I don't see how this album is anymore personal than songs on HT, Meteora, some songs on MTM, and LT, Final masquerade. I guess to each their own and whatever they can relate to more. I can relate to HT and Meteora more. I can't relate to songs on OML except OML itself
I agree, we shouldn't blindly make accusations. But to play devil's advocate for a second, can you really blame the fans? Everything surrounding this album, from the sound to the people they chose to collaborate with, screams mainstream pop. And it doesn't help with videos like the ones posted in this thread where Mike essentially said the stylistic shift was at least partially a reaction to low record sales on THP. All this doesn't exactly paint them under the best light when it comes to artistic integrity and I can see why some fans might react in a negative way.
I wouldn't even label the entire album as pop. One More Light, Talking to Myself, Sharp Edges, & Good Goodbye aren't even really full-blown pop. They have pop elements, but that's about it, and that could be said about their entire discography. Now Heavy & Battle Symphony, I would consider those to be out-right pop, in my opinion. I guess it depends on who you ask. The other 4 tracks I didn't mention, I would consider to be alternative pop.
Uhh it's bad character and wrong to have doubts about the band? LP aren't a bunch of holy innocents who never do anything wrong and people don't have to agree with everything they do. As long as you're not being outright rude you should be able to voice your opinion wether it's in favor of the band or not. Like you say, we don't know what goes on within the band and that's exactly why people question some of the things they do.
If the band doesn't want the fans to question their integrity then they should craft their responses and statements carefully, that's all. I'm not saying that they should lie, I'm saying that if they choose to speak out potentially controversal stuffs like implying that OML was created due to the low record sell of THP (just one of the reasons) then they should prepare for the incoming ****storm and it is not wrong to question them. You reap what you sow after all.
You don't put a song about your dead friend on an album that is supposedly only made to be a cash cow.
I disagree. I don't want to be respectful and I'm one of the people that think LP chose this sound, because they wanted to. But they did seperate the lyric part from the musical part very clearly this time. While the lyrical part was clearly very emotional and personal, the whole music and sound part happened after that. And Mike even said, when the writing was finished they were like: "Hm, so what sound should we choose for this album?". So I'm not saying they are selling out or anything, but I do think that ONE of many reasons for the pop direction was money-related. I mean, let's be honest, if they did one or two more THPs, their sales would drop quite a bit. And while I do think they are fine when it comes to money, they do have to feed their family.
While I really like "One More Light", I also do feel that there's a disconnect between the lyrics + vocals and the production underneath them on a couple of the tracks. The band may have truly wanted that - they've used stylistic contrast before - and they've mentioned that they aimed for sombre lyrics over upbeat music, but I think that the chasm gets a bit too wide on certain songs
I don't get this "They made the album they wanted to make"-argument. I mean, of course they did. If they didn't want to do it, they wouldn't have done it, right? The question is for what reasons did they want to make the record? Listening to the conversation between Mike and Brad makes it obvious that there are more reasons for them going full pop than just "we were curious how pop-songwriters work or "let's push the boundaries and make a 180 after THP". While I do not like the album at all I think this is perfectly fine. You don't become one of the biggest bands in the world if you never give a fuck about what could sell and what music does not work in the mainstream. I just think that this time the strategy does not work out. With all the negative comments they get, all the really bad reviews and with them being so defensive about the music you can see that at least things are not running too smoothly this time around. The good part is that if they follow their rules, they will make another 180 with the next record. They will not do another Hunting Party so the obvious change would be to really expand their songstructures opposed to the formulaic songwriting on OML. We'll see... you never know with this band.
They decided to make OML in order to earn money. THP was not sold enough, than they produced this pop album to appeal a greater number of listeners I'm not buying that they wanted to do some experimental on OML, this is hypocrisy from my point of view
Well, the experiment is at least to see if making a "universal" record really leads to bigger sales.. Does anyone know if OML is doing better than THP the first week?
According Billboard OML is the lowest-selling LP album ever since 2000 with 90.000 units sold in the first week. THP had 110.000 units sold in the first week
I think THP was what they wanted to do whilst also wanting to keep old fans on board. OML is definitely something Mike especially you can tell wants to make. I think working with people like Steve Aoki, Martin Garrix etc... has made him interested in more electronic experimental route. Not to mention a lot of Top 40 hits have moved to more electronic sounds and i'd guess they listen to that a fair bit. I'd like to think that's what they all wanted to make at this moment in time. If they didn't i'd guess the band wouldn't last much longer if there were creative differences to the point a few of them didn't want to make a certain album. Who knows what comes in the future but as long as its stuff they want to make then it'll for sure be interesting
One could argue that the band has gone on record in the past saying that before the final songs got to where they were on the last 2 previous albums that they had this "folk-like" type sound to them. I don't remember the quote off the bat, but I do know it was said... Like, Just look at my retromash of Lost In The Echo with it's demo, Holding Company, for example. Even though the lyrics made it onto a completely different sounding song, they still fit quite well here and the band could have made this sound way back then. https://soundcloud.com/hybridsoidier/holding-onto-echoes
This is what I'm talking about specifically in my other post. I was NOT saying the band is infallible and does no wrong. I don't like a lot of their music and past decisions myself. I just think it's in poor taste to call the band deceptive and dishonest when we don't know what's in their head as they make these songs. We may see things a certain way just because they wrote more accessible music but is that really grounds to start saying the band is lying to us? This doesn't even apply to just this album, it applies to life in general. Because someone does something out of the norm doesn't make it deceptive, manipulative or insincere. It's not about being oblivious to the band's faults or shortcomings, it's more being a decent enough person to not go about questioning their honesty with everything this album cycle. This debacle is more complex than I'm explaining but it's a small part of it that bothers me enough. I understand there is an uproar about the press cycle in THP versus this one. But I also recognize that the band members are just people and people have contradictions, evolving views and perspectives. Everyone goes through those things, I don't know one person who doesn't.
One could make the same arguments about THP that are currently being made about OML. That THP was made deliberately to cater to the band's "hard rock" fans and win them back, thus not being authentic to the band. In theory with all the whiners that seem to come out of the woodwork every cycle saying the band needs to BRING BACK HT, or BRING BACK THA GUITARZZZZ, THP should've sold outstandingly well. But it didn't. It actually was one of the band's worst selling albums to date. But then also one could argue that MTM was done to fit in with rock at the time because 'nu-metal was dead', ATS was done because electronic based music was popular then etc. You could literally take a thread and tie it through the band's entire career about the sounds of their albums vs what was popular the time. An argument could easily be made that most of the albums capitalized off of what was 'hot' at the time, or were done to try and bring back old fans (LIVING THINGS). The fact remains that we are fortunate enough to have a band in our iTunes that doesn't like to dabble in the same sound over and over again. That despite occasional backlash and anger from fans, they try to go in a different direction with each album, to keep fans (and themselves) on their toes and never allow themselves to fall into a trap of doing the same sound over and over again. Some experiments the band does will work and be received well, and others may fall flat. I personally feel OML 'works well', but I get that some people feel it falls flat and that's fine. Fortunately the band has a little something for everyone in their discography, and I'm sure come Album #8 we'll be here all over again, debating different things about the record's sound. It's what makes being a fan of this band both frustrating and fun at the same time.
And it also only sold 50k first week in a time when record sales were still super high. Then it blew up. Not saying OML will do that but