Robbed of My Momentum

Breach Review Series Part 6

The photo was taken by me out in the wild.

Welcome back, everyone! Let’s go ahead and get on into it.

Introduction to this post

“Downstairs” and “Center Mass” work together to reinforce a common theme. The problem has been introduced previously in the album. Struggles with things like fear and feelings of worthlessness have been addressed, but there are other external symptoms of the same deeper internal problems.

This next chapter of Breach explores a different problem, one that, perhaps, isn’t as dire, but is not without its consequences.

One Way

I’m beginning with “One Way,” because it comes before “Days Lie Dormant,” and it makes sense to start at the beginning.

I’m not going to talk that much about the musical aspect of “One Way,” but it is a very good song with a cool key signature that does a lot of cool things in the melody, bass, and everywhere else.

Lyrical analysis

I wanted to fly,
But they say a system’s comin’ in
The chances are high
That this is a one way, one way, one way, one way

The music career of twenty one pilots is being compared, appropriately enough, to a flight. “They say” a storm is going to come in, and, well, you’re going to end up on a one-way flight straight to failure. Whoever these critics are, it doesn’t matter.

Tyler has dealt with his critics in his lyrics before, like in “Screen” (“People who know if I flow on a song, I’ll get no radio play”), “Fairly Local” (“Yo, this song will never be on the radio”), and “Lane Boy” (“They say ‘stay in your lane, boy,/Lane, boy’/We go where we want to”). All three songs concluded that twenty one pilots will always have fans, as there will always be people who are willing to think hard enough to “get it.”

Am I dreamin’? If it’s so,
Can I take back who I was before? If it’s no,
Then all my dreams have not been interesting in a while
This has not been interesting in a while, while, while

If you get what you really want (in this case, success and fame), will you still want that thing? Or will you lose interest and become bored? What if you’re not interested in your dreams, to the point that you wish you were someone else, someone with different dreams, someone you used to be?

Pursuing your wildest dreams is hard. Not everyone can or should do it, but there are a few who will make it big, and even fewer, maybe even none, who will make it big and retain their humanity.

Next we see the bridge:

Me and my scene just ain’t gellin’
Someone next to me keeps yellin’
Ooh, why am I still walkin’?
Somethin’ must be wrong here
I just don’t belong here

The people in “Center Mass” thought he had made it. But the fact is, he hasn’t. He may have achieved fame and fortune, but he’s stuck in the middle of an industry where he feels like he simply doesn’t belong.

Wrapping up a one-way trip

This is a short song, not even three minutes long, and it’s the perfect length for what it is. It makes sure not to overstay its welcome. However, there’s still so much musical and lyrical potential.

Speaking of potential, here’s a thought. If you have potential to be good at something, and you’re passionate about it, should you pursue it? What will happen to you if you make it? What will happen to you if you don’t?

This song and the next both revolve around that question, though the next song is a lot less cryptic, but it makes sense to connect them even if it is “quite a vibe change.”

The transition

There is a transition between these songs so that the first flows into the second smoothly and not at all abruptly. Here’s how it goes:

That this is a one way, one way
(This is a)

Hey, it’s Josh, calling back
Uh, I’m not opposed to “One Way” going into “Days Lie Dormant,” but it does feel like quite a vibe change, and uh-

And this is just such a beautiful, poignant way to link these two songs. I really appreciate the effort that went into it.

Days Lie Dormant

And so now we move on to “Days Lie Dormant,” the second song I’m analyzing in this post.

Musical structure

Breach is twenty one pilots’ most rock-inspired album, and it stands out the most on this song, with Josh’s frantic drumming and Tyler’s clanking bass and desperate vocals.

The structure of this song is almost identical to that of “The Run and Go.” There’s a typical verse, chorus, verse, chorus, followed by a bridge in a different key, and a return to the original key for the final chorus, triumphant almost to the point of maestoso.

The song, excluding the bridge, is in C major. The bridge is in A major, and an E7 chord at the end causes the song to finally cadence into another A major chord. It’s not something that’s done often.¹ So like “Downstairs,” this song automatically stands out because of its structure.

Lyrical analysis

This song tells a story, and the lyrics are not hard at all to decode.

My days lie dormant
‘Cause I just can’t afford it
To waste time in a city
Where no one knows your name

The main character of this story has found himself separated by necessity from who we can safely assume to be his significant other, who, as we learn in the first verse, is highly supportive regardless of what she really wants:

You say I should chase it, I’ll never say no
Too narrow and too tight, somewhere you can’t follow
But you say with your face something else all together

“One Way” and this song work really well together. While “One Way” was an internal struggle with feeling out of place, “Days Lie Dormant” is about exactly what the title says: feeling like your days are lying dormant—“frozen and distorted,” as the bridge says—even though you’re pursuing what you love, because you’re separated from the people who love you most.

The lyrics are pretty straightforward. There’s nothing super cryptic here, nothing really to decode. The sentiment is an extremely universal one, and the song is catchy, so I’m sad that it’s one of the least popular Breach songs.

Putting it all together

A thread runs between the entirety of Breach, and it comes out quite apparently in the last half of the album. That thread is more of a feeling than anything else. It’s a feeling of not belonging, and a feeling of having two lives that contradict each other. And as is the case with most of twenty one pilots’ music, the thematic content of the album is a result of Tyler Joseph’s internal struggles, but it’s presented in a way that anyone can relate to it, regardless of specific situation.

More than anything, these songs (and Breach as a whole) are about love. “One Way” and “Days Lie Dormant” are about pursuing a career doing what you love, and how that might conflict with your relationships with the people you love most—which makes sense considering the members of twenty one pilots and the way they view the music industry.

As we journey through Breach, we see the problem becoming more clear, but we also see the solution emerging almost simultaneously.

I can’t save myself. I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work. How can I be saved?

And how does twenty one pilots answer this question? Can you be saved when you’ve betrayed the one you love the most? Tune in to my upcoming posts to find out.

1. Though twenty one pilots has used a structure like this before with “The Run and Go.” This song was in F-sharp major (*cough cough* or G-flat major, that works better for my brain) until the A-flat major bridge, followed by a final chorus in G major.