Review of Clancy (2024)¶

Last Updated 2024-05-13

Overcompensate¶

The first single dropped while I was in Boston. I watched the MV in the lobby at the Museum of Fine Art. I cannot say a bad thing about the music.

Things that immediately caught my attention:

• So the boys decided to start an entire album with German (I heard "diese kleine", "gemacht" and "wir glauben beide", but I couldn't figure out the rest until someone on Reddit transcribed it)
• Interpolation of "Bandito" from Trench
• First "real" line of song begins at 1:46 which, depending on your definition, may or may not make the intro even longer than in "Implicit Demand For Proof"
• Tyler grins every time he sings the word "overcompensate"
• His hand signs V on "twice" which is a classic trope all tøp fans recognize
• On "by the time", he pretends to check his watch, alluding to the short published in 2022 titled "sometimes people ask what we do all day before the show starts." where he does the same

• At the end, someone pulls off "Tyler"'s mask only to find another person. Tyler himself is actually far away from Dema, and the "Tyler" we saw throughout the video is just a citizen possessed by Tyler. The citizen has long hair and looks feminine, which is coherent with a fan theory (which I believe) that "Redecorate" from Scaled And Icy is about a transgender person.
• Josh ordered his like 6th? 7th? 314th? custom drum kit from SJC??

Only problem I have is the youtube thumbnail. Look at Josh. Why he look like Elon Musk 😭😭😭

The album cover & meta things¶

The album cover was not well received. Lots of fans say they could do better. I agree. Just look at this.

The art style is ok, and it's reminiscent of the low-res, dithered feel of their teasing website, dmaorg.info. It's fine if it's the style they're going for. After all it's the first time the boys put themselves on a record cover.

But I mean… at least give Josh more attention… like c'mon.

The album is set to drop May 17, which made me worried because if they tour right then over summer break I might miss it.

Next Semester¶

Haha! They're not touring until August, and the Detroit show is on September 29. I guess you could literally… (picks up acoustic guitar) wake me up when september ends 🥁🥁🥁

Anyway, a new single dropped titled "Next Semester" and incidentally that's when I'll go to their show. I received the newsletter halfway through a take-home exam, and I was unable to concentrate ever since.

The song is unexpectedly punk, a huge deflection from the hip-hop of "Overcompensate". The bass is punchy af and sounds straight from Mike Dirnt. The drumline is almost irresponsibly simple compared to "Overcompensate". It's un-Josh.

Snap, snap, snap — it's not a bad thing. Given the punk genre, this may be intentional. Allow me to go on a tangent about Radiohead.

Back when I was in love with The Bends and thought nothing could top it, I tried Kid A and, unexpectedly, it got me hooked in just three seconds. For context, The Bends is pure rock, and Kid A is pure electronic — synthesizers, drum machines, vocoders, etc. If Wikipedia is to be trusted, it's because Radiohead grew tired of rock.

You need dynamics in a song, you need dynamics in an album, and you need dynamics in your discography. To make "[genre] and [genre] only" is to become a machine. This is why I get bored of some albums by Linkin Park and Green Day. To be fair, I get bored with tracks #6-9 on Vessel sometimes, so I'm not as biased as you think.

Back to "Next Semester". Interesting things:

• Tyler's bass is practically identical to mine; he's got a Fender P, probably charcoal gray, and I've got a Squier PJ in the same color. Great minds think alike
• Despite probably intended to resonate with students, it did not resonate with me because I'm doing pretty ok this semester and am not contemplating suicide no thank you will check back when i need it

Now.

Tickets.

This is the most stressful part, to get tickets before they sell out, probably not into hands of real fans, but resellers who profit with an obscene margin. I hope they die.

Here's hoping my luck works out on April 2. I hope it's less than $100, but at this point it's not really about cost.

Brief intermission: end of semester¶

So I guess I wrote this on 2024-03-31:

• Despite probably intended to resonate with students, it did not resonate with me because I'm doing pretty ok this semester and am not contemplating suicide no thank you will check back when i need it

This did not age well.

Later on, the triplet of EECS courses nearly killed me (see Winter 2024 wrapup). It's the most "Next Semester" moment, as this line repeated in my head:

Can't change what you've done
Start fresh next semester

Backslide¶

Oddly poppy. Lots of Asian influences. Like the flutes in the verses and zither-like riff at the end. The zither, as Paul Meany revealed, was actually a chopped-up sample of the muted piano in another WIP track. He nailed the feel though.

Musically, there was nothing remarkable. Lyrically, there was nothing remarkable. Apparently the title "Backslide" has biblical origins, but I couldn't care less. What I assume it means is a relapse into some old bad habits.

In a line Tyler discussed how he regretted making "Saturday" on Scaled And Icy (2021). Back then he described it as a "bop" (it is). Poppiest song on the record, climax of chill-ness. I do not know the reason why he regrets it now, nor do I care. Artists change their minds, and set different standards, and I'm the victim of the inferiority complex that interferes with my music making.

Last year I made a song, This Song Will Uncure Your Depression. I never listen to it. The unhealthy tendency to compare my work to those produced in a studio has made it very hard for me to appreciate my own music. Because I made it, I know how far it is from what I wished it sounds like.

I wish some day I could be proud of a song I made.

The selling point of the song is its MV. Josh Dun directed it. It's part of the plan to shoot one MV for each one of the songs, set to be released on the same day of the album, which was a late decision that postponed the release date by a week.

I bet the boys are having fun coming up with all sorts of crazy shit. In "Backslide", Tyler bought bread buns, ate some, traded one for a cup of lemonade, littered all over the street while riding a bicycle, and got showered in rain and leaves. When he got home, Josh was grilling beef as Tyler dumped the bag of soggy bread on the pavement.

He is a menace to society.