twenty øne piløts “Drag Path”: OG vs. Streaming Version

By Kayla Harper 

twenty øne piløts released the single, “Drag Path” on streaming alongside a music video for the song on February 17th, only days before they’ll return to the stage at Innings Festival in Arizona (February 21).  While the song was originally released back in September as a part of the Breach: Digital Remains it was only available for a limited time to be purchased via the band’s website. The song was first teased during the release of Clancy (2024) when fans theorized Clancy would be called Drag Path, and the lyrics were shared in the F.PE. and Clancy: Digital Remains.

The original version of “Drag Path” immediately became one of my favourite tøp songs after my first listen.  The storyline woven throughout the track summarizes the ten years of tøp lore, but also the message behind their entire discography better than any other song they’ve released, with various callbacks to previous songs.  This thematic progression is enhanced instrumentally as the song builds, the emotional intensity increasing with it.

“Drag Path” loses this cinematic quality in the new version, as the verses which are vital to it’s overall progression and meaning are cut out making the song/storyline feel rushed. The verses are chopped up in a way that makes it feel like a crappy radio-edit, which arguably, is what it is.

The outro was cut out, which is the most lore-significant, but also the most “twenty øne piløts line” in the entire song, “then the sun begins to rise / we made it through the darkest night / you found me” (“Drag Path”, 2025), calling back to the sun/day dark/night motif established and expanded upon in many songs since their debut album, but most notably,  on Vessel’s “Truce”: “the sun will rise and we will try again.”  The outro doesn’t just tie the song into the rest of their discography in a full-circle way, it also ties the song back into itself.  The new version leaves off abruptly and loses the meaning of the song in it. Instrumentally, the drums come in too heavy too soon (the intro is awful), taking away from the emotional build-up that made the chorus feel so much more impactful in the original version.

I don’t think this version, or any version of “Drag Path” would have been released if it didn’t gain traction on Tik Tok, which is probably why the boys changed it so much.  They never intended for it to be a song that belonged to the world, only to the fans who cared enough about the storyline to purchase it. I do appreciate that they kept that version exclusive, despite their labels pressure to release it.

All of these changes, while small, take away from what “Drag Path” originally meant and felt like losing it’s emotional and musical impact.  As quoted by Tyler himself, “not a fan, but good job.”