Wanted to gauge peoples' pros and cons for OML, now that they've had more time to digest the album. Positives Kudos to the band for once again being audacious and daring with a new sound. This is the band's most polarizing release to date and it takes bravery to continuously explore uncharted waters. Is there another band in the world that challenges and stress-tests their fanbase more than Linkin Park? This is the most vulnerable and "real" we have ever seen the band, and it really shows in the lyrics, especially in "Sorry For Now", "Invisible" and "One More Light". By far the best vocal performances from Chester and Mike on a Linkin Park album, ever. I was so surprised by the quality of Mike's work on "Sorry For Now" and "Invisible", especially his ability to duplicate it live. This album has cemented the band's legacy in terms of their ability to craft catchy-as-fuck songs. "One More Light" (song) is the band's "Fix You" (Coldplay) moment: an instant classic that will forever be lodged in my top-10. The twangy, acoustic "Sharp Edges" is a wild departure for the band that makes me excited for what else they might craft in that vein in the future. The album overall is a real grower, and is actually much more densely layered than upon initial listen. It's fun focusing in on new parts of songs with each listen. I only just noticed the chimes in the bridge of "Halfway Right". Negatives There's numerous instances ("Halfway Right", "Nobody Can Save Me", "Battle Symphony", "Invisible") where I feel songs flatline or fail to properly "take off". I found myself during my initial listens hoping for an instrumental breakdown or a little more urgency to take foot one we got halfway through a song. Instead, it just felt like the first and last half of some of the songs were too same-y. Speaking of same-y, the general structure of many of these songs is back to the old LP formula: verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus. The only songs where this was not the case were "Good Goodbye" (which is the only song that begins with the chorus and has three different verses) and "One More Light" (which has almost the same formula as the rest but features the only guitar solo on the album). I would have liked to see some variation in the lyrics of the pre-choruses used on the album. This is just me being nit-picky, but it bothers me that there's identifcal trap elements/clicks in back-to-back songs ("Sorry For Now" verses and "Halfway Right" chorus) The employment of "unnecessary" in "Heavy" just rubs me all sorts of wrong. Song Ranking One More Light Sorry For Now Sharp Edges Talking To Myself Nobody Can Save Me Invisible Battle Symphony Halfway Right Good Goodbye Heavy Album Ranking Hybrid Theory A Thousand Suns Minutes To Midnight One More Light Living Things The Hunting Party Meteora
Pros * Ever since they covered Rolling in the Deep I wondered what a kind of 'stripped down rock; song from the band might sound like, and Talking To Myself answered that question for me. The answer being "pretty good!". * Good Goodbye reminded me of We Made It in a good way, and it's nice to hear the band not take themselves completely seriously. The guests are good as well. * One More Light has grown on me a lot for whatever reason * the live versions of everything I've heard sans Heavy have been dramatic improvements of their studio counterparts, so I'm looking forward to hearing live performances of songs I don't like now to see if they improve or not Cons * Why can those songs not sound as good on the version they want me to spend money on? Why should I be expected to sit in a quiet room with headphones and listen to the songs over and over again and try to pick out all the pieces? If the elements are there live, that's what the song is 'supposed to sound like', and you've buried those pieces. * adding to the first con, a lot of the songs sound like they're "buried" in bizarre production decisions. It really does sound like the band had someone listen to Top 40 radio ove the corse of 2 years, write down descriptions of songs, give it to the band, and had them make songs based off of those descriptions without ever actually hearing them firsthand. Just very awkward elements that do nothing but distract *Heavy is garbage. As a single, sandwiched between Invisible and Sorry for Now, played randomly on YouTube, heard on the radio... it's just bad. It's a bad song with an uncalled for guest spot. It blows. * Halfway Right sounds like a shitty Disney-styled musical number, and the lyrics are as bad as I've ever heard from the band. it's essentially