Alright guys, it's been a week since release and I have to say I've actually been avoiding the forum for a while so I could experience the album in is fullest without any external opinion influencing my approach towards it. I did listen to the leak but unfortunately at the moment I did I could not pay much attention to what I was listening, but all I know is that I was very surprised and that I needed to let it sink in. Then on release date I joined into the worldwide listening party, but first playing the album for a full time before it actually got officially going. These are my thoughts: Holy shit. I won't go all hyperbole and say this is the best album ever to exist or some exaggerated thing like that but I really, REALLY love this album, the songs are incredibly catchy and some phrases just stick with you during the entire day. I've barely read any opinions on this thread but I agree with @Minus right from the start saying this is an album I didn't know I needed. The only downside -if any for me- is that I enjoy it so much, it flies by, it's a little bit on the short side of length. Another thing that makes me happy is that I can safely play this album at the office .. My PC at work has a broken headphones input and all music I play has to be through speakers, in a friendly volume, high enough for me to listen but low enough not to annoyed the people around me, and they enjoy it as well, they start humming Heavy, Battle Symphony, Halfway Right even if no music is playing at all, and it makes me proud. My track by track opinions go as follows: 01. Nobody Can Save Me Great opener, the music and melodies tell you right away what the whole album is about. The line 'I've been searching something out there for what's been missing right here' resonates the most with me, it's simple, it's straight forward, and it speaks to me. 02. Good Goodbye I understand why they say it doesn't really fit with the album, lyrics and theme is different, it's a really fun track, and so far replayable as fuck; I love the bass/beat that kicks in when Chester says 'Good Goodbye', simple, but filth, idgaf. The video was pretty much WTF but it's not like it was supposed to fit, think the whole purpose was to be completely random. 03. Talking to Myself In hindsight I think this is the most upbeat, 'noisy' song on the record, the chorus presents a guitar adorned with some layers to add some punch to it, it's the closest we get to a 'wall of guitars', but using different elements. So I think there aren't enough reasons to say this album does not have the 'Linkin Park' effect to it, they did it, but using different elements (safe to say we have at least two different guitar sounds on this song). I also have to give a lot of credit to Phoenix, his input really shines on this song, top work. 04. Battle Symphony I guess this song surprised many of us, especially because of the expectation built around the title. Many of us have been yearning strings and classical instrumentation in an epic LP song for a while, but I guess it'll happen when it happens. Now, looking at the lyrics and of course the song title in its real context it does make sense on its own, in a similar way to Heavy. The lyrics are really simple but that is the whole point, making simple things is actually as difficult as trying to make complicated stuff. I would've liked Chester to vary his vocal delivery a bit so it would add a little bit more harmony, it may sound a bit one dimensional at some parts. 05. Invisible Okay so this is one of the Mike songs, he clearly picked up a LOT of confidence in singing, his melodies used to be safe and pretty straightforward (see: In Between, Burning in the Skies, Castle of Glass), low key stuff (except for NRL but it ended up being left out of MTM). Here he goes low and high according to his range, of course he doesn't have Chester's range but his voice is incredibly pleasing to hear. This is a great uplifting song, and the music enhances that, it's a great match. 06. Heavy Okay I'll keep it short, we've talked about this one for quite a while now. I still like this song, I love to sing over the instrumental and by looking at the rest of the album, I think they were right to choose this song as lead single. It's catchy, Kiiara sings great, and it was going to have that bonkers, love-it-or-hate-it feel to it, so people could start preparing psychologically to what was coming. With 'bonkers' I don't want to bring comparisons to ATS, it doesn't compare, but it was as much left-field as The Catalyst was on its day. This song currently has many detractors compared to The Catalyst, but not many can deny that the backlash it received in 2010 was Heavy, heh. 07. Sorry For Now The other 'Mike song'. Like in Invisible, he does great use of his own range. This song hits home to all those who have to be away from their children, but I like that it also fits with all those who are away from their loved ones, not necessarily kids. At first I thought that I could not relate too much to this song but I'm in a point of my life where I could forcibly move out of my country due to the severe social and economic crisis, and just like hundreds of thousands of fellow country-people who have left looking for better opportunities, we all leave with the hope of coming back one day. It's a terrible, awful and frightening feeling, but I hope it'll only be 'for now'. Back to the song, I don't see why people say Chester is 'rapping' in this song, to me he's definitely singing, a bit faster and with a rhythmic delivery, but singing nonetheless. 