Twenty Øne Piløts New Album Breach: review and thoughts on each track! *SPOILERS*
By Kayla Harper
Authors Note:
It’s going to be difficult to review Breach without diving into the lore and implications each song has, however, I simply don’t have time to process and write all of my thoughts on that before this article is due so that will have to come at a later date. I will end up covering Breach in a two-part series, the second will be a deep-dive into the lore and storyline and how each track correlates. For now, here is part one: my immediate thoughts on the overall sound of the album, specific tracks and release night experience!
Breach First Listen Thoughts
Tonight was not my first time listening to Breach in its entirety as I attended a listening party at a local record store a couple days ago. However, it was not the ideal setting to listen to a new album in. With so many distractions, too much noise and not enough focus on the lyrics and music, tonight felt like my first time truly hearing the album.
Breach feels like the best parts of every previous twenty øne piløts album put together to form something brand new. Throughout the tracks I heard callbacks to every era, whether they were direct through samples and lyrics, or indirectly through the way the lead singer, Tyler Joseph, sang the song or a melody reminiscent of earlier times.
1. “City Walls”
Right away in the opening track “City Walls” Joseph sings, “entertain my…faith” (“City Walls”, Breach, 2025) which is a lyric from Vessel/Regional At Best’s “Holding On To You”. The amount of Vessel/Regional At Best references confirms my theories that I’ve always believed the lore had started long before Blurryface, although Joseph confirmed that too, but I mean I always believed it was integrated into the music much earlier than most fans think. The first sign was the island, or continent of Trench, mentioned in Vessel’s “Migraine”: “Behind my eyelids are islands of violence…” and being later referenced again on Breach: “From the mainland to the island of violence” (“City Walls”, Breach, 2025). The lyric, “but now the night has fallen, abandoned by the sun” (“City Walls”, Breach, 2025) calls back to the day/night motif that has existed in some capacity on every album, but most prominently on Vessel.
The very end of “City Walls” also calls back to the first track on Blurryface, “Heavydirtysoul”. As we know, Blurryface was the first official lore album, introducing us to this character. Sampling the intro to “Heavydirtysoul” at the end of “City Walls” signifies the cycle starting over again, which is obviously very symbolic to the lore and the ending of the story. There’s a lot more lore to dig into here, but I don’t have time to write about it now so it will appear in a later article.
Even is Scaled and Icy referenced: “my smile wraps around my head splitting it in two” (“City Walls”, Breach, 2025). This lyric immediately made me think of the Scaled and Icy livestream experience poster.
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Among the lyrical references to the Vessel/Regional At Best albums, the “Heavydirtysoul” (Blurryface), the visual image from Scaled and Icy, is the most Trench-sounding track since 2018. From the rap-verses to the melodic chorus and rhythmic changes in the bridge. The track opens the album and ends the storyline perfectly.
2. “RAWFEAR”
“RAWFEAR” immediately reminded me of a Scaled And Icy track in the way that it is danceable, but devastatingly depressing when you pay attention to the lyrics. Likewise, it is the “Routines In The Night” (Clancy, 2024) of Breach, in the same way. What I thought was supposed to represent vultures (a significant part of the lore) in the intro of this track was actually Joseph’s kids, Rosie and Junie, screaming. This sound is used throughout the track making it their twenty øne piløts debut. In a way, every track following “City Walls” seems to be further explaining the ending. “RAWFEAR” is a song anyone can relate to as it discusses the very essence of life being a series of lessons. After one is learned another begins and there is no end to it because if it were that easy we would never grow and develop spiritually.
3. “Drum Show”
The second-single from Breach, “Drum Show” was written for the band’s drummer Josh Dun, but seems to be reflective of our common tendency to utilize something as a distraction or escape from the “places we do not want to go” (“Drum Show”, Breach, 2025). In Dun’s case, this is music, specifically, his instrument, the drums.
“Drum Show” has a heavier sound among other tracks on the album (not heavy like metal heavy, twenty øne piløts heavy), between the drums and bassline that carry the entire track, as well as Joseph’s scream and grungy vocals. Speaking of vocals, this track is Dun’s vocal debut and the first track in twenty øne piløts history where a member other than Joseph has sung a main vocal line. Dun has always been shy and afraid to even speak in front of crowds. We’ve seen him become more comfortable in front of a crowd and start overcoming these fears over the years. Last year he even sang live on the Clancy World Tour. However, “Drum Show” is the first time he sang on a track, and it was incredible, I speak for all tøp fans when I say we’d love to hear more of it!