a slightly more optimistic version of Numb in terms of "let me hammer the subject matter over your head, subtlety is for dweebs, I want you to know exactly what I mean here..." *Sharp Edges is the bastard child of Hey Soul Sister, the themsong to the videogame Life is Strange, and some generic RPG Maker song. The subject matter is slightly different than standard LP songs. Whoopie. Makes next to no difference when I can't stand listening to it. Rankings 1. Talking to Myself 2. Good Goodbye 3. One More Light 4. Battle Symphony 5. Sorry for Now 6. Nobody Can Save Me 7. Invisible A triple for Dead last- Heavy, Sharp Edges, Halfway Right Album Ranking 1. Hunting Party 2. Living Things 3. Hybrid Theory 4. Minutes to Midnight 5. A Thousand Suns 6. Meteora 7. One More Light
Pros: 1. Fantastic transition from THP to OML. The true experimental gods. 2. This type of music was a missing piece in my music library. 3. Like Mark said, "Sharp Edges" opens a lot of doors for the band. Exciting future. Cons: 1. Too short album (song structures). I think more rapping would have been a great way to fix this, and also made it more unique. Song Rating (with initial thoughts): 1. Sharp Edges (By far the best song on the album. Top 3 LP tracks of all times.) 2. Sorry For Now (The production for this song is out of the world. Hoping for this to be the next single.) 3. One More Light (They have now mastered ballads as well. Finally with some great lyrics.) 4. Invisible (This is my go-to song when showering.) 5. Talking To Myself (It's actually not that good. But it is catchy AF. Love it.) 6. Heavy (It's a great song. Wanted to place it higher, but the rest are simply better.) 7. Good Goodbye (Actually love the different rappers, though I was sceptic at first.) 8. Nodoby Can Save Me (A grower, maybe some day I'll place it higher.) 9. Halfway Right (Different and daring.) 10. Battle Symphony (A bit whiny, and straight up boring.) Album Ranking: 1. HT 2. ATS 3. OML (Probably, too early to give an definite rank) 4. MTM 5. M 6. LT 7. THP
Positives: - I like the themes explored on this album and the generally uplifting tone. I would like to see it applied to future work. - Mike has never sounded better, and these songs were intentionally made to be well suited for Chester's voice. - The writing comes off as genuinely earnest and honest, not disingenuous or forced. - Though I wish the songs switched it up more than they did, I'm still finding little details in the mix that I've missed. Many layers under the surface than I thought and they all piece together for moments that keep me coming back. Negatives: - My biggest and really only complaint is that outside of "Sorry for Now" most of the tracks tend to follow the same pattern. I wanted more songs to get a little zany like SFN does, but too often is the latter half of a song indistinguishable from the first, or in the case of "Talking to Myself" it's the usual Linkin Park "let's go quiet just before the final chorus as a build up for an explosive finale". It left me wanting more out of the songs as I felt some had more potential to them than we got. After many replays, my ranking has switched around as the album continues to grow on me. Track ranking: 1. Sorry for Now 2. Nobody Can Save Me 3. One More Light 4. Invisible 5. Sharp Edges 6. Talking to Myself 7. Halfway Right 8. Heavy 9. Good Goodbye 10. Battle Symphony Initially ranked #6, but nostalgia aside I'd feel wrong putting "Meteora" over it, yet I love that album no less. HT still edges it out. Though I rank them over one another, I enjoy all of them immensely except THP (I still like it, just not nearly as much as the rest). Album Ranking: 1. Minutes to Midnight 2. A Thousand Suns 3. Living Things 4. Hybrid Theory 5. One More Light 6. Meteora 7. The Hunting Party
Pros: - Album is a grower; I listened the album in full 2 twice because my brain was processing all these beautiful elements they crafted on every track. -Production is A+ since ATS. LT & THP sucked in mixing dept. - I was surprised how awesome Nobody Can Save Me, Invisible and Sorry for Now. - Sharp Edges is what LIVING THINGS sound should be. I'm surprised how awesome this track put as a closer. The vocals reminded me of Rolling in the Deep (especially in the "....makes us stronger" part) - Sorry for Now is such a banger. They should collaborate more with blackbear for next album. - I really dig Mike's vocal performance in Invisible and Sorry for Now. It's great we've got 2 Mike led tracks on the record. and Wow, that bridge of SFN, holy Chester! It's so so gooood. Cons: - The album is