08. Halfway Right This is one of my favorite songs, the chorus is insanely catchy and it's a bit funny because I am personally a bit stubborn, so I always like being right .. To me it's incredibly therapeutic, It's a nice way to remind ourselves that we still have things to fix and that we are responsible for our wrongdoings. I've been to therapy and sometimes I may slow down on my work but this is a great way to not lose sight on the goal. When I've felt a bit overwhelmed recently it brought me back and made realize that it was me, it's not someone else or the outside world. All these serious things encapsulated in what seems like a playful song. 09. One More Light Wow. If people don't agree that this is one of the BEST songs the band has EVER written, I don't even. Powerful, heartbreaking, relatable. The lyrics are an accrurate representation of mourning and some of its phases, including anger and denial, and somehow it merges the perspectives of both the affected person and the one who's counseling. The instrumentation is sublime and the vocal delivery is absolutely flawless. If anything, I would've liked to have that strong 'I do' the way he delivered it on the live Kimmel performance, it IS there in the song, but it's very faded into the background, very distant. Well, maybe if they had brought it forward it'd have killed the instrumental. An undescribable piece of work, and I hope it gets the huge credit and praise it truly deserves. Phenomenal. 10. Sharp Edges I read somewhere, perhaps during the listening party, that Sharp Edges was that song that picked you up after listening to OML, and indeed. Who doesn't need to be picked up after heart was shredded into tiny pieces? If OML was the closer it would've left the listener with a sad feeling, and LP doesn't want you to be sad. I love the acoustic guitar and the country-esque strumming and vocal melody. One of the best of the album for me as well, very therapeutic too. The post-chorus from the bridge onwards is simply great, it includes a clichéd 'what doesn't kill us makes us stronger' but a great artist knows how to insert those clichés in a clever way into their songs, and they pulled it off, the clap-like beat and the vocal delivery is SWAG. Absolutely replayable. ----- Conclusion: It's a wonderful album, short, but condensed. It managed to make me think about serious and deep issues in my life in the most organic way. It made me water my eyes more than once, but just as much as it made me emotional, it made me feel great and uplifted with their catchy choruses, melodies and cool instumentation. It was different, yes, it was unexpected, yes, it can be argued that they went 'safe', they really didn't. Many also say that it was watered down and uninspired, it wasn't, there was as much musical composition as was needed, and just because it doesn't have lyrical complexity or over-complicated instruments doesn't mean it didn't have much substance; a Linkin Park record never felt so close, never made me think about and remember the things it made me. Because of how 'personal' this album was to the band, and since everyone has different tastes, emotions and personalities, this one may resonate the strongest with those who are/were in a similar wavelength to that in which the band was when they wrote it. It's not a bad thing if you don't like it, whether lyrically or musically. A person is a whole universe, and the fact that LP wrote some lyrics that someone is not into or played a music style that is not your thing, shouldn't be a stick to beat the band with. Teen angst: We all went through that. Political issues: Everyone hates politicians. Post-apocalyptic fictional stuff: Fuck yeah awesome. GUITARZ: GUITARZ. These are things and topics than can appeal to a broader and wider chunk of the spectrum, but what they did this time around is something with a lot more chances to be unappealing to the public who was in those circles I previously mentioned, but can appeal to those who weren't in any of them. So it's my view on it. I hope many people around here and outside of LPA are enjoying this album as well.
