twenty one pilots, Overcompensate | Song Review 🎵

Twenty one pilots make an ambitious and engaging return with “Overcompensate,” the promo single from their seventh studio album, Clancy.

“Welcome back to Trench.” Indeed, twenty one pilots! The Grammy-winning, alternative band returns in 2024 with Clancy, concluding a narrative spanning multiple albums. Leading the charge on Clancy is single “Overcompensate” which was written and produced by Tyler Joseph and Paul Meany. As always, Joseph’s partner in crime, Josh Dun, supports his bestie and packs a punch on the drums. Like many twenty one pilot albums and tracks, both Clancy, the album, and “Overcompensate,” the track, are conceptual.  It’s a complicated follow, but even if the narrative itself fails to appeal, the ambitious nature of the song at hand speaks volumes.

“Overcompensate” commences with warm piano. Soon enough, those smoother keys transform into edgier synths – an industrial sound. So begins the lyrical intro with lines in German, French, and Spanish before “Welcome back to Trench” appears.  The groove is electrifying, setting up “Overcompensate” as an alternative banger. Prior to the first verse, there’s a transitional ‘break’ section that leads to an epic beat switch. Joseph raps/sings with an epic cadence/flow and strong tone beginning in the first verse. Here, the titular lyric first appears (“Earned my stripes, three hundred track sin my Adidas track jacket / Bless your ear holes while you react, acting / Gobsmacked, don’t hesitate / To maybe overcompensate”). Wow! The second half of the first verse also closes with the line regarding overcompensating. The titular lyric reappears in the chorus:

“I said I fly by the dangerous bend symbol (Wait, what? Wait, what?)

Mm, don’t hesitate to maybe overcompensate

And then by the time I catch in my peripheral (Wait, what? Wait, what?)

Mm, don’t hesitate to maybe overcompensate.”

Expectedly, the chorus is tuneful. The second verse moves beyond explicit mention of overcompensating, separating itself from the first. Joseph mentions Clancy explicitly: “If you can’t see, I am Clancy, prodigal son / Don running, come up with Josh Dun, wanted dead or alive.” Clever mention of his bandmate and bestie. There is also a bridge, which separates itself lyrically and musically from the rest of the song. Honestly, so much more could be said regarding “Overcompensate” – there’s a lot going on.  That said, at the most basic, “Overcompensate” is an engaging musical gem from twenty one pilots.

Twenty one pilots // Clancy // Fueled by Ramen LLC // 5.17.24

[📷: Brent Faulkner/The Musical Hype; Fueled by Ramen LLC; Clker-Free-Vector-Images, Królestwo Nauki, OpenClipart-Vectors, Pete Linforth, Tumisu from Pixabay]