Vessel (Twenty One Pilots album)

High-school colleagues Tyler Joseph, Nick Thomas, and Chris Salih formed Twenty One Pilots in 2009.[9] The group released their debut album Twenty One Pilots.[9] Both Thomas and Salih parted ways with the band in 2011.[9] Soon afterwards, Josh Dun joined the band;[9] Joseph had been friends with Dun for around a year.[10] Joseph first saw Dun when he was playing a show[10] with House of Heroes.[11] Joseph said that he "loved" the performance.[10] The band released Regional at Best later that year.[9] In June, the duo played their first out-of-state show to a group of 12 people.[12] The pair soon gained popularity through a series of videos made by friend Mark C. Eshleman.[9] The band played their last show as an unsigned band at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus, Ohio, to a crowd of 1,800 in attendance.[10] The duo signed to Fueled by Ramen in 2012.[9]

The songs "Ode to Sleep", "Holding on to You", "Car Radio", "Guns for Hands", and "Trees" were taken from their previous independent album, Regional at Best, and re-recorded for Vessel; as a result, the former project was pulled from distribution by the band's label.[13] Joseph had composed Regional at Best "not knowing whether or not people were going to hear it" and viewed Vessel as an opportunity to complete these songs.[14]

Recording for Vessel took place at Rocket Carousel Studio, located in Los Angeles, California with Greg Wells producing.[15] Wells provided additional synths, keyboards and programming.[15] Wells mixed the album, while Ian McGregor helped with recording.[15] Mastering was performed by Howie Weinberg and Dan Gerbarg at Howie Weinberg Mastering, also in Los Angeles.[15]

The album cover features the duo's paternal grandfathers. The man on the left was Dun's grandfather Earl Owen Dun, who died shortly after the album's release,[16] and the man on the right is Joseph's grandfather Robert O. "Bobby" Joseph, who died on March 17, 2018.

In a fan interview, Joseph spoke on the meaning behind the album's name, saying that a vessel (our body) is an object carrying something far more important than the outer shell, and when we die, that is set free and lives on.[17]

In the summer of 2012, Twenty One Pilots released the Three Songs EP,[9] which featured the tracks "Guns for Hands", "Migraine", and "Ode to Sleep".[18] On September 11, "Holding on to You" was released as a single. On December 18, the album was made available for streaming via Entertainment Weekly.[19] Vessel was released through Fueled by Ramen on January 8, 2013.[19] The two elderly men pictured on the album cover were Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun's grandfathers.[10] In an interview, Joseph spoke on the meaning behind the album's name, saying that "a vessel (our body) is an object carrying something far more important than the outer shell, and when we die, that is set free and lives on."[20]

"Lovely" was released as a single in Japan on April 17, 2013,[21] and included as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of Vessel.[22] "House of Gold" was released as a radio single on August 6.[23] On September 15, "Fake You Out" was released as a single.[24] On October 4, the music video for "House of Gold" was released.[25] The video was directed by Warren Kommers.[26] "Car Radio" was released as a radio single on March 18, 2014.[27]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[28]
Alternative Press	[2]
Alter the Press	[29]
AMH Network	[30]
Idobi Radio	4/5[3]
Immortal Reviews	95/100[31]
Rolling Stone	Unfavorable[32]
The Yorkshire Times	4/5[33]
The West Review	Favorable[34]

Vessel received positive reviews upon release. Jason Pettigrew, writing for Alternative Press, praised the album's multi-genre influence: "The major-label debut by Twenty One Pilots traipses across electropop, hip hop and classic pop music—and that's just the first song." In a more negative review, Rolling Stone's Dave DiMartino wrote: "The duo has somehow managed to take the most disagreeable and obnoxious aspects of the past decade's "rap-rock" legacy, throw in some of the most aggravating melodic aspects of Linkin Park and Blink-182, and put together a new album that will surely make you want to decry ever liking rock 'n' roll at least three times before a cock crows."[4]

In May 2015, it was announced the album had sold 265,000 copies in the United States.[35] By July 2016, the album had sold over 569,000 copies in the U.S.[36] As of July 2019, the album has been certified 2x multi-platinum in the U.S. by the RIAA. Each of its songs have also been certified gold or higher, making Twenty One Pilots the first and only band or artist to reach this accomplishment on two non-compilation albums after Blurryface passed the milestone the previous year.[37]

Frontman Tyler Joseph performing during the Quiet Is Violent World Tour in 2014

To help support the album, the band toured internationally throughout the year.[9] In 2014, Twenty One Pilots played a number of music festivals and other events all around the country which focused mainly on the album, such as Lollapalooza,[38] Bonnaroo,[39] Boston Calling, and Firefly.[40] As a result, they took the show requests from different cities and blended them into the Quiet Is Violent World Tour, which began in September 2014, and ended the same year.[41]

All tracks are written by Tyler Joseph, except for "Holding on to You", written by Tyler Joseph, Maurice Gleaton, Charles Hammond, Robert Hill, Deangelo Hunt, Bernard Leverette, Gerald Tiller and Jamall Willingham.

Personnel per booklet.[15]

Citations

Sources

• Vessel at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)