Alright, I've been on this forum since 2010 and this time I felt like I should write something about this album: Underwhelming and bland. First of all, I'm a huge fan of this band. I got the chance to see them twice so far (A Thousand Suns & Living Things tour) and would still consider going to their concert whenever possible. I enjoy listening to heavy metal, alternative rock, pop, electronic, Rnb, rap, etc, so I don't really have a preference for a genre. I've been more into the electronic pop sound lately thanks to Flume, Kygo, Calvin Harris, Shawn Mendes, DJ Snake, etc... And I still listen to Korn, Slipknot, Stone Sour, Bring Me The Horizon, Metallica, etc... on a daily basis. I usually have pop and heavy music mixed together in the same playlist. I listened to the One More Light album a couple of times since it came out and I stopped completely a couple of days ago. The only songs that I like are Talking To Myself, Invisible & Sorry For Now. The other songs are "meh". I wouldn't say they are bad, they are just underwhelming and bland. I don't mind the "Pop" sound. The issue that I have with this album is a lack of human connection with the instruments. It just doesn't sound like a band. They've put so much emphasis on boosting the vocals' volume to the point where the instruments are so subtle. I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to have those chipmunk effects on a couple of songs? They literally took what was trendy couple of years ago, and threw in that sound in a couple of their songs on this album. I don't hate the songs on this album, but they are more underwhelming than other pop songs from other artists. I'm not a fan of Chester's squeaky clean vocals. It sounds so whiny and cheesy to me. I don't like his voice on the song One More Light. The song itself is ok, the lyric is alright, I would just have preferred to hear someone else sing it. I think any other pop singers would have been better. On Jimmy Fallon's live version, Chester screams, but on the album's version, he does a subtle falsetto voice. Why is it even subtle when he clearly did it fine in one of the leaked acoustic performance at Warner Studio? I just don't get it. Nobody Can Save Me Now melody sounds like the Backstreet Boys / Westlife. I grew up listening to those boy bands and I liked them, but WTF are Linkin Park trying to do here? Copying old melodies? 6 guys in a band, and yet you can only hear 2-3 musicians on the songs. Wtf happened to Rob, Hahn and Phoenix? Rob's drumming on this album is so underwhelming. I feel like they could have used his THP's drumming skills and create something cool mixed with that pop sound, but no, they decided to use the most generic beats ever (Travis Barker can easily add his own spin on any music genre). Hahn has been pretty much nonexistent since Meteora. I'm sure he is behind some of the sounds, but they are so generic to the point that anyone could have created them. As for Phoenix, well Linkin Park never had a distinctive bass sound, so I think this is a little more acceptable to me. When they performed Good Goodbye live, you can see Phoenix pushing the "bassy" sounds on one of those keypads. Anyone could have pushed those buttons and it's not even that hard. Again, a waste of skills on that song. Before the album came out, Mike said that this album is genreless. But no it isn't! It's fucking pop all the way. Again, I like pop music, but the way Linkin Park did pop music, underwhelming and bland. I can't repeat that enough; underwhelming and bland! They wanted to do a personal record, that's fine. But why did they go for that generic sound? The album sounds like Mike, Chester and a little bit of Brad album. Maybe this would have been better as a side project, or if they really wanted to keep it under the Linkin Park brand, this album would have been better as a Soundcloud exclusive. On the bright side, it was awesome having Mike on the lead vocals on some of those songs. Even better on Sorry For Now where Chester was doing the semi rap thing. That was new and refreshing. Sharp Edges had potential. They should have gone all in on that folk sound. At this point, at least we've got the upcoming Nickelback, Stone Sour, Kygo, Calvin Harris and Fall Out Boy albums to look up to for the rest of the year. Note: I enjoyed the latest The Chainsmokers album. It also doesn't have that human connection with the instruments, but at least they have their own distinctive sound. Heck, even Taylor Swift's 1989 was more enjoyable and had a fresh sound at that time. Come to think of it, maybe bland is the sound Linkin Park was aiming for this album. I respect everyone's opinion, I would give this album a B- at best. It would have been a C if I was being self centered about my opinions, however since they mentioned personal record, maybe it is an album for their children to listen to. Maybe that's a sacrifice they had to make(fucking up the fan base). It's clear that a large part of the fan base don't like this album based on their Fb comments and Chester's insults to his fans. Heck, even Corey Taylor who has been pretty vocal about his hate for pop music had to defend the fans who don't like this album. It's frustrating seeing one of my favourite band of all time doing something so generic. Did I enjoy this album? Maybe a little at first, but the more I listened to it, the more I realised there's nothing special about this album. Any other artists armed with pop song writers could have made this album. The instruments/electronic sounds are; underwhelming and bland. TL;TR Remember their song Drawbar feat. Tom Morello? One More Light = 10 tracks of Drawbar.
