“Heavy Dirty Soul” by Twenty One Pilots

"Heavydirtysoul" kicks open Blurryface, the 2015 Twenty One Pilots album, and it works as the record's mission statement in sound and in subject. Tyler Joseph wrote it, lifting some of the words from "Street Poetry", a poem of his that had been published years before, and he turns the song back on itself, confessing his insecurities about the very music you're hearing. At heart it's a plea for help against the demons inside, and Joseph lurches from rapid-fire rapping to melody to falsetto screams while Josh Dun drums with real soul underneath.

Ricky Reed produced it at Serenity West Recording in Hollywood, with Joseph as co-producer and Neal Avron mixing. It became the album's last single in December 2016, and Andrew Donoho's video, shot outside the duo's hometown of Columbus, Ohio, set Joseph in a runaway car playing chicken with Dun and a burning drum kit. It won Best Rock Video at the MTV Video Music Awards.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.