4. “Garbage”
Only Joseph could get away with singing, “I feel like garbage” (“Garbage”, Breach, 2025) on a track and make it depressingly relatable. The keyboard line which opens “Garbage” feels like one that was written by Self-titled – Vessel era Joseph. In a way, “Garbage” feels like it was written for that version of Tyler, especially the way lyrics call back to very specific behaviours from that time in his life: “I’m biting down on my shirtsleeve” (“Garbage”, Breach, 2025). “Garbage” is the track for when you are at an emotional capacity, the lowest mental point and needing out of it, like most twenty øne piløts songs of this nature, it has an upbeat melody that feels encouraging and hopeful. Like Joseph has mentioned in the past, particularly when writing Scaled and Icy, sometimes when writing the saddest songs, a slow depressing melody is the last thing a person feeling that way needs to hear, this is why he leans towards more optimistic melodies.
5. “The Contract”
The lead single for Breach, “The Contract” carries on the heavier sound heard on “Drum Show” and is probably the most lore-heavy song on the record besides “City Walls”. I wrote a separate article entirely on “The Contract” when it came out, however, hearing it in its element among all the other songs on Breach truly tied it together. “The Contract” feels like the final fight; when you’re at your limit and drawing all the energy you can to push through one last time and hopefully make it out. The drums and vocals are a highlight on this track.
6. “Downstairs”
“Downstairs” feels like a classic Twenty øne piløts song in the way that it blends softer verses with heavier choruses. I was instantly intrigued by this one, I really love any song where Joseph utilizes his raspy singing voice and scream because it’s so good and let’s be honest, it’s been lacking on the last couple records. “Downstairs” seems to focus on escapism…metaphorically, but it could also literally represent Joseph’s escape -music- since his home studio where he records most of his music is in his basement (downstairs) my music studio also happens to be in my basement, the place where I write the songs that help me process all of my emotions, so this one hits home. It’s a place where we bury, or hide our emotions to avoid them, and in some cases eventually deal with them. It also contains some of the album’s most vulnerable and my favourite lyrics: “you can have all I’ve made and all I’ve ever known / you can have both my lungs if you ask me so” (“Downstairs”, Breach, 2025). Like many songs on Breach, “Downstairs” feels similar to the band’s earlier work which makes sense considering the demo has been on Josh’s laptop for fourteen years.
7. “Robot Voices”
Although there are lots of mentions of love which can be interpreted platonically or romantically on the record, “Robot Voices” is the most direct. It samples the song “My Soft Spots My Robots” by Blanket Approval. Joseph discovered the song on Youtube and loved it, however, he wished the bridge were the chorus and had another vision for it. He reached out to Blanket Approval and they agreed he could play around with it, he ended up rewriting parts of it and now the song is a collaboration between them. “Robot Voices” is a wholesome track about unexpected love, overcoming doubts and fears in regards to falling in love and accepting it.
Romantically this song reminds me a lot of the love I found with my last partner, it allows me to look back on what we shared with happiness rather than the sadness I usually do (he passed away last year unexpectedly), he really came into my life exactly the way the song words it. However, I also found the song relatable platonically -I’ve made some really amazing friends this year that have reminded me life is worthwhile even with all the grief I carry, they know who they are and they are the love I wasn’t looking for, sometimes that love isn’t romantic; sometimes the unexpected love you’re not looking for is that which your friends surround you with!
The instrumentation on this track is also really fun, I love the guitars and drums!
8. “Center Mass”
“Center Mass” might be the best rap verses since Trench and has the best “crash-out” in a Twenty øne piløts song ever. It’s also such a great demonstration of a tøp song considering it blends rap, pop, punk-rock, alt-rock all in one song and somehow it works perfectly. “Center Mass” seems to reflect the coping mechanisms we develop in response to hardships we go through, although no matter how hard we try we will never be immune to feelings and emotions that may arise as a result of these situations…thus the very valid crash-out in the bridge: “I don’t want to say what happened, I just want to let it go / nothing was the same right after, I went to the funeral / I miss you so, so much, take what you want” (“Center Mass”, Breach, 2025).