I agree with what you said about Sharp Edges. I've seen a lot of complaints about Sharp Edges being the closer, and that One More Light should be the closer. But you nailed the reason why LP probably chose SE: the band wants to leave the listeners off on an uplifting note, not in sadness. The messages of the song wrap up the album very well. We shouldn't dwell on the pain and our scars; they're just stories and lessons to learn from to help us live a happier today. That's a brilliant way to end the album.
Exactly what I meant. Some people liked it, some did not. I felt like Drawbar was underwhelming. For those who found that song the most interesting, One More Light is for them.
People saying that it sounds like only Mike, Chester and a bit of Brad are on this album aren't listening to it properly.
Well you do have some actual drums on some of those songs, however as I mentioned in my post, they are so generic that even a drum machine could play those beats. So, for me, Rob isn't really present on this album. I could say the same thing for Brad, however he is credited as a co producer so...
I'm a bit confused with how you're finding any similarity whatsoever between Drawbar and One More Light (album).
I'd be willing to agree with your argument, but using Drawbar as your example? Drawbar is one of the most brilliantly composed pieces of music this band has produced.
I just don't consider Drawbar to be the most brilliantly composed music from this band. That's my opinion. I know some people liked it. Hence why I used Drawbar as an example. For me, One More Light isn't an album for everybody. As much as I am not really enjoying this album at the moment, I'm sure plenty of others are going to appreciate it. There's something lacking about that song but I can't quite point out what it is. I usually enjoy the instruments only tracks Linkin Park has been releasing, but Drawbar isn't one of them. I think it's mostly the guitar part from Tom Morello that doesn't click with me. It brought the music down, at least to me. The drumming is awesome, the same goes with the piano. But that guitar, it feels underwhelming. And come to think of it, War is the first and only Linkin Park track I've ever deleted from my music library. The lyrics are so bad to me. It kind of makes me glad that they collaborated with song writers on OML. Again, that's only my opinion.
Explaining why you picked "Drawbar" isn't totally necessary as these points could be applied to literally anything the band has made. None of it is universally liked.
People saying that OML was only written by Mike, Brad and Chester, you're aware that virtually every single Linkin Park album was written that way, right? With the exception of Minutes to Midnight, they all were written primarily by Mike and Brad. Minutes to Midnight was the only album that each band member wrote their own songs and they would all compare them at the end of a week and see which ones they liked the most. But the others were primarily written by Mike and Brad, even A Thousand Suns, etc. So it's nothing new, nor is it a big deal. Mike and Brad are great writers.
Didnt you started to love the album? But yeah, at best its a 6.5 for me, but in general i would consider a 5.5 or 6/10
True, but I think people are reacting because normally the credit is written as "WRITTEN BY LINKIN PARK", with the occasional "Music & Lyrics by Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington" in some albums. As a result, people tend to think that all six members are involved in every aspect of the song. OML is the first album of LP to drop the "WRITTEN BY LINKIN PARK" completely, and Mike is the only band member to be credited for all song, with songwriters, Brad and Chester being credited in a few others.
Tried to post days ago but accidentally closed the tab, and gave up, but VERY underwhelmed with the album.
Wow, that's like the exact opposite of what happened with me. I absolutely loved Minutes to Midnight upon first listen and still do to this day. It's my favorite Linkin Park album of all time and nothing will ever beat it for me. Of course, I loved Hybrid Theory and Meteora as well, and pretty much everything the band did during those eras. I loved We Made It, I'm a huge fan of Busta. 2009 is actually when I stopped being a Linkin Park fan for the most part. I hated New Divide and ATS and everything after it. It's cool how so many fans have different stories.