Jumpsuit (song)
"Jumpsuit" is a song written and recorded by the American musical duo Twenty One Pilots. It was released on July 11, 2018 as the first of the singles from their fifth studio album Trench, alongside "Nico and the Niners". It is the first song to be released by the band after a year-long public silence. The track was nominated for Best Rock Song at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.
Background and release
The band started working on the song during the Emotional Roadshow World Tour, Tyler Joseph, the band's frontman, having created the bass riff and would play it during sound checks before shows. Following the tour, the band withdrew from public life in order to record the album Trench. Joseph revealed in an interview with NME that the album was originally supposed to be a "lighter sounding and softer record," but "then he wrote 'Jumpsuit' which ruined that." On July 6, 2018, the band broke their year-long silence by an email of a closing eye with the words "ARE YOU STILL SLEEPING?" Three days later, they returned to social media for the first time in their year-long hiatus, posting a clip from the official video for the song inside of an opening eye. The next day, they posted another clip from the official video playing a muffled version of the song inside a nearly fully open eye. On July 11, the song was then released along with its music video.Composition
"Jumpsuit" is a hard rock song with progressive and electronic rock hooks, nu metal-like crescendo while experimenting with alternative rock. It lasts for a duration of three minutes and fifty-eight seconds. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Alfred Music, it is written in the time signature of common time, with a moderately fast tempo of 127 beats per minute. The song is composed in the key of B minor while Tyler Joseph's vocal range spans one octave and three notes, from a low of D4 to a high of G5. Lyrically, the song features Clancy, the main character from the conceptual world of "Trench", calling for protection from the bishops, the leaders of the city Dema. The song was described by Rolling Stone as having "distorted bass guitar, crisp drumming and dark washes of synth" with frontman Tyler Joseph's vocals building from "a near-whisper to a full-throated scream, to an atmospheric falsetto." Idolator described its sound as alternating between "semi-acoustic and hard rock".Music video
A music video for "Jumpsuit" was released on July 11, 2018. It was directed by Andrew Donoho, who had previously directed the music videos for the duo's songs "Heathens" and "Heavydirtysoul". The video was filmed in Thórsmörk, Iceland. On July 12, 2018, the music video for "Jumpsuit" surpassed "Heathens" for the most YouTube views in one day for the band, and currently has over 75 million views.The video starts out with the car from the "Heavydirtysoul" video still smoldering, before suddenly catching fire. Lead singer Tyler Joseph jumps onto the car and tells the viewers that they've been here the whole time, they were asleep, and it's time to wake up. The scene then cuts to a valley where Joseph is seen laying unconscious in a stream of water, he wakes up and observes his surroundings when mysterious people in yellow outfits appear upon the clifftops of the valley watching him. As he makes his way through the valley, he is pursued by a red hooded figure on a white horse who upon catching up to him smears black paint on his neck. Following this, he is seen following the red-hooded figure on the horse in a trance-like state. The people in yellow toss yellow petals at the hooded figure and Joseph, breaking him out of his trance and disorientating the bishop's horse, allowing him to try and escape. However, Joseph trips while running and is captured by the bishop. The video ends cutting back to the original scene, with Joseph opening the back of the flaming car, grabbing a yellow jumpsuit and putting it on before walking away.
The clip was named one of the twelve best music videos of 2018 by the British rock music magazine Kerrang!.
Reception
Spin was critical of the song, finding the lyrics and backstory confusing, and feeling that its progressive rock inspired song structure would not catch on at contemporary pop music. Chris Willman, writing for Variety, was more positive, saying "The color-coded storytelling of 'Jumpsuit' doesn't get in the way of its thunderous pleasures". PopMattersThe song was named the Hottest Record of the Year in 2018 by BBC Radio 1 during DJ Annie Mac's radio show. Billboard also deemed the song the best rock song of 2018. Loudwire featured it on their "40 best hard rock songs of 2018" list, placing it at No. 28." The track was nominated for Best Rock Song at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.
Commercial performance
"Jumpsuit" debuted at No. 60 on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of July 21, 2018, with 11.4 million airplay audience impressions, 5.2 million U.S. streams and 22,000 downloads sold according to Nielsen Music, and peaked at No. 50 the following week. The same month, "Jumpsuit" peaked at number one on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart, the band's fourth on the list. By taking two weeks to peak at number one, "Jumpsuit" became the fastest song to reach number one on the Alternative Songs chart in the 2010s. The song also peaked at No. 6 on the Hot Rock Songs chart. Later, the song peaked at number one on the Rock Airplay chart, marking the band's third on the list.Live performances
Twenty One Pilots first played the song live at the Brixton Academy for their concert "A Complete Diversion", on stage with a flaming car and yellow petals from the original music video. They also performed the song at the 2018 American Music Awards with the same type of setting. It is the opener of the set list for The Bandito Tour, which took place from October 2018 to June 2019. Joseph revealed that the track was his favorite song to play live, calling it a "very useful song" due to the fact that "the song gives off the energy that is required to be injected into a room that can sustain for the course of an entire set."Credits and personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Trench and Tidal.Recording and management
- Published by Warner-Tamerlane publishing Corp. and Stryker Joseph Music
- Recorded at Tyler Joseph's home studio and United Recording Studios
- Mastered at Sterling Sound
- Tyler Joseph – vocals, bass, synthesizers, guitar, piano, programming, songwriting, production
- Josh Dun – drums, percussion
- Paul Meany – synthesizers, programming, co-production
- Adam Hawkins – mixing
- Chris Gehringer – mastering
Usage in media