Scaled and Icy
Scaled and Icy is the sixth studio album by the American musical duo Twenty One Pilots, released on May 21, 2021, through Fueled by Ramen and Elektra. Its title is a play on "scaled back and isolated", a phrase frontman Tyler Joseph associated with music produced during the COVID-19 pandemic, though the title is also an anagram of "Clancy is dead", a reference to the protagonist of the duo's previous studio album, Trench. The album received generally positive reviews from critics.
A livestream album version of Scaled and Icy which contains both the standard track listing as well as exclusive livestream version tracks originating from the associated "Livestream Experience" was released on November 19, five days before the release of the album's fourth and final single The Outside.
Background and production
On March 4, 2019, five months after the release of their fifth studio album Trench, the band confirmed that they were working on their next studio album. About the possible theme, frontman Joseph said, "There's a character that hasn't been talked about on any record yet that plays a huge role in the narrative that obviously will need to be talked about and it's probably where we're going next". On April 9, 2020, the duo released the song "Level of Concern", which marked the first musical output by the duo since the release of Trench. The song encourages the listener to keep hope during hard times, specifically alluding to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a May 2020 interview with Zane Lowe, Joseph expressed uncertainty as to whether their next album would continue Trenchs narrative or would be an "in-between record", explaining: "It's kind of hard for me to tap into the story of Trench and what we've been building on up until that point without being out there, without touring, without having those live shows, without interacting with our fans."Scaled and Icy was written and largely produced by Joseph in his home studio over a year-long period during the COVID-19 pandemic, while drummer Josh Dun engineered the drum tracks remotely. The band had initially planned on embarking on a "victory lap" tour of arenas and festivals to draw the album cycle for Trench to a close, but the pandemic had instead left them with more free time than they were accustomed to. Joseph recalled being faced with two potential directions for the album when its writing process began in 2020, either to "lean into what felt like everyone was feeling, this ominous world is ending feel", or to "kind of escape from that feeling", eventually choosing the latter approach. Dun had revealed in November 2020 that they were still working "remotely" on the album, with both members being in different locations during the time. He describes the recording process, "we both have our own studios, which is really nice, so he comes up with a lot of stuff at his studio, sends it over to me, and then I come up with some stuff here at my studio and then send it back".
Scaled and Icy is the first Twenty One Pilots album to involve Joseph's youngest brother, Jay, who provided backing vocals alongside five of his close friends on "Never Take It", "Bounce Man" and "No Chances".
Title and artwork
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 their previous album, 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, featured in Scaled and Icy music videos in a CGI form, 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. 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".
Composition
Scaled and Icy has been described as, "at first listen, the most upbeat and optimistic the band have sounded since they first emerged in 2009", which Joseph explained is a reaction against the "strange and bleak conditions" caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the album was recorded. Critics specifically noted its departure from the darker approach of Trench and Blurryface and a return to the "playful alt-pop sound" of Vessel, with Joseph stating that the record is a "bit of a reaction to Trench". The album has also been described as alternative rock, pop, rock, rap and synth-pop, with elements of electro.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".
Tours
On June 16, 2021, Twenty One Pilots announced the Takeover Tour, consisting of 35 shows in which they would spend one week in each city to perform at small clubs as well as large venues. The tour began on September 21, 2021, in Denver, Colorado, and concluded on June 25, 2022, in London.On November 18, 2021, the band announced a second tour of North America in support of the album called the Icy Tour, which began on August 18, 2022, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and concluded on September 24 in Seattle, Washington. It consisted of 23 shows.
Release and promotion
The duo began teasing the era in January 2021 by updating their social media headers with an orange-tinged photo of the duo in an empty venue, the band's Trench era logo placed between them. The following month, Joseph posted a selfie to his Instagram story featuring a blue psi symbol over his right eye. On April 2, 2021, a progress bar appeared on dmaorg.info—a website the band uses to share background stories and lore—which appeared to be deleting files. When the progress bar timed out three days later, three posters appeared on the page announcing a new album titled Scaled and Icy and a "Livestream Experience" scheduled for May 21, 2021. The lead single "Shy Away" premiered on BBC Radio 1 on April 7, with a music video being released shortly after alongside an official album announcement on the band's social media. A second single, "Choker", premiered on the band's livestream pre-access website, with fans participating in a release event. The music video and single were premiered on April 30, 2021, at 12:00am ET. The third single from the album, "Saturday", was released on May 18, 2021, with a music video for the song released on July 8, 2021. "The Outside" was released as the fourth and final single on November 24, 2021, followed by a music video on March 18, 2022.Livestream event
The duo was initially reluctant to do a livestream concert, arguing that "you can't recreate a live experience on a stream". However, they changed their minds as they resolved to "create something that's never been done before", and promised in an interview with NME that "it's not going to be stale by song two, like every other livestream concert." Their manager, Chris Woltman, stressed that it would be different from their past live shows, describing it as "a convergence of live theater mixed with a livestream moment and a Twenty One Pilots show". Work on the event began in July 2020, and required 150 production and support staff, 12 cameras, almost 30,000 square feet of on-set floor space, over 130 rehearsal hours, and 13 days for its set-up, rehearsal and the show itself, according to the band's management team. The show took place at Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio, and its synopsis is very close-knit with the storyline from Trench, featuring numerous Easter eggs concerning the band's lore. The livestream's webpage received 3.6 million sessions from April 7, which included 3.48 million hours of watch time from 202 international territories on a million unique devices, 56% of them from outside the United States. The event garnered acclaim from various publications, including NME, who awarded it five stars, with Ali Shutler calling it "one of the most forward-thinking shows that've been attempted in over a year" which "sees them push the limit on just what a livestream can be". Gil Kaufman of Billboard described it as "eye-popping" and a "Las Vegas-worthy spectacle".On April 8, 2022, the duo announced a limited theatrical release of the livestream concert, which was set for May 19, 2022. According to The Numbers, it earned approximately $1,560,000 worldwide.