Yes, I don't think anything will happen until after Christmas. At the most, the LP site will change similarly to how it changed to the purple cloud things before guilty all the same dropped. Or we'll get a "preview" instagram clip or something.
Chester says "we have a ton of songs", that's the interesting bit to me. Maybe there'll be 15 tracks? A deluxe version? Bonus track? It's not often they do that, but it's pretty common nowadays for a lot of albums. I hope they pick the right people to mix and master this album, never liked the way LT and THP were mixed (more so LT). Really excited for this, can't believe it's already been 2 & 1/2 years since THP and we're about to have a new album.
Then again, Living Things was like 35 minutes, it could easily have had 15 tracks and still be 45-50 minutes
I agree about the mixing sentiments. MTM and ATS are awesome mixes, especially ATS. I like the mixing on THP too, because I think they made exactly what they were going for, even if I would personally like it mixed differently. LT though, that was just messy. Then again, some songs on LT seem like pretty hard mixing challenges, there's tons of loud stuff going on all at once. IBG, IMR, LGM, LITE, they are all like Minutes to Midnight songs, if you had every instrument in MTM and threw on tons of synth work.
"Midnight" is nice because the arrangements are almost minimalist compared to those on other albums, so the mixing really shines.
Since after ATS I grew disappointed with their definition of "deluxe version" and/or "special edition". I just hope that if they do it again this time, they put some real juice in it. This inevitably falls on the debate of whether ATS had "real" tracks. Anyway it would be nice to have 12+ full songs on an LP album for a change. ------ PS. On another album packaging/image request. I just hope they MOVE ON FROM GHOST TOWN MEDIA. James Jean rescued something with his artwork for THP (which were 3D-rendered by, YEAH YOU GUESSED IT) but GTM's input has been overdone in the last few years.
If the mixing is already in progress, it probably won't be long until the mastering follows. I am quite hopeful for the first/lead single in January, with a second track in February or March, followed by one last song in April or May. If there really will be more songs on this album, we may have more singles dropped in a consistent time frame. On another note, I have noticed some bands releasing ALL the tracks, often with lyric videos, on YouTube shortly after the album releases. Would LP be willing to do this, I wonder?
I'm not acting off of any inside information when I say this, but I'd be highly surprised if we don't hear even at least a snippet by late January/early February. All information the band has disclosed has suggested as much, and with them mixing some tracks currently...it's not too outside of the realm of possibility to believe one of those tracks being mixed is the lead single. Now, they could always push back the album because they feel they need to 'make it better', but with all the time they've already put into it they're probably winding down the process at this point.