Background:
The last time I reviewed Scaled and Icy, I was extremely critical of it, to an almost unreasonable degree. I have since gone back to it and given it another try, and this time around, my thoughts on the album were completely different, so I thought it was only fair to give it another review, this time going in depth.
Good Day:
This song is one of the few songs that I still really dislike from the album, as it really is just your basic radio bubblegum pop affair (even if the lyrics aren't the most upbeat), but I am able to realize that the point of the song is to catch you off guard and divert your expectations based on their previous albums, so can appreciate it for that reason
Choker:
This song starts with some intentionally difficult to make out synthesized drums that I actually like quite a bit, and is eventually backed up by a bass, some synthesized strings and piano, and Josh's drumming. The lyrics have sort of a slow and melancholic vibe, while still maintaining the pop feel, and in a different way than they have previously gone about melancholy. This all culminates in a bit of a breakdown at the end reminiscent of older Twenty One Pilots, which I think is pretty neat.
Shy Away:
This song is a synth and guitar heavy pop rock song that manages to feel oddly upbeat for this band, while at the same time like something only they could make. I'm not too sure what this song is about in the context of this album's story, but the lyrics do seem to be a bit darker than the instrumental would lead you to believe. Overall, this is a song was a pretty fun time.
The Outside:
This song starts off with some pretty scaled back production, slowly adding in more instruments, until it ends up sounding like a fairly standard, albeit catchy, "song of the summer" style pop song. This song of the summer vibe is only accentuated by lines like "I'm on the outside in the summer heat". This song, to me at least, feels like a summer hit pop song but with a Twenty One Pilots twist, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.