Level of Concern by Twenty One Pilots - TRACK REVIEW

After a week-long break for mental health and to finish up some schoolwork (which I'm sure EVERYONE noticed), I'm back with another review! I feel like I say this every week, but this one's a little different. I'm finally getting to review some new music. I wanted to look at this single in particular not just because it's about this great historical event taking place right now, but also because it was made by an artist that had a lot of impact on my music taste as an adolescent. After having this song on repeat for weeks in an attempt to give you the most fully formulated opinion possible, here's my review of Level of Concern by Twenty One Pilots, which is the duo's take on how the coronavirus will impact the music industry in the near future. Hope you enjoy!

Twenty One Pilots was one of my favourite bands in high school. Despite the fact that it invited ridicule from my peers, I followed this band almost religiously up until the release of their latest album, Trench, which I was surprisingly not crazy about. So when the hint of a new era for them came with the release of Level of Concern, coupled with the fact that it's a commentary on this major world event, I was intrigued. However, I was disappointed to learn that while lyrically, this single holds significant meaning in relation to the world right now, it failed to hit home for me musically.

As much as it hurts the former fangirl in me to say, Level of Concern should have been so much more than it was. However, I should open by saying it's by no means an awful song. While it took me a few listens to overlook my gripes with it, it's a catchy tune and I'll probably find myself listening to it every now and again. My issue is that's all it really is: an earworm that doesn't measure up to the band's previous work enough for it to be memorable. As mentioned above, lyricist/frontman Tyler Joseph has insinuated that this is a song is a commentary on how the coronavirus pandemic might affect the music industry as well as his own personal anxieties surrounding the matter. In a series of tweets, he said that this was the first song he wrote on electric guitar but decided to polish and finish it up in his home studio in a matter of days. I've seen other reviews giving praise to the simplicity of the instrumentals in the song, however for me, it crosses the line from artistic simplicity to being barebones and uninteresting. However, I do accept that it's difficult to produce something convoluted with the limitations of physical isolation. We as listeners can also assume that drummer Josh Dun's parts weren't recorded in the same room as Joseph's parts, and additional production by folks like Paul Meany (of alt-rock band Mutemath) was done in isolation as well. While producing a song with these limitations is admirable, it's all too apparent that the instrumentals in this song couldn't get too complicated for that reason. Dun's drumming was a negative standout for me, because if I didn't have prior knowledge of the band, I wouldn't have known that it was anything other than a stock beat taken from a royalty-free GarageBand song.

Another major downside for me were the lyrics. Here the problem wasn't exactly oversimplicity, but the message and word choice was so "nail-on-the-head" that it, ironically, lost any elegance and sense of being a significant social message that it could've had. Maybe it's because it's probably one of the first songs he ever wrote, but Joseph's usual lyrical prowess and refined use of metaphors isn't present on this track at all and seems uninspired compared to their previous material. Sometimes the lyrics just feel like something to fill the end of a rhyme [Panic on the brain, world has gone insane/Things are starting to get heavy/I can't help but think I haven't felt this way/Since I asked you to go steady] or are so painfully obvious that they simply just don't work [Wondering/Would you be, my little quarantine?/Or is this the way it ends?].

I'm sorry, but I really can't compare the looming feeling of the world going to shit to the nervousness of asking someone out. And what is meant by calling someone "my little quarantine"?

Is there some pet-name irony here that I'm not getting?

The biggest lyrical letdown for me upon first listening was the short monologue/declaration that happens right at the end of the song. TOP usually nails this type of thing, especially in music videos, but this just fell completely flat. I expected something much more heartfelt and worthy of a "quarantine anthem" (as Variety.com called it) than "In a world, where you could just lie to me/And I'd be okay/We'll be okay/We're gonna be okay".

So, in summary, this isn't what I expected it to be. For a subject matter so heavy, I expected this song to be just as rich in musicality as everything else Twenty One Pilots produces. I wanted more from the band because I don't think the song measured up to their previous work, but like I said before, this song is definitely still catchy and cute and it's not a bad song in and of itself. I especially can't knock it for everything it promotes, either: the music video is almost entirely shot within the duo's respective homes to promote social distancing, with heartwarming appearances from Tyler's wife and daughter, as well as Josh's fiancée. Ahead of the release of the song and video, it was also promised by Tyler that a portion of the money the song makes will be donated to Crew Nation, a charity that is providing funds to the behind-the-scenes folks in the live music industry while they're out of work.

All in all, my rating and this review reflects how I feel about the song from a critical sense, but I will always commend these guys for talking about something so important through their art and I hope other artists start to follow suit. It's super important that safety and wellness don't leave the public consciousness, even though some public places are starting to open back up. As they say in the TOP fandom: stay alive, friends.

Rating: 6/10

Images retrieved from YouTube, @twentyonepilots on Twitter and Warner Music, New Zealand