Song Review: Level of Concern

Not since 1918 has anyone entertained asking someone to be their “little quarantine!” It is understandable that the duo has “panic on the brain” because the world certainly has “gone insane.” One wonders if it is the enforced isolation that is also raising his “level of concern”- after all, he does invite her to his “bunker under the surface.”

What is really interesting about “Level of Concern” is that the video shows the singers and musicians recording their parts separately and delivering the music to each other on a jump drive so each one can add their part. This is the “new normal” of recording and is particularly quarantine-specific, just like the lyrics.

Twenty One Pilots is a two-man group consisting of Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun, originally from Columbus, Ohio. They had their major-label debut in early 2013 and their band started to take off in 2016. The name Twenty One Pilots is not only a name but also a philosophy for Joseph and Dun. It was adopted from an Arthur Miller play, All My Sons in which a war contractor knowingly sends faulty airplane parts to Europe during World War II, resulting in the death of twenty-one airplane pilots. It had meaning to Joseph because he declined a basketball scholarship from Otterbein University to focus on music.

Nevertheless, it seems like his decision paid off and his band has succeeded. Using social distancing and still being creative, Twenty One Pilots are clearly determined to survive and keep making their music, COVID-19 or not!