pretty short; I understand they chose the best ones only but holy guacamole, Songs like Heavy and Talking to Myself are easily the worst songs on the record. - I don't like TTM, seriously. even it was played live, It's not my vibe. It's too Linkin Park-ish. and the production. Oh My God. Hello, Manny Marroquin? you're back? - I'm disappointed there's no cowbell samples on the record. - No Conner Youngblood. Waste of potential. Tracks ranking: 10. Talking To Myself 9. Heavy 8. Halfway Right 7. Battle Symphony 6. Sharp Edges 5. Good Goodbye 4. Invisible 3. One More Light 2. Nobody Can Save Me 1. Sorry for Now Album ranking: 7. The Hunting Party 6. LIVING THINGS 5. Meteora 4. Hybrid Theory 3. Minutes To Midnight 2. One More Light 1. A Thousand Suns
Positives I'm glad they once again explored a new sound, but it's really not too far off of what they've done before. Its still Linkin Park. I was actually really surprised how good the other songs are after we got Heavy and Battle Symphony. I love all the little sounds I keep finding with each listen. Mike Shinoda and his singing. Easily the highlight of the album. I think Battle Symphony could have been better had he done the verses. For the most part, the lyrics are personal and easily relatable with what's going on in my life right now. Brads guitar work is awesome, subtle but awesome. I think it's his best work to date. These songs come off really good live. Negatives The album is just too short for me. Feels like it's over before it begins. I feel like this is just 10 tracks and any of the songs could have been in any order. They don't work as an "album", except they're just a collection of songs. Heavy and Battle Symphony were better on their own. They're sore thumbs on the album. Could have used some interludes or something to make it flow. None of these tracks bleed into eachother at all and I feel like that's a staple in their style. Some of the songs feel kind of same-y in their structure. Heavy couldn't have been more poorly placed between the two best songs on the album. Still don't know why they ditched the piano teaser we got. Would have been nice as just an acoustic song, too. Song Ranking Sorry for Now Invisible One More Light Nobody Can Save Me Talking to Myself Sharp Edges Halfway Right Good Goodbye Heavy Battle Symphony Album Ranking A Thousand Suns The Hunting Party Reanimation Minutes to Midnight Hybrid Theory One More Light Living Things Meteora (I included Reanimation because it's that damn good.)
Positives - All songs are catchy as hell, and this is what I love about songs in general - Sing-along and replay value is huge. - The vocals are the best that Chester & Mike ever recorded, they even beat ATS. - I'm a sucker for elecronic pop, so OML is perfect for me Negatives - The trap prodcution in the album is a little bit weak imo, for example: the high-hats sound the same on every song, and the sanres don't have enough variations. I wished thy could've done somethin like: high hats like this or this, snares like this or this. - NOT ENOUGH MIKE ON THIS ALBUM! Song Ranking Sorry for Now Sharp Edges One More Light Halfway Right Nobody Can Save Me Invisible Talking to Myself Battle Symphony Heavy Good Goodbye Album Ranking A Thousand Suns One More Light Living Things The Hunting Party Minutes to Midnight Hybrid Theory Meteora
Positives - Some of the songs are pretty catchy and give a pretty great summer vibe. - Mike definitive fits perfect with this kind of music. His vocals are amazing. - Talking To Myself dont want to go out of my head, definitely one of the catchiest the ever done. - One More Light has to be the most emotional song the band has ever written. Negatives - I was always open to the music LP did, but this is definitely not my kind of taste. - Heavy is still one of the weakest songs the band has ever written. - Nobody Can Save Me, Halfway Right and Sharp Edges dont grow on me like for others. Some of the worst songs the band done. Dont like them. - In general, the album dont give me the special LP vibe i had with all the other 6. Feels just like all the stuff in the charts (which dont fit my taste) Song Ranking One More Light Talking To Myself Good Goodbye Invisible Battle Symphony Sorry For Now Sharp Edges Heavy Nobody Can Save Me Halfway Right Album Ranking A Thousand SUns The Hunting Party Hybrid Theory Minutes To Midnight Meteora Living Things One More Light
God I'm happy someone else has almost exactly the same thoughts about the album. TTM seems to be getting no love anywhere and you'd think Sharp Edges and Halfway Right were instant classics.
