It's been a month and 7 days since the official release of A Thousand Suns. During that span, we've all been digesting this album while learning every lyric, synth and beat. But ever since the album came out, talk of the first single, The Catalyst, has been minimal. Generally, the first single off any given album tends to not be the best track. There's exceptions to that, and I made this thread because I believe The Catalyst is one of those exceptions. In my opinion, not only is it the best song on ATS, but it's easily the best Linkin Park song and one of my favorite songs of all time. The Catalyst consists of 3 mini verses and a 6 worded bridge. But somehow, Linkin Park was able to take them and fuse them into a 6 minute masterpiece. Instrumentally, the song evolves after each section. The same lyrics sound different depending on which section it's in. Thus, I don't feel any repetitiveness. And looking at the lyrics themselves, they're genius. And I love the fact that these lyrics are with an instrumental that sounds happy. Also, I think the synths are almost like their own lyrics. The turntable solo, to me, represents the nucs going off and now everything's out of control...I can't get enough of this song. Does anyone else think TC is the best ATS song? Where does it rank for you?
The Catalyst ranks at the bottom of the 9 "main" songs for me. It's a curse. LP and I have a thing, I dislike their lead singles. It always works out that way. I don't think I've listened to The Catalyst more than five times since the album leaked.
I still enjoy it. I listen to it every day. I'm glad you made this thread actually, but the song is slowly losing it's flair with songs like "When They Come For Me" and "Blackout" in our collection. It's a great song, but before we even read a single fan review on what this album would sound like, this is all we had so we all enjoyed it very much. Now having much more diversity, it's slightly ignored and overlooked. This was the weird structureless mess of a song that made people poop themselves. We have a whole bunch of that now, and people don't seem to care as much as they did. It's like What I've Done. Awesome track, first taste of a new world, but when you listen to "Bleed It Out" and "In Pieces", even "In Between" you realize that it isn't nearly as fantastic compared to what you waited for.
I'd say Blackout is. The Catalyst's lyrical themes return in the song alot. Blackout is like three seperate versions of a song. The first part is the actual song itself with the instrumental and vocals. Then the second part uses the vocals from the first part, but applys them to a different instrumental and glitches them up. The third part uses instrumental elements from the first part while becoming a whole new song. Intro / Verse A-1 / Chorus A / Verse A-2 / Pre-Chorus / Chorus A / Chorus A / Bridge or Breakdown / Verse B-1 / Chorus B is far more unconventional.
First off, there's no pre chorus in Blackout. Verse 1/Verse 1/Verse 2 (mashed with some of verse 1)/Mini synth solo/Verse 3/Verse 3/Verse 2 (mashed with some of Verse 3)/Long turntable solo/Part of Verse 2/Bridge (10x)/Verse 1/Verse 1. There's The Catalyst. Blackout is unconventional, but it doesn't compare to TC. Yeah, it's like "2 songs in one" but it's not like that's never been done before.
"Fuck it are you listening" is a pre-chorus after the second verse, unless you consider it an extended verse. The Catalyst doesn't have verses.
Same here. The Catalyst was cool when it came out before the rest of the album, and it's not that it's turned into a bad song in my mind, but the more I listen to the rest of the album, the more I realize how The Catalyst really was stretched out and could easily have been even shorter than its radio edit (which is still pretty lengthy for a single). Waiting for the End IMO is much more acceptable as a single, but at the same time, it's still unconventional for LP - the perfect mix. The Catalyst was unconventional, but it dries out after a few listens, primarily due to its length - songs like Blackout, Waiting for the End, and Iridescent just have that ... how to word it ... they're ... just right. EDIT: By the way, I disagree about first singles being the worst - I actually love Somewhere I Belong and What I've Done, but as you said, to each his own lol.
If I hadn't overplayed The Catalyst before the album came out it probably would be my second favorite song on the album, behind Iridescent because that song is just epic. It is definitely one of their most unique songs though.
It's probably the second strongest song off of the entire album. Which isn't a completely good thing.
The song structure in "The Catalyst" is actually pretty conventional for Linkin Park; intro, verse 1 (x 2), chorus, a little post-chorus 1 section (or you might call a second intro), verse 2 (x 2), chorus, bridge, chorus (just the second half of it, anyway) and outro, which features a repeated line ... with bits of the verses thrown in (see: "Valentine's Day" and, to a lesser extent "Crawling" and "Numb").
Sorry, I disgress that the instrumental side of The catalyst sounds 'happy'. The snyth keyboard/organ sound throughout most of the song contains one of the most creepiest/darkest chord progressions LP has done. Listen to the orginal stems from the remix contest. I can't help getting chills everytime I hear it. That said however, in the breakdown when the piano comes in, the mood changes entirely, to a more 'happier' sound. But its more 'uplifting' than anything else. & I do agree, TC is easily their best debut single so far.