyscrapers?) of Columbus, Ohio, two friends created something that turned out to be bigger than themselves. Twenty One Pilots, made up of Tyler Joseph and Joshua Dun, has been a band since 2009, where Joseph was the founder of the band along with two other members who left in 2011.
With four releases, compared to other bands with the same amount of popularity, TØP is still in its infancy. But, they still have albums and songs that don't get the same attention as their newer releases. No matter if you love or hate them, you have to admit that the only direction their career is going is up.
Here are my personal choices for their most underrated songs:
1. "Not Today" -- Blurryface (2015)
Featured as the second to the last track on their obviously most popular release, "Blurryface", "Not Today" is an upbeat and pop-y venture that is really unique to the rest of the album. Most of "Blurryface" features hip hop beats, darker sounding music and more rap than their previous albums -- but "Not Today" is almost out of place at the surface, which is what makes it so great and underrated.
Everyone I ask typically tells me they either don't love or hate this song or completely skip it when it comes on shuffle which is a true shame. Don't judge this song for it's pop-y and out of place theme, listen to the lyrics. As Joseph says in the lyrics: /Listen I know, this songs a contradiction because of how happy it sounds/ But the lyrics are so down/
Memorable lyric: /I look outside/ see a whole world better off/ without me in it trying to transform it/
2. "The Run And Go" -- Vessel (2012)
"Vessel" is the album that features many songs that started to get the duo into the consciousness of the mainstream media with songs like "Car Radio", "Holding Onto You" and "Migraine". This song is another that finds itself being very different composition wise but finding itself fitting the TØP mold with its lyrics.
Nostalgia is one way to describe this song, which when shown to people who have never heard it before, it's definitely what almost everyone agrees on feeling. Since it's smack dab in the middle of the album surrounded by hits and fan favorites, sometimes light fans and new listeners don't get to appreciate this song as much as diehard clique members.
Memorable lyric: /Tonight I need you to stay/
3. "Glowing Eyes" -- Regional At Best (2011)
If "Blurryface" is the duo's most known and popular album, "Regional At Best" would in itself be the most underrated and unknown album. This is because of a number of reasons -- this album was released a year before "Vessel" and their signing to Fueled By Ramen. The album features a lot of songs that are on the latter album, which Fueled By Ramen couldn't profit off of, so the album was removed from any streaming app or iTunes and is exceedingly difficult to get a physical copy.
"Glowing Eyes" is a great representation of the sound that the duo perfected in their later albums, dark and deep lyrics paired with pop rock sounds and group vocals -- which was totally ahead of its time. What truly makes this song unique is the fact that all of the songs on the rest of the album have a different instrumentation in terms of the other ones being a bit more somber and not as hype.
Memorable lyric: /We all know somebody/ who knows somebody/ whose doing great/
4. "A Car, A Torch, A Death" -- Twenty One Pilots (2009)
THIS IS MY FAVORITE ALBUM BY THE BAND. This album is another one of the lesser known releases in the duo's discography just for the fact that it was also self-released and during the time that the band was doing small club shows. But that does not mean it's horrible or not the best, it's actually on the contrary.
"A Car, A Torch, A Death" is a more somber and relaxing song that depicts the moment where you know everything is over and you feel like dying but you have no idea what to do besides sit by and watch it happen, a moment where you feel like you can hardly breathe.
Memorable lyric: /I began to understand why God died/
5. "Isle Of Flightless Birds" -- Twenty One Pilots (2009)
The ending song to their self-titled album, "Isle of Flightless Birds" is a song unlike the rest of their releases, completely. This song is a perfect example of "If you can't relate to this song, you simply just don't understand" -- which is a theme that TØP employs in a lot of their content, that each song has a specific meaning to everyone that listens.
Having a lot of different instrumentations that come later in their albums like piano and drum marriages, rap pieces and melodic verses by Joseph -- this song is very representative of the future that the duo will eventually find themselves in. And of course, the lyrics are emotional and deep for those who can relate and even those who cannot.
Memorable lyric: /Your soul knows good and evil/ Your soul knows both sides/ And it's time you pick your battles/ And I promise you this is mine/