Positives: Linkin Park still knows how to write some damn catchy hooks (but that's no surprise) Certain songs on this album excellent in terms of the lyrics, especially with lines like "put your nose in paperbacks instead of smoking cigarettes, these are the years you're never getting back" and pretty much all of One More Light. To me, it doesn't seem like Linkin Park was lying at all when they said the lyrics on this album are much more personal than before. The production on this album is pretty good, and the mixing compliments it instead of making it a wall of noise like in other albums *cough* Living Things *cough* I can hear Phoenix I think the band did a great job with implementing the guitars in this album. Instead of just adding some power chords during the chorus (which I'm sure would have made some rock fans happy), the guitars subtly add to the music. The vocals from Chester and especially Mike sound amazing, and Sorry For Now is Mike's best vocal performance on a song to date (in my opinion, of course). One More Light is one of those rare songs full of raw emotions that can pull tears out of anyone listening to it, whether relatable or not. Subsequent listens of these songs have only added to my liking for these songs, where I expected to lose interest. Halfway Right and Nobody Can Save Me have grown on me especially. The progression on songs like Sorry For Now and Talking To Myself and One More Light really shove those songs up from being generic/good songs to amazing and special songs. Negatives: I've seen the terms "chipmunk vocals" used wayyyyy too much. This album could've benefitted from more variety in song structure. Its something I could live without, but I'm sure it would lush some of these songs from like a 7 or 7.5 to an 8.5/10. It just leaves something to be desired. Speaking of things to be desired, some of these songs could've used a more explosive chorus, or at least a final explosive chorus. The way that Talking To Myself explodes at the end with some harsh vocals from Chester makes me wish we could've seen a bit more of that on other songs. While I like Heavy, I can't deny that song is pretty whiny it's lyrics and delivery. I'm glad other songs did not follow in the same faults. There are other low points in the lyrics, too. Battle Symphony is one that really sticks out to me as having very generic lyrics. Track Rankings: 1. One More Light 2. Sharp Edges 3. Sorry For Now 4. Talking To Myself 5. Invisible 6. Good Goodbye 7. Halfway Right 8. Nobody Can Save Me 9. Battle Symphony 10. Heavy As a note, my top 4 are very defined and know their exact ranking. Honestly for the last six, I like them all, but their rankings for me personally would depend on what I want to listen to. Good Goodbye is a pretty solid rap track, but it's hard to compare it to the slower tempo pop track Nobody Can Save Me. But I don't think a single song on there is bad. Album Rankings: 1. Minutes To Midnight 2. Living Things 3. A Thousand Suns 4. One More Light 5. The Hunting Party 6. Hybrid Theory 7. Meteora
Positives: - Lyrics, Lyrics, Lyrics! The most impressive part of this album is the lyrics. Their best album lyrically and won't be topped. The only song that could use better lyrics is Heavy - The vocals! Chester and Mike both sound so so good! - The electonic songs in Sorry For Now - Chester's rap in Sorry For Now Negatives: - Heavy should have been replaced with a better demo.
