#You know those medias that are just god awful but they occasionally have a glimmer of SOMETHING and just makes you want to explode
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bunnieswithknives Ā· 2 months ago
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What's inanimate insanity? Should I watch it?
God no. Absolutely not.
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topweeklyupdate Ā· 6 years ago
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TƘP Weekly Update #57: Thanks, Jay Z (8/9/2018)
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Turns out last week was a pretty good one to take off. Very little of major note happened in the Twenty One Pilots sphere while I vacationed in the Canadian wilderness. This week, however... thatā€™s a whole other story.Ā 
New music. New music video. New track list. New merch. Letā€™s get into it.Ā 
This Weekā€™s TƘPics:
ā€œLevitateā€ and Trench Track List Leak, and Then...
ā€œLevitateā€ Video and Trench Track List Released
ā€œJumpsuitā€ Drops Off the Hot 100 (But Still Gains At Radio...)
Mark Goes Off
AND MORE
Major News and Announcements:
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On Tuesday, the streaming service Tidal briefly posted the third promotional track forĀ Trench before realizing their mistake and taking it down. This still provided the Clique with plenty of time to record and post it in so many places across the Interwebs that Warner Music Groupā€™s copyright bots couldnā€™t hope to catch up. The likelihood that Tyler and Josh leaked it themselves is honestly pretty low extremely high.
The track, entitled ā€œLevitateā€, is the most unmistakable hip-hop track in the bandā€™s discography thus far. Running at a tight 2:20, Tyler delivers some truly impressive bars in what is essentially a single extended verse, constantly mixing up his flow against a slick trap drum beat and the eerie synth that was hinted at in the end of ā€œJumpsuitā€ (if the entire album flows from song to song like this... automatic 10/10).Ā 
Lyrically, ā€œLevitateā€ sees Tyler discussing the role of songwriting in his life, a form of expression that allows him toĀ ā€œfire-breatheā€ andĀ ā€œlevitateā€ beyond his problems. The song is littered with gems (ā€œwe are not just graffiti on a passing trainā€) and jabs against the music industry for trying to rein him in or make him into something heā€™s not (ā€œthis culture is a poacher of overexposure, donā€™t feed me to the vulturesā€,Ā ā€œyouā€™re the worst; your structure compensates, but compensation feels a lot like rising up to dominateā€). The reference to Tyler getting back ā€œwhat I once bought back in that slot, I wonā€™t need to replaceā€ is perfect, and Iā€™m still emotional about it.
I do have a few minor quibbles with the song. I think the looped instrumental is a little too minimalistic to justify the length of the outro.Ā ā€œAt least they all know what they hear comes from a placeā€ andĀ ā€œyou can levitate with just a little helpā€ lack specificity and fall a little flat for me. And Iā€™ve expressed before that Iā€™m not overly interested in songs about the music industry that arenā€™t directly applicable to most peopleā€™s experience (sorry, "Fairly Localā€ and ā€œLane Boyā€).Ā 
All that said, the production and presentation is so slick. Plus, Tyler grounds the song in enough personal experience and relatable struggles that it succeeds in crossing over that gap of fame and success to actually hit home. Lines likeĀ ā€œdanger in the fabric of this thing I made,ā€ ā€œI thought I could depend on my weekends on the freezing ground,ā€ andĀ ā€œdonā€™t feed me to the vultures, I am a vulture who feeds on painā€ show the same vulnerability and self-aware introspection that attracted me to the band in the first place.
ā€œLevitateā€ wasnā€™t all we got from the leak. An updated version without the yellow duct tape over the track list was included as the background, revealing the names of the other eleven songs that weā€™ll hear sometime between now and October 5th. The track list is as follows:
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Didnā€™t think that Iā€™d struggle with a song title more than ā€œBanditoā€, but ā€œPet Cheetahā€ and ā€œThe Hypeā€ are really gonna have to go the extra mile in ways that no other song from the band has before to justify those artistic choices. (That said, ā€œNeon Gravestonesā€ sounds rad as hell.) Weā€™ll save picking apart the meaning for all of these titles for a later date; weā€™ve still got another two months before the album is out, and I donā€™t think weā€™ll be getting any new songs or videos until late September at the earliest, so weā€™ve got time.
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ln the wake of the leak (much like with ā€œHeathensā€ two years ago), the song and video forĀ ā€œLevitateā€ were pushed out the following day, two days earlier than originally planned if the date on Tidal is anything to go buy. The third installment in this Trench trilogy features Tyler and Josh performing the track at the Bandito camp while vultures fly around looking cool. At the videoā€™s conclusion, Tyler is snatched away from a campfire by a bishop and dragged without a struggle back to Dema. One Bandito looks frightened by this, but another just ominously statesĀ ā€œWelcome to Trenchā€.
