Scaled and Icy is the sixth studio album by American musical duo twenty one pilots, it was released May 21, 2021 by Fueled by Ramen and Elektra. Critics noted its return to the "playful alt-pop sound" of Vessel (2013), and a departure from the darker approach of its predecessors Blurryface (2015) and Trench (2018). The album has also been described as alternative rock, pop, and synthpop. The album's title is a play on "scaled back and isolated", a phrase frontman Tyler Joseph associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the music produced at the time. On an interview with Sirius XM, he stated that he wanted to "lean into being aware that things are scaled back and that we're isolated". Despite that, Joseph's goal was to create an album that contrasts this very idea and that conveys the opposite of it. The album title is also an anagram of "Clancy is dead", a reference to the protagonist of Trench, the band has however neither described this as coincidental nor declined to comment on this subject. The title's initials appear on the cover art for their 2020 single "Christmas Saves the Year", on which the sentence "SAI is propaganda" is written in purple on one of the wrapped gifts. The cover artwork for Scaled and Icy was designed by Brandon Rike, who also designed the cover art for Trench and Blurryface. It features a scaled, teal dragon breathing yellow fire over a pink background, as well as a psi symbol in the top right corner. The dragon is named Trash, and re