Be it Somewhere I Belong, Heavy, Burn it Down or (by their own admission) What I've Done, the band really does shoot itself in the foot by picking some of the weaker tracks to front up the album. It leads to negative PR and a stale atmosphere overall. OML is a fantastic album and they surely could have gone for something other than Heavy! What's the deal with this?
Burn It Down, What I've Done, and Somewhere I Belong are some of the biggest hits of their career. Whether you yourself are a fan of the song you can't deny that they were good choices for singles. Also - What I've Done is one of my favorites from Minutes to Midnight so I can't even really agree with you there on a quality argument. Edit: One Step Closer, The Catalyst, and Guilty All The Same are among my favorite LP songs and they were all lead singles on their respective albums.
The only other choice I could see for a lead single for OML is Sorry For Now, but even then, I'm sure the band recognized it as one if the best songs on the album and wanted to save it as a surprise.
I'll give you The Catalyst. That song is supreme and a very good insight into A Thousand Suns. Still, the exception rather than the rule.
I liked all the singles I had heard prior to an album's release, starting with ATS (didn't board the LP Express until after MTM released). Until OML, that is. I agree that Heavy had to be the weakest choice for a lead single, especially when Talking To Myself or Good Goodbye could have been first. I say this because either of those songs could have easily appealed to the rock or hip-hop crowds, respectively, since those listening groups appear to make up a considerable portion of the core LP fanbase. However, I'm not just talking about the fanbase, as the mainstream at large could have received either of those songs much more warmly than Heavy IMO.
"Average" is exactly why they're picked. They're almost always a pretty good estimation of what the rest of the album is like. Heavy was a dramatically different sounding song off a dramatically different sounding album, in that regard it was the best first single choice because it was the most effective way to prepare people for what followed.
I disagree. HT, Meteora, MTM, and ATS has perfect lead singles and we're some of the better songs on their respective albums. THP had a perfect lead single as well. LITE should have been the lead single for LT and OML dropped the ball on ALL songs released before the album
Lead singles are usually the most accessible, and catchy of the bunch, and they always have been besides a few exceptions. It really just depends on how they promote them. HT-ATS had fine singles to promote the record. Living Things had a huge hit with BID but completely dropped the ball on LITE and at that point, no one gave a damn. THP chose the poppier songs for music videos but failed on both accounts. They didn't push hard enough to promote the songs, so no one cared after awhile AND it didn't accurately represent the album. OML might be the same though since I don't think they're gonna shoot another video anytime soon. From a marketing standpoint, it makes perfect sense BID, Heavy, WID, SIB are chosen as singles while TLTGYA, HHH, Blackout, ALITS, etc. are not. Most people don't give a shit about super artistic songs for their radio and, even when the band does choose "experimental" singles like The Catalyst, they still get shitted upon. Hell, the band can't avoid negative PR. They'd piss off the hardcore community here if there isn't any weird, artsy 4 minute or over songs and would piss off casuals (where pretty much news outlets report positively or negatively on the band based on their reactions) if there isn't any Wastelands, Wretches And Kings, rap-rock songs.
From a commercial performance standpoint, every lead single has been a logical choice for one reason or another, except, ironically, for two of the ones we know were chosen by the band instead of the label - The Catalyst and Guilty All the Same. Nothing on OML was going to chart as high as Heavy. Nothing on Living Things was going to chart as high as Burn it Down. The best songs don't always make the best singles, because choosing a single is one of the choices in an album's creative process that typically is made purely with commercial success in mind.
Yeah, how well these songs have done on the charts proves they were the right choices, besides maybe FM for THP, and WFTE/BITS for ATS. But THP was for the hard-rock fans, and GATS really displayed the album as a whole better than FM or UIG could have, and certainly got a lot of people like us LPA users more excited/intrigued than UIG or FM would have I think. I think same goes for The Catalyst.
Personally, I like the lead single choices because they give you an idea of how the albums sound without overselling them
Because they actually secretly enjoy watching their fanbase combust into flames after each lead single sounds completely different from the one before
This. 'Heavy' (while not the best song on the album), did an excellent job in preparing people for the change that was about to come. Mike was actually pretty accurate in saying that it was a 'core song' and gave an idea of how the entire album would sound.
I feel like if LITE was the first single and got a proper music video and promotion like BID did it could have been just as or more successful. But that's just always been my opinion
Maybe it's just me, but I love One Step Closer and What I've Done. Somewhere I Belong was kind of 'meh' and I still don't love that song, but it's ok. The Catalyst, Burn It Down and Heavy were all successful first singles, so they did their job with that, even though I don't like any of those songs. If I were in charge of picking the lead singles, I'd probably fail the band. I'd probably have chose Papercut for Hybrid Theory Faint for Meteora Leave Out All The Rest for Minutes To Midnight Iridescent for A Thousand Suns Lost In The Echo for Living Things Wastelands for The Hunting Party Talking To Myself for One More Light Papercut and Faint because the fans of nu-metal would have ate those tracks up huge. Leave Out All The Rest because I think it's a very powerful song and could connect with a lot of people on a big scale, and it showed the band's big change in sound. Iridescent is just a massive sounding song to me, very mature sounding, I think it could have turned a lot of people onto the band who maybe didn't like their older music. Lost In The Echo and Wastelands both because they bring back that nu-metal type of energy and all the fans who pine for that time would have been hyped. Talking To Myself because I think a lot of fans would have been less turned off to the album than they were with Heavy and also because I feel like it bridges the gap between The Hunting Party and One More Light since it's a little bit rock-ish while still having the pop sound. This is actually a really good point. Very true.
These would be my choices for first singles. I would pick Sorry For Now in a heartbeat but I also realize keeping the song a surprise was a smart choice. Hybrid Theory: Papercut Meteora: Numb Minutes To Midnight: What I've Done A Thousand Suns: Burning In The Skies Living Things: Lost In The Echo The Hunting Party: Rebellion One More Light: Nobody Can Save Me
Consider though, that TTM sounds nothing like anything else on the album. Imagine hearing Mike make offhands remarks about "risky could mean a pop record' or whatever his wording was, and hearing Talking To Myself and assuming he meant like a slightly poppier version of what they had been doing before. Then getting the album and being greeted with Heavy, Halfway Right, and Sharp Edges. It's a good song that likely would have been received better, but a lead single is supposed to introduce you to the album. Heavy, despite widely being considered not very good, gave a perfect indication of what the album would sound like. Just like a lead single should. Talking To Myself would have been a big misdirect.
In my opinion, every single had represented the core sound and the mentality of each album. 'One Step Closer' and 'Somewhere I Belong' were perfect choices for HT and Meteora since they were 'nu-metal' songs pointing out the general sound of both albums. 'What I've Done' represented their change to a more alternative rock sound and a perfect bridge to connect the evolution between HT/Meteora and MTM. 'The Catalyst' showed the experimental side of the band that then you would find it out in ATS. 'Burn It Down' manifested the attempt of the band to return to their old sound but in a more mature and complex way. 'Guilty All The Same' was another great choice to guide you to the THP sound and finally, 'Heavy' showing the pop side of the band in OML.