I'm joining the MTM fan club. I love every second of that album and I'm not quite sure when I say that, but I think I like it more than ATS. Their worst album for me is Living Things. It feels empty, uninspired, boring and lacks any braveness. Meteora definitely feels more complete and apart from the lyrics (not that LT was very strong lyrically), I think it's a better album than Living Things. Not to mention the many memories it brings. Living Things may sound cool in parts, nothing more. It's so forgettable that I still play like three songs out of it.
After my first full play through of A Thousand Suns in a while, I didn't really get excited about it like I used to. Back in 2010 I'd be telling you how it was the best album of 2010 let alone from the band, but now it just seems corny. Lyrically repetitive, bloated with stupid interludes, and just missing one or two big tracks to really set it off. I mean after three minutes of interludes to start the album, you get yet another thirty second wait for Burning In The Skies to "kick off". My mind about the band changes when I give all of their albums a full spin. This time I'm starting to rank A Thousand Suns a little towards the middle of my album food chain. Thus ending up with; MTM > HT > ATS > LT > M. Remix albums included would have: Reanimation > MTM > HT > ATS > LT > Recharged > Collision Course = Meteora
Ugh, people don't agree with my opinion and think my favorite LP album (Meteora) is the worst. This makes me mad. Now I must post just to say how mad this makes me.
Loved every album, but in terms of least favorite? Meteora for me. I rarely play that album, aside from "Breaking the Habit" and "Faint". As for favorite albums, "A Thousand Suns" and "Minutes to Midnight" are definitely my #1 and #2.
I disagree. I think we all felt this way when the album first came out, because we were all used to Linkin Park sounding a certain way. The shock of the lack of nu-metal coupled with the soft/heavy/soft/heavy tracklist made it feel like the album was all over the place. But really, it isn't. The entire thing has an alt rock/pop rock sound. It's a "traditional" band sound with cleaner guitars, more organic/wooden sounding drums, and very minimal electronics. It only really deviates on occasion with Hands Held High (organ), In Between (cello/drumbeat), and In Pieces (ska picking/a flashy solo). TLTGYA is the "traditional" rock sound, but is obviously longer. I recently went back and listened to Minutes To Midnight, and not only did it seem more cohesive than I remembered, it was also just better than I remembered. Most Linkin Park music older than 5 years makes me feel silly when I listen to it. Like it's way too melodramatic or boyishly rowdy. Minutes To Midnight has held up very well for me. The lyrics on the album are lightyears ahead of anything they had done previously. This album was definitely a turning point for the band's songwriting ability. The songs generally have one pop rock sound, but it doesn't feel like I'm listening to the same song over and over like Hybrid Theory with its nu-metal sound. The way the tracks are sequenced helps make the listening experience more exciting. It's pop, but it's well written pop.
See, this is what has me worried about The Hunting Party. If it's just heavy after heavy after heavy after heavy track, then it'll all just start to blur together.
See I can agree it's aged well. Very well, actually. It stepped the bands game up in a lot of ways. But the album is a very noticeable result of not being entirely sure where they wanted to take the band. Intro, then a punk tinged rock song, followed by a power ballad, then rap rock, then a U2 flavored trek before we're off to some mid-2000s alt rock, etc. The songs themselves are all incredibly solid, but the album itself comes across as a sort of sampler platter of post "nu metal" Park. While most of the samples are indeed quite delicious, the variety is both noticeable and a tad bizarre.
Bam! Exactly! For ATS I need to be in a certain mood to sit through and, when it comes down to it, there's not many songs on it. MTM is pretty damn solid, isn't mixed and mastered to hell and really has no "this is complete shit" songs. It's a trusty go to for a car ride and live those songs killed the HT and Meteora IMO. Mike was fresh off Fort Minor and Chester was doing Dead by Sunrise during and after these sessions and it shows. Mike delivers some of the best verses he's ever had in Hands Held High and Bleed it Out. Solid, solid album that actually sounded like a "band" to me and not over-produced or over-edited. We got our first solos, Rob really showing some skill and groove for the first time AND Mike singing on a record for the first time. MTM, ATS, HT, Meteora and Living Things in that order for me. Now if you throw in all the albums, EPs and LPU release, I have to go with LPU 8: Mmm... Cookies Sweet Hamster Like Jewels From America. That album was hilarious. 26 LETTAZ IN DA AL FUH BET!
I voted for living things because it was absurdly tied with Meteora as the worst LP album of all time. Though Meteora has it's flaws, it's best songs truly shine and can be considered some of the bands best work. LT is a steaming pile by comparison
My stance on LIVING THINGS was that it just felt so disappointing because of the album that preceded it. However, on its own, I think that there are a large handful of decent, if not great songs. I think ROADS UNTRAVELED and CASTLE OF GLASS are probably two of their best songs. They also experimented with songs like SKIN TO BONE and UNTIL IT BREAKS, which I think are also great tracks. As for the rest of the album, most of it is fun to jam out to, although I will admit that most of these songs feel like guilty pleasures to me. Nonetheless, I like the album more now than I used to. As for Meteora, I think it is undoubtedly their worst album. But with that said, I can still listen to it on rare occasions for nostalgic purposes. And I do think that some of the songs, despite having terrible lyrics, are pretty catchy still. The exception is Breaking the Habit, which is probably in my top 3 favorite LP songs. My thoughts on M2M exactly.
I don't think I'll ever buy into either roads untraveled or castle of glass. I respect the guts to make the songs but I honestly think the songs fell flat for me
I think I'd actually change my answer from Meteora to Hybrid Theory. I realized that the only songs I like on Hybrid Theory are In The End, A Place For My Head, and I sorta like Points of Authority. The other songs though, I never listen to, ever. While on Meteora I like Numb, Breaking The Habit, From The Inside, Easier To Run, Session, and (dare I say it) Somewhere I Belong. But both albums could have been a lot better than what was given to us. Just listen to demos like Halo, Unfortunate, So Far Away, and I even prefer the Figure .09 demo over the original. Hell, the Hybrid Theory EP was better than the official LP.