(The big revival): Nobody Can Save Me "Nobody Can Save Me" is the opening track to Linkin Park’s One More Light. Opening with a simple filtered vocal melody, it sets the stage for Linkin Park’s new approach to songwriting for their seventh record lyrically and musically. "Nobody Can Save Me," along with several other songs written for One More Light, was written in collaboration with Jon Green, the lead singer of the English band The Bonfires. Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, and Jon Green were the credited songwriters for the song. Mike also recorded much of the original vocals himself before trying Chester's vocals on the song. "Nobody Can Save Me" opens with an effected vocal melody—Mike stated this came from a scratch vocal track that was cut up and put through a low-pass filter that varies throughout the song, depending on how wide they wanted the song to sound. The song also features heavy wobble bass throughout, as well as light clean guitar tones that eventually turn into electric riffs by the end of the song. Lyrically, "Nobody Can Save Me" paints a bleaker backdrop but accentuates its seemingly despairing theme with optimism, hinting at "chasing out the darkness" and eventually landing on “Only I can save me”. The song gradually builds into more of a rock song, starting from the opening effected vocals and synth melodies, then adding new elements progressively until bringing in distorted power chords in the final chorus to complement Chester’s singing and the texture provided by synths. According to Mike Shinoda, "Nobody Can Save Me" continued the band's trend of having a song per album taking notoriously long to finish, going through several renditions before becoming the version heard on One More Light: During the One More Light global album listening party, Delson and Shinoda also stated that the song was one that Linkin Park all felt encapsulated the core message and theme of One More Light. Despite some of the band wanting to release "Nobody Can Save Me" as lead single, they ultimately chose not to so that it could be heard first in the context of the full album. Linkin Park also preferred to have a new song to be the first track heard when playing through the album. "Nobody Can Save Me" made its live debut on the One More Light European tour, where it replaced "Battle Symphony." The two songs began rotating on the setlist for the following shows. The song is notable in Linkin Park's live catalog for Chester playing guitar during performances, something the band had done for only a few songs before, such as Iridescent and Shadow of the Day. Jon Green made a special appearance to play guitar on "Nobody Can Save Me" at the band's “One More Night in London” show in July of 2017. During the Hollywood Bowl Linkin Park & Friends Celebrate Life in Honor of Chester Bennington tribute show, Jon Green and Steve McKellar of Civil Twilight joined Linkin Park as guests to perform the song. Mike would eventually go on to perform "Nobody Can Save Me" during his solo tours, singing the lead vocals and sometimes adding more guitar in place of some synth lines. The song was one of the One More Light tracks Mike mentioned as emotionally difficult to play, but it was eventually debuted in London in 2019, along with several of the other tracks he referred to in this way. "Nobody Can Save Me" was the only one to find a recurring place in his solo setlist, while songs such as "Battle Symphony" and "One More Light" were played only once in London as a special occasion. What are your thoughts on the opener to One More Light? The Session thread is back again!
Some of LP's songs have a dark-lyrics-over-bright-instrumentation thing going on, like "Blackout" and "Iridescent". In the case of "Nobody Can Save Me", it really makes it difficult for me personally to figure out what the feeling of the song is. That aside, I love basically every aspect of this song from a production standpoint, like Shinoda's backing vocal dovetailing with that synth melody in the verses and bridges, and the vocal chop loop that runs throughout the arrangement. Chester's vocal performance on this song and the whole album is also great. You can trace a line from "Midnight" straight to this album in terms of how the band experimented with presenting vocals in a mix, and wound up with a relatively raw sound that lets the performances truly shine
I really like Chesters performance here. And i think the upbeat part of the song is pretty cool too, Mikes background vocals add also good to the song. The high pitched voice in the intro gets on my nerves though. And its kinda repetive. Not th worst song on OML though. Its a nice opener and definitely shows a lot what the whole album is about.
My favorite thing is Mike’s harmonies in his live solo version. I wish we heard them more in the original song. I don’t like the high pitched vocal sample like Michele said. It works for some music, so it’s not some general disdain I have for that kind of production. It just doesn’t work well for me in this song. The instrumentation generally feels dated; I get 2009-2011 pop music vibes. I liked Chester’s vocal performance. It was an adventurous song relative to LP’s own music. The album easily polarized fans, much more then ATS imo.
In the lead up to One More Light, Linkin Park released a band meeting video where Chester said "We want to make a record with fucking stellar songs that people want to listen to all the time." While I honestly think the album largely fails that concept, Nobody Can Save Me is fucking stellar and it reminds me of that quote all the time. The progression in the lyrics, from beginning dark and depressing to reaching a point where Chester finds the light and solution in himself is incredible. Then you have his vocal performance itself which is sensational - leaping between vulnerable and triumphant at any given moment. Finally, the instrumental is beautiful, albeit, smothered beneath the vocal mix. If this was the lead single instead of Heavy, I think the public reception towards One More Light would have been drastically different.
I'd also agree with this but it doesn't make it feel dated to me. It's not my favorite production style but I think it works for NCSM better than some other songs on the album. And to be honest, I feel like Mike has always had a habit of using production trends after they're popular. What's frustrating is that it could have been.
Favorite song on the album. ATS, LT, and THP all lacked that conscious, introspective style of songwriting that defined their first 3 albums in my eyes, but this album was a return to me actually feeling something on a personal level with their music. The melodies, the eerie atmosphere of the first verse, Chester coming in with "headfirst hallucination" felt so dreamlike and crazy the first time I heard this song. This song ties in to Lost In The Echo for best opening track to an album.
For me it was the opposite (for the most part). While the music wasnt too bad, it didnt reached me at all for many songs.
Yeah the credit I will give this song is that it successfully sets the tone for the rest of the album. You could point to this song alone for an indication of what the album is about.
Well, its at pause right now ANd i dont think you missed anything yet when NCSM is still on this page.