I find it funny how the band included some iconic moments from the Clancy World Tour in the intro of this track, but I still haven’t figured out why they did it, or why in this song specifically. The first is a viral clip of a fan singing the harmony of the line “My Death” from the song “Trees” (Vessel, 2012 / Regional At Best, 2011). The second is from the viral clip of a fan stealing the “Trees” drum after the show and being advised by another fan, “Girl, I really don’t think you should take that”. Tøp has always kept their fans close and very much a part of everything they do and it’s quite funny they chose to immortalize these two memorable moments in the Breach album.
9. “Cottonwood”
“Cottonwood” is easily one of my favourites on Breach. The sound at the listening party I was at was really bad so I couldn’t hear this one at all the first time around. Listening on release night, I was sobbing by the time the first verse was done. It immediately spoke to me and made me think of my Aunt Cera who I lost to cancer last year, she was only 36 and one of the closest and most special people in my life. Joseph conveys the feeling of loss and slowly watching someone you love lose their life so perfectly in “Cottonwood”, not just through the lyrics, but the melody and instrumental track too -that keyboard line forms a pit in my stomach. In Joseph’s case he wrote the song for his late grandfather who passed last year, he also struggled with the fact that he had hoped his grandfather would pass naturally, but instead he lost him to a brutal disease (in his case it was Alzheimer’s instead of Cancer): “Can’t believe you’re gone for good, someone chopped you down, thought you’d just fall in the woods” (“Cottonwood”, Breach, 2025).
When you lose someone in this way, especially so early in life, the hardest part can be trying to understand the reason why it had to happen. Obviously, if they have cancer or another fatal disease that’s why, but you’re still left wondering why it happened to them, why couldn’t they fight it? Why couldn’t they be one of those miracle cases? Joseph captures this feeling really well in the following lines, “most are blown down in a storm, but the winds were tame” (“Cottonwood”,Breach, 2025). Sometimes there isn’t a storm (a reason it happened) the tree just fell. The next lines are some of the saddest in the song, it reminds me of what it was like to watch her fight this disease for two brutal years (two years that I am so grateful to have had with her nonetheless) only to see her fight slowly decline with her health until it was too much, then you start to wonder if the choice to go was their own or not: “You weren’t waiting anymore, were you sad or brave?” (“Cottonwood”, Breach, 2025).
The repetition of the line “you tore me up more than you know” (“Cottonwood”, Breach, 2025). in the bridge is simple, but effectively evokes the way grief can deeply impact who we are and our lives following it. It feels like we are always looking back through the telescope, trying to get back to a time before it, to ourselves before it -the scared version of yourself who is looking towards us hoping this reality isn’t the outcome.
I didn’t mean to write such a personal review for this track, but it truly is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard from tøp and really hit me hard.
10. “One Way”
“One Way” immediately picks the energy back up after the devastating “Cottonwood”. It’s an alt-rock track that seems to reflect Joseph’s constant struggle between wanting to chase his creative inspirations, but feeling limited or pressured by external voices such as industry standards and label expectations: “I wanted to fly, but they say a system’s coming in” (“One Way”, Breach, 2025). This conflict has been a consistent theme in tøp’s music since first signing to their current label, Fueled By Ramen in 2012, appearing on songs such as Blurryface’s “Lane Boy”.
Like many songs on Breach, Joseph’s vocal performance is beyond exceptional and satisfying as he sings overlapping harmonies and surprising melodies. Further establishing the theory that “One Way” seems to focus on conflicts within Joseph’s creative process we are offered a behind the scenes clip at the end. A voicemail from Dun offering some notes on the tracklisting that flows effortlessly into the next track, “Days Lie Dormant”.
11. “Days Lie Dormant”
Dun wasn’t lying when he said “Days Lie Dormant” is “quite a vibe change” from the previous track, “One Way”. Immediately drums and synths pick up the laid-back alt-rock rhythm of “One Way” into a heavier pop-punk-rock sounding verse -It sounds very reminiscent to tøp’s Regional At Best/Vessel era songs. There are many different interpretations of who this song could be addressed to, Tyler’s wife Jenna, God (especially in tøp’s earlier music, faith was a huge motif), Clancy to Torchbearer, Torchbearer to Clancy, etc. Either way, “Days Lie Dormant” addresses the speaker’s inability to live without someone or something, their days lack colour and their life lacks motivation.
