Twenty one pilots- Christmas Saves The Year

   We have actually gotten quite a few great new christmas songs this season, so I guess we had to get at least a few duds as well. I wouldn't expect twenty one pilots to drop one of the them though, escpecially after how strong their recent material has been.

I don't think this track is terrible by any means but I was expecting a bit more from the duo, especially because this type of synthy sweet pop is right in their wheelhouse. The instrumental is fine, it's mixed soft and clean, fits in nicely with Tyler's vocals. Lyrics are serviceable, they fade into the background pretty quickly after you realize all they're saying is "everybody wants to go home for christmas". It's just not a very creative approach to the topic. The biggest issue with the song is that the refrain wasn't strong enough to be satysfying, I kept thinking that the track is just building up to something, we are going to get a grand outro full of loud synths, maybe more vocal layers but it just never ended up happening. There were few moments that seemed to be hinting at that but then it just returned to it's verse-refrain-verse structure. What was bothering me the entire time is that melody during the refrain, especially certain parts of it, is ripped of from somewhere else. After few more listens I got it- Foreign Girls by Bleachers. I wouldn't call it a rip-off but it's pretty similar and trying to remember where I have heard those notes was driving me mad.

Honestly the song is so uneventful I don't even know why I'm writing about this. It's not awful, just very standard by twenty one pilots standards. I'm sure their fans are loving it, I just don't think anyone else would want to return to it in the coming years.

RATING: 5.5/10