Positives: Fantastic vocal peformances from both Chester and Mike. I'd even say that Mike outshines Chester on the two tracks he does sing on. It's an extremely concise record. Far too often now, mainstream records are far too long. It's my personal belief that no record shoud really exceed 12 tracks. For example, The Weeknd's Starboy has some incredible songs, but the album really gets hampered down by the second half. The album is 18 tracks long, and it really brings down the experience. Here, you have 10 songs, all of which are actually good. The album flows incredibly well. For the first time on a Linkin Park record other than probably ATS, I feel like there is actually interesting instrumentation, especially towards the back half of this record. Far too often, LP creates music that purely services the vocal line that otherwise would be kinda boring, but this mostly isn't the case here. The instrumentation is far more intricate than I think a first impression would give. The lyrics are actually pretty good (for Linkin Park). The album is a real grower, I liked it upon first listen, but it got better and better after each subsequent listen. Negatives: I feel like some of the songs are a bit undercooked, namely Heavy and the title-track. Heavy's a decent song, but is so short and with so little ideas that it kind of just breezes by within the context of the record. You could honestly remove the song from the tracklisting, and the album would be better for it. One More Light is one of my favorite songs on the album (and becoming one of my favorite LP songs), but I feel like it could benefit from a longer length, and a bit more instrumentation. The sparse instrumentation somewhat works for the song, but I feel like it could be improved. Some of the songs don't fully commit to the sound of the record. Here, I'm mainly thinking about Good Goodbye and Talking to Myself. They're not bad tracks by any means, but they feel too typically "Linkin Park," especially Good Goodbye. The song is extremely out-of-place. It would fit much better on a record like Living Things. Track Rankings: Sorry for Now Nobody Can Save Me One More Light Sharp Edges Invisible Battle Symphony Halfway Right Heavy Talking to Myself Good Goodbye Album Rankings: A Thousand Suns One More Light Minutes to Midnight Meteora Hybrid Theory Living Things The Hunting Party
Positives: Mike's and Chester's vocals, Lyrics, songs are catchy and the listening of the album is quite chilling. Negatives: instrumentals are flat. All the 10 songs have the same structure: verse-chorus-verse-chorus. They can do better 1. Talking to Myself 2. Invisible 3. Sharp Edges 4. Nobody Can Save Me 5. One More Light 6. Battle Symphony 7. Good Goodbye 8. Sorry for Now 9. Halfway Right 10. Heavy 1. Hybrid Theory 2. Minutes to Midnight 3. The Hunting Party 4. Meteora 5. A Thousand Suns 6. One More Light 7. Living Things
Positives - The huge leap forward we've been given in terms of lyrical content and vocal delivery. - The deceptively thick production and instrumentation. That people are still finding new things to appreciate in each track is very telling. - Brad's guitar work on this album is so much more fitting and varied than in previous albums. - The emotional payoffs in a lot of the songs. Nobody Can Save Me and Halfway Right in particular don't hit those blatantly obvious "here's the apex of the song", but holy damn I still get frisson when we reach the bridge of NCSM and the chorus change from "Nobody" to "Only I". And the "na na nas" in Halfway Right is probably my favorite moment on the album. - The mixing and mastering on this album is gorgeous and some of the best I've heard on an LP album. Everything feels super crisp and each part sits very comfortably in context with everything else going on. Aside from one instance in Sorry For Now (which is still being debated amongst the super audiophiles of us), there is literally NO clipping on this record. Which, for an album released in the digital age, and more importantly, for an album released by Linkin Park, is super rare and to be appreciated. - This album is a very good soundtrack for a lot of activities. As I've harped on about in the Shoutbox, it's great for driving. It's also great for sitting outside at night and contemplating shit. It's just a great summer album. Negatives - I'm not going to pussy-foot around it. The songs released prior to the album release are noticeably weaker. True, they gain a lot in context of the album (I can't get over how good the transition from NCSM to GG is), but they are still pretty "meh" in comparison. This isn't a full negative since I still enjoy those songs, but I'd be lying if I said the quality of those tracks are a step down from how great NCSM and the last 4 tracks are. - Talking To Myself. Again, it's an okay song. It just doesn't fit as well in the context of OML as the rest