Scaled And Icy by Twenty one pilots

Scaled and Icy is the sixth studio album by American musical duo twenty one pilots, it was released May 21, 2021 by Fueled by Ramen and Elektra. Critics noted its return to the "playful alt-pop sound" of Vessel (2013), and a departure from the darker approach of its predecessors Blurryface (2015) and Trench (2018). The album has also been described as alternative rock, pop, rock, rap and synthpop, with elements of electro. The album's title is a play on "scaled back and isolated", a phrase frontman Tyler Joseph associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the music produced at the time. On an interview with Sirius XM, he stated that he wanted to "lean into being aware that things are scaled back and that we're isolated". Despite that, Joseph's goal was to create an album that contrasts this very idea and that conveys the opposite of it. The album title is also an anagram of "Clancy is dead", a reference to the protagonist of Trench, the band has however neither described this as coincidental nor declined to comment on this subject. The title's initials appear on the cover art for their 2020 single "Christmas Saves the Year", on which the sentence "SAI is propaganda" is written in purple on one of the wrapped gifts. The cover artwork for Scaled and Icy was designed by Brandon Rike, who also designed the cover art for Trench and Blurryface. It features a scaled, teal dragon breathing yellow fire over a pink background, as well as a psi symbol in the top right corner. The dragon is named Trash, and represents "inspiration, fear, and magic"; Joseph explained that he wanted to "tie the songs to something as powerful as that". The creature was originally drawn by British illustrator Walter Crane in a children's book from the 1860s (the artwork is in the public domain, allowing the band to use it in the album cover). Its usage was also inspired by a small dragon figurine Joseph keeps in his home studio, with Joseph revealing to BBC Radio 1 that it represented an idea that if he were to focus on a single detail of a small room, "then that detail can then come to life". Although a departure from the conceptual narrative found on Trench, the band largely continues to examine serious themes on Scaled and Icy despite its upbeat sound. Joseph explained that the contrast was deliberate, stating that "as you dive into lyrics, a lot of times it's asking some pretty heavy questions and addressing some pretty heavy things". Neil Z. Yeung of AllMusic described the album as "a snapshot of the emotional highs and lows of quarantine life", while Augusta Battoclette of Alternative Press noted the themes of "anxiety, doubt and the need to keep your loved ones close". The album was preceded by the singles "Shy Away", and "Choker", and "Saturday", "The Outside" was chosen as the fourth single later on. Scaled and Icy received generally positive reviews from music critics overall. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 70, based on 9 critical reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". The album peaked at no. 03 in both the US and the UK. At the 2022 Billboard Music Awards, it won the Top Rock Album category. ℗ 2021 Fueled By Ramen LLC