#48
Tyler Joseph’s first and only solo album is the next one out. Although lyrically deep, touching on hard-hitting issues such as suicide, mental health and depression in most of the tracks (including Drown, Taken By Sleep and Goner, the latter being remastered many times in the future), my main criticism is the production quality. It was a completely self produced album by a teenage musician new to sound technology, so as you can expect audio issues and technical glitches are a regular occurrence.
But that aside, it’s an incredibly well written album. Known for his more subtle and layered lyricism in recent years, No Phun Intended provides a very blunt and explicit look at Joseph’s teenage state. In many of the tracks he calls upon his religion to provide him answers, and in Prove Me Wrong, one of my personal favourites, he questions his ability to fall in love.
Overall, it’s an album that I see as a huge window into Joseph’s life, both through the music, the lyrics and the skill. It’s not an album I return to often, but it’s an album that I can appreciate for what it is.