of the tracks. - Again, not explicitly a negative, but I wouldn't have minded more Mike-centric songs. Especially considering how much he's improved with his singing. - A real negative here. And that's Mike's rapping. Good Goodbye in general doesn't feel that necessary, despite what I said about how it flows with NCSM. Mike's rapping feels entirely unnecessary and out of character for this album, and I think I would've preferred another song with Mike singing here instead. - A tentative negative, but this is the first album since ATS that the band has truly gone left-field. That in and of itself isn't a bad thing, but the overall reception to the album has not been good, and I'm afraid that the reception OML receives will in turn lead the band to try to reconcile the sounds of old with the new sounds, then an album later try to make some sort of mission statement. In other words, I'm REALLY hoping the divisive response to OML doesn't lead to the spiritual equivalents of LIVING THINGS and The Hunting Party. Because those albums just weren't good. (Tentative) Track Rankings 1. One More Light 2. Halfway Right 3. Nobody Can Save Me 4. Sorry For Now 5. Sharp Edges (NOTE: the top 5 are very much in flux and are all within a hair of overtaking the other. I'm not going to give numbered scores for my ass to be bitten by later, but hypothetically if One More Light is, say, a 9.0, then Sharp Edges is like, an 8.8. These 5 tracks are VERY close) 6. Invisible 7. Battle Symphony 8. Heavy 9. Good Goodbye 10. Talking To Myself (ANOTHER NOTE: On the hypothetical scale where One More Light is a 9.0 and Sharp Edges is an 8.8, Talking To Myself I think sits at a 7.0. At least, currently. I'm well aware these could change as time passes by. But as of right now, it's a very strong collection of songs and I don't think I can outright say any of these songs are BAD) (Tentative) Album Rankings Now I will preface this by saying that I think it's way too early to try to rank OML in an overall album ranking. At least, for me. Mostly because LT soured on me very quickly and I'm well aware that OML could do the same. I hope it doesn't but I leave the possibility open. However if I were to judge based on my thoughts at this very moment, here's what we're looking at: 1. A Thousand Suns 2. One More Light 3. Minutes to Midnight 4. Living Things (only because of the second half of the album, which totally redeems the dumpster fire that is the first half) 5. Hybrid Theory 6. The Hunting Party (you heard it here first, folks, Minus ranks an post-nu-metal album lower than a nu-metal album!) 7. Meteora I should note that the jump between 3 and 4 is a large one. The only larger jump is between 4 and 5.
Postive: Brilliant vocal performance from Chester and Mike. Lyrics are definitely a step up from the previous records. More emotional and relatable when compared to their previous records. Negative: Songs sound too much polished if that makes any sense. They are emotive and personal. But I think a lot of them would have been received much better if they were raw. For eg: I absolutely love the minimal instrumentation on One More Light. Heavy sounds on another level during the live performances. That's what I thought they were aiming for when they said they are writing personal songs. I like songs like Nobody can save me and Sorry for Now but absolutely hate the pop production on them. Like when you are talking about your kids, why the need of chipmunks? This kinda turns me off and make the songs less relatable to me. Mike's singing has definitely improved but I am afraid it has come at the cost of his rapping. Until It Breaks was the last rap verse I liked from him. There are some moments where I wish the songs would take off and kinda explode? But they remain in the almost same tempo throughout their play. I love the last chorus of Talking to Myself. I can actually feel myself screaming along to it. Especially the part when Chester says You Keep Acting like the Sky is Falling. Definitely one of my favorite moments on the record. Favorite Tracks (which I find myself listening outside of the context of the album): Talking To Myself One More Light Halfway Right Sharp Edges Album Rankings (Judging on the basis of how much I enjoy and relate to them) Minutes To Midnight Hybrid Theory The Hunting Party A Thousand Suns Living Things One More Light Meteora