I must confess that this music video didnā€™t fully do it for me. While the production value remains stellar, theĀ ā€œCar Radioā€ call-back with shaving Tylerā€™s head is great, and I love any opportunity to see the boys perform together, ā€œLevitateā€ as a song is frankly too short and moves at a too breakneck pace to make a truly compelling video out of the song alone. Iā€™m honestly shocked that there wasnā€™t a longer extended scene attached to the end of the video to provide a stronger narrative conclusion to the pieces laid in the last two videos, especially considering that ā€œJumpsuitā€ opened with such a scene. As it is, the video moves by so quickly and shares so many aesthetic qualities with its two predecessors that it didnā€™t leave much of an impression on me.
There is, however, one (potentially unintentional) aspect of theĀ ā€œLevitateā€ video that really resonated with me. Tyler enjoying himself while performing and being with people only to be yanked out of the group once the energy dies down a little is a perfect representation of anxiety and depression, which so often sets in without warning in circumstances where one would think are supposed to feel happy and safe. The fact that this story ends on such a down note reads as an honest reflection on the nature of mental illness, even if it is perhaps narratively unsatisfying. Besides, I highly doubt this will be our last exploration of the Trench universe; weā€™ll just have to see where else Tyler and Josh take us when the album drops.
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With the initial wave of promo singles out of the way, the marketing team has moved ahead with the business of actually selling the album. Trench is now available for pre-order on iTunes. The Twenty One Pilots webstore is now full of various bundle packages for pre-order that include t-shirts, hoodies, a dope bandana, a 10ā€²ā€™ vinyl EP with the three promo tracks, CD and cassette versions of the full album and (if you order before the end of the month) a neat little patch, all at pretty reasonable prices.
Other News and Shenanigans:
There isnā€™t too awful much to report outside of the mountain of major developments (thank God). Andrew Donoho posted some dope behind the scenes pics starring Clifford the Vulture. Josh is still occasionally tweeting and posting pictures of hanging out with Debby, his brother, and other cool people. Tyler is still quiet as ever, and Iā€™m not sure why that shocks people. It bears repeating that he was rarely on social media pre-hiatus, that this is probably going to be a regular thing, and that stepping back from social media is honestly one of the better decisions one can make for your mental health and overall leisure time.
The only really notable thing that I missed during my vacation was Mark clarifying on Twitter that the Trench music videos have all been in chronological order and that heā€™s been happy to be giving Andrew Donoho creative control over how the videos have developed. With how cryptic things have been surrounding this albumā€™s release, itā€™s refreshing to have a voice of reason to tell it like it is. Thanks Mark.
Chart Performance:
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While the new song has been at the forefront of everyoneā€™s mind, its predecessors have still been putting in work... but perhaps not as much as might have been expected based on the last album cycleā€™s success.
In spite of the release of the new music video two weeks back, ā€œNico and the Ninersā€ slipped off the Hot 100 after its first week and has declined in all metrics. This week, ā€œJumpsuitā€ also fell off the Hot 100 and has also been steadily sinking in sales and streaming. There are plenty of reasonable explanations for this: the too-heavy-for-Top-40 rock sound, the constant stream of other TƘP content drawing focus away from any one song, the lack of promotional appearances from the band itself on TV and radio.
Many hopeful fans have pointed to the performance of ā€œStressed Outā€ as a hopeful sign that ā€œJumpsuitā€ may mount a future comeback, but I have my doubts about that comparison. 2015 was a very different time for the band- ā€œStressed Outā€, like ā€œFairly Localā€ and ā€œTear In My Heartā€, debuted on the Hot 100 because the Clique was as ravenous then as it is now, but the band still had next-to-no mainstream recognition. Those songs thus debuted low and fell off pretty quickly. It wasnā€™t until months later that the Cliqueā€™s grassroots support and the bandā€™s rising esteem within the industry resulted in ā€œStressed Outā€ getting picked up at radio and being shared with new audiences, creating a snowball of promotion that launched Twenty One Pilots into the popular consciousness. WhenĀ ā€œHeathensā€ was released, the bandā€™s profile was big enough to ensure it debuted at #14 and remained in the Top 40 for months. Compared to that performance,Ā ā€œJumpsuitā€ is flopping commercially, no question.
However, there is still a glimmer of hope for the songā€™s future. While it is falling off pretty hard in most categories, it is still gaining spins at radio. It took #1 on the Rock Airplay chart for this last week. That means that more casual music listeners are hearing it than ever, which could make for another snowball where these listeners go back and search for the song themselves in the weeks to come. We will have to wait and see how the band and Fueled By Ramen decide to market the song and promote the album as it gets closer to its release date.
One thing is for sure: the band is not in any financial trouble. Even ifĀ ā€œJumpsuitā€ never returns to the Hot 100, even ifĀ ā€œLevitateā€ is rejected by both lovers and haters of hip-hop and fails to chart, even if Trench somehowĀ fails to match the Week 1 chart-topping sales of Blurryface evenĀ after the band picked up millions of new fans over the last three years, two things remain true: Blurryface made them more money than any individual will ever reasonably need, and theyā€™ve already sold tens of thousands of tickets for their next tour. The days of worrying about this band are over for the foreseeable future; for now, we can just enjoy the music.
Power to the local dreamer.
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