This is another track that was an instant favourite of mine, instrumentally, lyrically and thematically. I think the drums, vocals and production in general really shines on this track. I feel like I’m listening to an unreleased Vessel song.
12. “Tally”
Okay, as soon as this song started I was like, “Self-titled?” The way Joseph sings the verses, the tone and melody sounds so much like the way a lot of the songs on tøp’s self-titled debut album sounds. Additionally, the instrumental sounds very similar to the way a self-titled song is produced if it had real drums. To me, this song is for the torchbearers in our lives; the people that believe in us regardless of how many times they watch us fail and how many times these failures them hurt at our hands. Again, “Tally” was an instant favourite, I feel like I’m being redundant, but the blend of rap, singing and screaming makes this track truly angelic, paired with the insane instrumentation, it’s a spiritual experience.
13. “Intentions”
The final song on Breach, “Intentions”, Joseph explains is his way of understanding the entire storyline that has carried through the past five albums. “Intentions” talks about cycles and how difficult they are to break, how many times we will try and fail and try again. Something about “Intentions” felt immediately familiar, I couldn’t quite place it, other than the fact that it sounded a lot like “Truce” the closing track on 2013’s Vessel.
Joseph suggested that fans listen to “Intentions” in reverse because he hid something in it that would be very special to his longterm fans. Sure enough, upon listening to the song in reverse I started crying instantly. From the exact melody for which he sings each lyric, to the piano, “Intentions” is “Truce” reversed. Again, further solidifying that this storyline has been sprinkled into the albums much earlier than Blurryface. Additionally, reiterating the ending of the storyline; the cycle that doesn’t break, but continues because life is never not going to be full of lessons and challenges which we have to repeatedly fight and overcome (more on this in the lore-specific article).
In “Truce”, Joseph sings, “now the night is coming to an end, the sun will rise and we will try again”. For those who don’t know, night and day have been really significant motifs in tøp’s music since the beginning, the night representing darkness and our harder moments, and the light/day representing hope.
The storyline may be a cycle that repeats, but it ends with hope and certainty that we will overcome and push through the next thing life throws at us. Nothing could have ended the final chapter to the Blurryface saga more perfectly.
Vessel was the first album that truly hooked my sister and I on tøp’s music when we were young girls. “Holding On To You” was one of our favourite songs and the first which we knew every word to. “Truce” has been an important song to me pretty much my whole life, it’s one I turn to whenever I’m scared, sad or lost, it brings me great comfort to play on repeat. Hearing it in “Intentions” really got me.
BONUS TRACK: 14. “Drag Path”
It’s only right that Joseph decided to release “Drag Path” since fans have been theorizing ab0ut it since Clancy’s release. Lyrics to the song were revealed in the Clancy Digital Remains file and over a year later the song was released as a bonus track in the Breach Digital Remains file. “Drag Path” summarizes the ending of “City Walls” (the lore) by establishing the cycle, maybe Clancy didn’t win, but Nico didn’t win either, “and it seems to imply that it’s a battle Clancy intends to keep fighting: “the sun begins to rise, we made it through the darkest night, you found me” (“Drag Path”, Breach, 2025). It’s another emotional moving and spiritually elevating track, driven by intense drums and piano, tying into the final track “Intentions” and “Vessel” as well.
Author’s Note Pt. 2:
If you’ve read this far, thank you! I know this article was informal, and at times less of a critical review of the music and more of a personal journal into what the song meant for me, but that’s just how it flowed naturally. Of any artist, twenty øne piløts music has been consistent in my life since I was probably 5 or 6 years old. Whenever they release a new album it seems to speak to me on so many emotional levels it’s hard to separate that as I try and write a critical and professional review of it. So, thank you for being patient while I get the first part of my Breach review out. I know it’s a day and a bit later than usual. Again, this isn’t all I have to say for this album, there is A LOT to talk about and I want to do a deep dive into all the lore and all the details, but that’s going to take a lot more time and research. For now I really just wanted to get my personal thoughts on the album out there, especially since so many of you have been asking me about it! As always, thanks for reading!
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– Kayla <3
