Honestly, if it wasn't for their constant experimentation with genres and fusing rock with electronic music and their reaching out to the fans and generally all the great / cool stuff LP do, they would mean nothing to me. The only thing left after that is their lyrics and to put it bluntly, LP just kind of suck at writing lyrics. I admit, they do have their bright moments (New Divide, What I've Done, of course imo.) but usually, they just can't write good lyrics. They always end up using the vocabulary of a 5th grade little girl (fear, pain, memories, lies, nobody cares, etc.) and it kind of bothers me. On MTM, Given Up says "and no one cares." and the next track right after that is Leave Out All The Rest and it says "'cause no one else cared." Like c'mon guys, what are you going through, puberty? Obviously, this is just my opinion but I'd like to hear you guys', as well.
They have some exceptional lyrics, but simply cannot compete with the likes of Tool or Rise Against for complexity or power
While they're (probably) not doing the Don Gilmore "Write it 100 times so they stay as meaningful, even if that means making sure they're not that memorable to start with" method anymore, they still tend to deliberately write vague lyrics and that's always been one of their worse qualities. That said, as much as I hated stuff like "I'VE. BECOME SO NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUMB!", I also understand that those same terrible lyrics are probably why 80% of their fanbase exists. So I can't fault them for doing what works.
I partly disagree. Linkin Park was not very good at writing lyrics until Minutes To Midnight. MTM really broke it open for them as song writers, and the results were actually very beautiful and poetic. Leave Out All The Rest is a song that I've come to appreciate a lot over the years. When it first came out, I dismissed it because it sounded like your typical pop-rock single. But if you actually take a moment to read the lyrics and think about what they're saying, it turns out the song is really a very mature look at expressing something that I'm sure a lot of people feel at some point in their adult lives: the fear of being forgotten after you die. are you having an impact on the world around you, are you doing something to truly give your life meaning? Compare that with the bland generic angst of "I wanna heal, I wanna feel, what I thought was never real," and you'll realize that the lyrics have actually been a big part of Linkin Park's growth in this second phase of their career. A Thousand Suns was not quite as poetic and personal as MTM, but was a bit more abstract/a tad psychedelic. The lyrics that have been written on their previous two albums are something they would have never attempted on their first two albums. So I do think the lyrics have come a long way.
That's why I was excited when they said the upcoming album would be political, and upset when they changed their minds and made it personal.
Since MTM their lyrics has improved by leaps and bounds. A few misses here and there, but for the most part their lyrics have been great since MTM.
ON A VALENTINES DAYYYYYY ON A VALENTINES DAYYYYYYYEEEEEEYYYAYAAYYY Like I said, hits and misses. Given Up being one huge miss. And Valentine's Day. Haha. So I agree with you.
Xero21 and Agent O are correct. Since MTM, Linkin Park's lyrics have drastically improved. However, with what I heard of their new single "Burn it Down" it seems that might change sometime soon. At least on that song. -- I think that Linkin Park need to take a few lyric lessons from Mumford and Sons, The Shins, and Arcade Fire to be honest. P.S. Valentines Day has great lyrics. :X
I need to go to the store and buy some rogaine since I just pulled out a hand full of hair. I wish the Linkin Park fanbase would stop being negative and critical for everything they do. A lot of those lyrics that are "not very good" actually mean something to some of us. Linkin Park's lyrics are fine the way they are written. Sitting there saying things like the lyrics are bland, terrible and were written by a fifth grade little girl make you look like a pretentious ass. I wish the fanbase would listen to Mike Shinoda when he told us to stop focussing on the negativity. I, personally am sick of it.
I kinda wish they'd write more abstract lyrics like those on Burning in the Skies, because to me those are their best to date. I don't think they are that great at writing directly about personal issues.
It's pessimistic shit like this which really makes my blood boil. The collective mentality of the mainstream is that of a 5th grade little girl, so by using the said vocabulary they can appeal to a wide range of people. On the other hand, I don't see many little girls coming out with some of the 4 syllable plus words Mike has rapped with. Their lyrics talk about love, fear, guilt, loss, heartbreak, anger, bullying, oppression, war, suffering, death etc. If you think that nobody outside of puberty suffers from these things then I suggest you go listen to Black Eyed Peas or Rihanna instead, where the main issue of the world is not getting the hot girl at the club to fuck you. Go on LPA chat and ask who has been helped during their struggles by LP's lyrics before saying things like this: Jeez..
Attempting to give an objective critique of a band's lyrics should not have anything to do with whether or not those lyrics have helped someone through tough times. If someone has related to Linkin Park's lyrics, that can't be taken away from them no matter what anyone else says. They are two separate things. Likewise, if you're someone who has been touched by those lyrics other people don't think are very good, there's no need to get overly sensitive about it. No one's attacking you or what you've been through.
I'm just sick of people criticising Linkin Park for little things, i'm almost given up with breaking my habit of ranting due to the messengers on here who act like they bleed it out in every shadow of the day, then runaway with their hands held high while waiting for the end of Linkin Park's points of authority to come.
By the same logic, why should threads be nothing but shameless Shinoda wang polishing? You're a fan, super, that doesn't mean they're a flawless group of audio gods by any means. Why do you have to? Because the threads exist and you feel they have no right to? You're aware being a fan means dissecting and discussing, not being a dickriding teenybopper who's bestest band in the whole wide world is infallible, yes?
If they weren't written with "little kids in Cleveland" kept in mind, I think the lyrics, specifically on Meteora, could have been better.