twenty one pilots are back with their new single ‘Shy Away’ and the Skeleton Clique are abuzz with theories and analysis on everything involving this new album cycle. The song opens with a fairly tame synth, that honestly, leaves a bit to be desired at first. This is especially true when you compare this lead single to that of ‘Jumpsuit’ off Trench. ‘Jumpsuit’ had a bass-driven, anthemic beat while ‘Shy Away’ opens with a generic drum pattern and the aforementioned mellow synth. What follows is a bit of a rough first verse as well. “When I get home / you better not be there / we’re placing bets / you won’t” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. However, the song immediately opens up to the point where I felt ashamed that I didn’t trust front man Tyler Joseph the whole time. The chorus is perhaps the strongest aspect of the track. Each line of it begs to be shouted, especially the turn of phrase “manifest a ceiling when you shy away” which gives the listener a beautifully poetic visual to latch onto, as well as being fun to sing along with.
Lyrically, this song seems to be about Tyler’s brother Jay. Tyler is urging his younger brother to find his purpose and to not hold back when it comes to showing the world who he is and how he’ll contribute to it, as any great older brother would. Tyler can speak from experience here, since Jay is pursuing a music career of himself, and Tyler knows all about wearing your heart on your sleeve and making it big despite that.
The last pre-chorus of the track has twenty one pilots performing one of the closest attempts at a breakdown in their discography, albeit for about 3 seconds. Nonetheless, it hits. It then leads into a re-energized version of the chorus where Tyler actually has backing screamed vocals over it to great effect; it’s my favorite aspect of the song after 30 listens. The bridge of the song also puts an even greater focus on the guitar strumming, which is a rarely used instrument for the duo.
Long gone are the days of the band presenting lyrics about their songs not being on the radio, because given the infectious chorus and catchy synth driven verses of ‘Shy Away’, this one will catch some airtime for sure. If the rest of the upcoming album is on equal footing to this lead single, twenty one pilots fans have a lot to be excited about. Be sure to check back with BoolinTunes for a full review of Scaled and Icy when it drops on May 21st!