Alternative rock duo Twenty One Pilots have taken the music industry by storm with the release of their second studio album, Blurryface, and their success continues with the release of the music video for the album’s fourth single “Lane Boy.” “Lane Boy” is the perfect addition to Blurryface‘s first three singles “Fairly Local,” “Tear in My Heart,” and “Stressed Out,” as it spices things up a little bit and slightly wanders away from Twenty One Pilots’ traditional sound.
The first half of the music video for “Lane Boy” follows lead singer Tyler Joseph as he walks down a dimly lit path and is followed by two people wearing hazmat suits. Every so often Joseph dances in unison with the pair of individuals behind him, and, at the end of the sequence, draws the Twenty One Pilots logo on their suits. The scene instantly changes and, all of a sudden, Joseph can be seen performing at a music festival alongside drummer Josh Dun. Joseph crouches down on stage and says, “Why do I kneel to these concepts? Tempted by control, controlled by temptation. ‘Stay low,’ they say. ‘Stay low,'” as the crowd squats down toward the ground as well. As soon as Joseph finishes speaking, the music erupts into a flourish of electronic dance beats and drums, and the crowd jumps up onto their feet and simply goes wild.
All in all, I thought this music video was very well done and matched the song’s instrumental composition and lyrics perfectly. Although the scene at the music festival did not follow the music video’s original storyline, I still think that it belongs in the video simply because of the fact that it kept me engaged the entire time I was watching it. Joseph’s words peaked my curiosity, and I was kept on the edge of my seat, wondering what was going to happen next.
As soon as I watched this video, I fell in love with the lyrics to this song as well. In them, Joseph comments on the music industry and the battle between making music for pleasure versus making music that will be popular on the radio. While all of the lyrics are full of passion and raw emotion, some of my favorites include “Honest, there’s a few songs on this record that feel common / I’m in constant confrontation with what I want and what is poppin'” and “Don’t trust a perfect person and don’t trust a song that’s flawless,” which Joseph repeats twice throughout the song. Joseph’s brutal honesty in these lyrics shocked me, but made me ever so happy at the same time.
As of late, I am a huge fan of Twenty One Pilots, and this music video pushes me even farther onto their bandwagon. In this track, Joseph does an excellent job of conveying his message to the listener in a clear-cut yet still captivating method. The song’s instrumentals are also quite interesting, as they range from strong synthetic beats to forceful drums and simple plucking on the piano. All of these different dimensions make “Lane Boy” a great, diversified track and another hit for Twenty One Pilots.