Positives Melodies. Melodies. Melodies. I think working with other songwriters + wanting to "set Chester up for success" as Mike put it recently has helped improve their ear for melodies dramatically. Compare the chorus melodies of songs like Numb, Somewhere I Belong, and What I've Done to songs like Nobody Can Save Me, Invisible, and even Final Masquerade off THP. Imagine playing the melodies of these songs on a piano. Numb/SIB/WID are all so rigid and monotone. Numb's chorus is like 4 or 5 different notes in total. These newer songs have way more note bending, swing notes/rhythm changes, range. It's no contest. Interestingly, I recently went back and listened to Hybrid Theory and, while they aren't anywhere near One More Light's melodies, songs like With You and By Myself have pretty decent range themselves. Maybe post-Hybrid Theory they became too concerned with delivering choruses as HUGE AS POSSIBLE and forgot about nuance. Guitars. Yep, I enjoy the guitar work on this album more than maybe any other Linkin Park album, ironically enough. It seems like there's been way more attention paid to detail here. The guitar that comes in on that last chorus of Invisible...fuck. It's so good. They might be aping the style a bit from groups like Wet or Chvrches, but they clearly have an ear for it and do it well themselves. Production. It's real good. Lyrics, content-wise. Most of these are actually pretty personal. I had my doubts but stuff like Invisible, Sorry For Now, and Halfway Right are pretty poignant if you know the histories of Mike and Chester (Mike being very closed off about his family life, Chester's history of addiction and abuse). Negatives The sound of this album is, by-far, the most shamelessly trendy of all their albums, including the first two. We know Mike and Mark Wakefield were writing nu-metal rap-rock well before Hybrid Theory put an exclamation mark on that period of music history. Lyrics, delivery-wise. There are moments on this album where certain lines are so out of place and forced that it takes me out of the song. Chester's first line on Sorry For Now is "stop tellin' em to pump the bass up." ...........what? I mean...maybe he's describing a scene where he's in a loud car/room and he's trying to call home? Which is a really interesting idea, but just shoving it in via that one line is jarring. Another is in the second verse of Halfway Right, when Chester uses the "I woke up driving my car" line again. It's such a non-sequitur that it actually made me laugh. Like, in the first verse he's describing a night he got so fucked up that he woke up behind the wheel of his car. In the second verse, he's talking about how people tried to warn him he was out of control, and also in case you forgot there was one time when I woke up driving my car. Generic song structures. Save for some moments like the interesting guitar/synth blending in Sorry For Now, the songs here follow a pattern. Song Ranking Nobody Can Save Me Sorry For Now Invisible Talking to Myself Sharp Edges One More Light Battle Symphony Halfway Right Heavy Good Goodbye Album Ranking A Thousand Suns The Hunting Party Reanimation Minutes to Midnight One More Light Hybrid Theory Living Things Meteora
Positives: -The most singable album the band has done. Catchy, vibrant summer album -Lyrically, (especially from Chester) the band's strongest work in a long time if not ever. Halfway Right and Sharp Edges for sure. - Chester really impressed me. I was sure we heard all he had to offer but the melodies here are the most dynamic from him and that is saying something. -Nobody Can Save Me is a fan-fucking-tastic opener. Really well done intro. -One More Light combines MTM nostalgia with one of the best ballads the band has done. - The instrumentation is really good and the mixing helps pick up on the different sounds and layers to this album. - Really enjoyed Mike's triplet flow on Good Goodbye. The most fun I had rapping his verses in a long time. Negatives: - Some generic, if well done, "Chester anthem" tracks like Battle Symphony, Heavy, TTM. Really made the experiment of trying something new falter, especially when they made songs like that dozens of time before, since 2007. - No Bonus Tracks. So many songs, and it's disappointing we won't see any other collaboration songs from the album for awhile, if not ever. - MORE MIKE. Especially in the rap department. Would've been nice if he made any heartfelt tracks rap-style. If more battle shit, I can understand why they left them out. Song Ranking: 1. Nobody Can Save Me 2. One More Light 3. Battle Symphony 4. Good Goodbye 5. Halfway Right 6. Invisible 7. Sorry For Now 8. Heavy 9. Talking To Myself 10. Sharp Edges Album Ranking: 1. Minutes To Midnight 2. Meteora 3. One More Light 4. A Thousand Suns 5. The Hunting Party 6. Hybrid Theory 7. Living Things
