The Singles Jukebox

Please enjoy this fairly local, 63% organic, kinda gluten-free, sorta non-GMO, maybe vegan psuedo-song…

[Video][Website]
[5.29]

Mo Kim: Imagine Dragons is a lot more fun when you can imagine twenty one!
[6]

Katherine St Asaph: Rock radio continues its harvest of unsung genresmash innovations. I mean, what else do you call a track made of fried-wire dubstep, not-awful rapping, symphonic-gothy strings and vocalise, 2011-radio oh-oh-ohs and siren synths, chopped-and-screwed trap percussion, all of which somehow all swagger in sync?
[7]

Micha Cavaseno: I have to give it up; this is the healthiest attempt to synergize the monotonous build of wobbling half-time dubstep (bordering more on the sloped-browish Rusko-era than the hypersaturated neon of Skrillex) into the pomp of rock that people such as Enter Shikari and Imagine Dragons have been striving to achieve. It’s a rather tedious plod, with Tyler Joseph sing-rapping about nothing particular, nor doing anything of note as a vocalist. It’s just worth it to point out that this is the best we’ve seen out of people trying to make this a thing and breathe new life into rock through the advancements made in other music. Being a dubstep purist, it’s not going to mean much to me. But in the sense that people are finally trying, just somewhat, to force rock into the 21st century, I suppose I have to give them their just due.
[5]

Megan Harrington: Am I the only one that hears a British accent? That’s certainly one way to shift the focus away from singing in mostly inept, non-committal rap cadences. Twenty One Pilots are from the very, very American Columbus, Ohio but their ambitions are, ahem, global. “Fairly Local” fuses the comfortably pedestrian concerns of pop punk with the subterranean glitch of grime. It doesn’t completely work, in fact — I don’t hope to ever hear this song again — but it’s an improvement on their debut and suggests the group might one day do something catchy.  
[4]

Michelle Myers: At their best, Twenty One Pilots did the scene-rap shtick better than just about anyone else; although, whether or not that is a laudable accomplishment is debatable. I thought Vessel was one of the best albums of 2013: equal parts Jack’s Mannequin, Atmosphere and Postal Service. This sounds more like a Linkin Park cover band on their “Worst Behaviour.” Also, it’s pretty obnoxious to make a song that would easily fit in modern alternative rock radio formats with fake deep lyrics about how you will never get radio play.
[5]

Iain Mew: Complaining about not getting played on the radio will always be a bullshit move, but I’ll forgive them because I love the sound of their gothic, hollowed out crawl. It’s like Awolnation meets Linkin Park but much more limber, and every judder and open space makes their sprinkle of standard rock moves hit harder.
[8]

Alfred Soto: Well, I suppose someone had to give Maroon 5 some goth pretensions.
[2]