Positives: The vocals are the most genuine, gorgeous, and infectiously catchy of any Linkin Park album. The lyrics are excellent (Heavy & Good Goodbye notwithstanding), though I still consider A Thousand Suns superior. The album's length is perfect. Any longer and the sound & structures would become monotonous. There's depth instrumentally beneath the surface of most of these tracks. Immaculate production value from beginning to end. As a fan, I feel like I've never known the band more personally than I do now. The title track One More Light is pure brilliance. Negatives: It's still obnoxiously hypocritical after The Hunting Party cycle adamantly rebelled against pop music. As stated above, there's depth beneath the surface however it disappoints me the band would rather drown the interesting instrumentation with bland top-40 pop synths and cringeworthy cliches. I'm not saying "TURN UP THE GUITARZZZ MAN!" but there's some beautiful guitar and piano work buried in the mixing that feels like Living Things syndrome all over again. There's a fundamental lack of progression throughout the album. Each song has usually shown all of its tricks by the end of the first chorus or post-chorus. In terms of the track list, there's no ebb and flow or rise and fall. Without One More Light there is no climax to the album. Bridges are horribly lacklustre, mostly just repeating pre-choruses over the briefest breakdowns. The band's bridges are usually outstanding and link the often humble beginning to the climactic, explosive ending. Sorry For Now is the only track on the album that I feel does this to Linkin Park's regular standard. Linkin Park has done pop better unintentionally in tracks like Waiting For The End, Iridescent and Powerless. After three years between albums, I expected something more substantial than a radio-friendly pop album. Favourite Tracks: One More Light Sorry For Now Halfway Right Sharp Edges Nobody Can Save Me Talking To Myself Invisible Heavy Good Goodbye Battle Symphony Album Ranking A Thousand Suns The Hunting Party Minutes To Midnight One More Light Living Things Hybrid Theory Meteora I'd like to say One More Light is better than Minutes To Midnight, but that may just be the fresh smell of a new Linkin Park album talking. I'd say it's certainly more consistent, whereas the latter has dramatic highs and underwhelming lows. There's simply nothing on One More Light that holds a candle to The Little Things Give You Away. I could see the album slipping below Living Things in due time, even though Living Things feels even more inconsistently high and low.
I posted this review in a different thread, but felt it would be appropriate here too: I've taken this album in ever since it leaked and I think I can finally articulate a certain distinction for this album: Its a very mixed bag. Song highlights for me include Sorry for Now, One More Light, and Sharp Edges. Honestly at this point I'd say those are the only worthwhile songs that I'll be listening to. This is 100% not because of the direction. Pop can be amazing at times. Probably my favorite pop album, Currents, released by Tame Impala, highlights this perfectly with how inventive and diverse a pop album can be and not have to cave to typical verse/chorus routines. Take for example of the song "Let it Happen" that clocks in at over 7 minutes for Tame Impala. This is not say this was a necessity for Linkin park to have: song length does not matter if the songs are good, but I sadly don't think There's that much going for it here. I don't agree with the notion that this album was experimental, let alone experimental for Linkin Park. This is very much the same Linkin Park that has been around since Hybrid Theory but slapped on with different instrumentals and more positive songwriting; the focus is on the hooks and how catchy the song is, something that's been a part of their repertoire since Hybrid Theory. How can this album be considered experimental when there are albums that actually make immense leaps in experimenting such as Ok Computer to Kid A? Linkin Park's change of genre here is much more akin the Maroon 5 taking a full jump into pop music. To this day, their most experimental albums have been A Thousand Suns, an album that still holds a special place in my heart, and The Hunting Party, an album I have not cared to listen to for quite a while and consider a weak album, but at least first adventured in collabs in an rock oriented album and handled song progression very differently compared to most of their different work; Mark the Graves is a very good example of this, in my mind. This album was safe for them to make despite the fact that there has been a very outspoken animosity towards the direction. This has been nothing new for Linkin Park anyway, ever since their collab with Jay-z and to a larger extent, Minutes to Midnight. To me,this album is largely an appeal to Top 40, which is nothing bad in itself, but really makes me call back to Mike's lyrics from Step Up: "It sounded like the only hip-hop you heard was Top 40". Despite this song being release well over a decade ago, its the perfect summation of One More Light in terms of their choice of pop style: preposterously safe, but not the least bit self-aware. Tell me that ain't insecure. 5/10 Linkin Park Album Ranking: 1. A Thousand Suns 2. Hybrid Theory 3. Minutes to Midnight 4. One More Light 5. Living Things 6. Meteora 7. The Hunting Party