What are your thoughts on living things now that it has been released for a while? What are your favorite songs? Where does it rank on your list of favorite Linkin park albums?
The first listen was an amazing experience like every Linkin Park album, but I consider Living Things their worst release, still the second best album of 2012 though after Hot Chip - In Our Heads. A collection of decent singles, Castle Of Glass and Roads Untraveled are great additions to the band's song collection along with Skin To Bone, but the album has no stamina whatsoever; it just lacks direction. Powerless and Lost In The Echo were nice nods back to Meteora and Hybrid Theory, I was happy they took a "step back" there, but the band are beginning to sound as if they are parodying themselves with songs like Tinfoil. I'm highly disappointed in the overuse of compression on the mastering of the record, there is absolutely no difference in dynamics between verses and choruses on some songs, and that just plain sucks, I thought LP were the masters of sonic punches to the face? I know mixing engineer Manny Marroquin uses a lot of compression on his mixes, so when it goes though another stage of compression from Brian Gardner, you get an EXTREMELY LOUD but dynamically pathetic result. THE MIXING ON LIVING THINGS SUCKS! Disappointed in Mike's rapping too on LT aside from LITE (not keen on the Kanye West lyrics) the rapping in general is very basic/lazy in comparison to Hybrid Theory. 7/10 I like Mike's new sounds though, he should keep at it for the next record but I can't reiterate enough how much I want another organic sounding record like Minutes To Midnight, and decent mixing!
After I got over the whole "OMG NEW LINKIN PARK" feeling after it was released, I really lost interest in the majority of the album. I still hold a lot of love for Until It Breaks, Victimized, Skin to Bone, and Roads Untraveled, just because those songs really feel like a step forward for the band, and the direction I would like them to go in the future.
I know that now a days I feel like I miss listening to ATS a lot more than I do about LIVING THINGS. It still feels fresh but that's because I don't play the album "that" often. Songs like Skin to Bone and Powerless just keep getting better. Even Castle of Glass is starting to feel old.
I didn't agree with all of your post, but I strongly agreed with this part. The mastering on their albums has been greatly hit or miss since MTM, and LT was their worst mixed album to date. With ATS my main audio gripe was The Catalyst as I felt that track was mastered very flat and even mixed poorly, but with LT the entire album has problems. The highly touted strings in "I'll Be Gone" are almost impossible to hear, in some acoustic type tracks you hear more of the string being struck than the guitar itself, and numerous instruments over the entire album are lost or buried in the mix. Disappointing because Manny is one of my favorite mixers. Perhaps he was rushed on this album but the mixing job just sucks in some spots. I'm in no way one of those "bring back the old sound" guys but Andy was one of the only mixers who really focused on the sonic elements of LPs sound. Neal was pretty decent but Andy was the best. I wouldn't mind if they returned to him for the next album.
Like many others hear have said, I was fanboying out when the album first released, I couldin't stop listining to it. Now I feel that it's their weakest release thus far. There were to many pop songs such as "Burn It Down" and "In My Remains" plauging the album, they all sounded the same. Songs such as Roads Untraveled, Castle of Glass, and Powerless, I absolutely adore though. Other wise weakest album. They need to find a better balance of their old and new stuff that isn't too poppy and overpowered by all the synth and electronic noise. Along with this, I feel like the band members aren't giving there all in terms of song writing. Mike makes a sample, and then they kind of half write the song around that sample. I want them to actually make music. A great example of this IMO would be Burn It Down, it just sounds to boring.
I completely agree, I find it hard to believe that the band sat around a table and agreed to put out Burn It Down as the first single.
They don't choose the singles themselves, it's label's job to do that... And I think that label (WB that is) had HUGE influence on this record. Maybe not directly like Meteora, but they certainly didn't have the freedom like with previous two albums. Also I feel that Meteora and Living Things are the records that suffered the most because of the label.
The first part of the album is bad, except LGM and IMR, but the second half is good. At least it's better then Meteora.
I just remembered something that I strongly disliked about this cycle: Mike and Brad once again doing most of the writing. I don't dislike their creativity because they're both great musicians, but the co-op style during MTM and ATS is what really drove the creative edge.
I agree with pretty much everyone above me. It was awesome hearing new Linkin Park at first, but after quite a few plays and a few months after release, it just lacks what other albums have for me: repeatability. I can still go back and listen to Meteora front-to-back, and even ATS despite thinking it was my least favorite LP album. In fact, I listened to ATS the other day, yet I havent touched Living Things since August. Still, a few of the tracks I consider to be among the LP greatest hits including CoG, LITE, BiD, and IMR, and Victimized is still great for getting pumped up, yet the rest of the album isnt really up to par for me. Just my opinion, but this album just lacks something their others dont. And thats why I havent returned to listening to it in quite some time.
~ It's good. Not LP's best, though (I'm talking first half of the record). I really hope they will take some more time for the next album and try to do something new once more. The sky is the limit and they should remember that.
I agree with everyone above me, so let me just sum up their points - 1. Heavily compressed; Missing the amazing dynamics 2. Badly Mixed. Infact, HORRIBLY mixed. 3. Too repetitive in terms of songwriting (NOT sound) 4. Return to the "one guy writes most of the song" method I still like LT. But yeah, a lot of my enthusiasm during release time was just fanboy-ism. COG and LITE rock though..
I loved it at first sight, and I still do with some tracks. LGM, Victimized, and COG are some favorite of mine. UIB and Skin to Bones are cool too. LITE is catchy. Not a fan of the other tracks. I know it will sound a little "old LP fan", but to me, LT integrated a lot of elements from their old stuff without making it sounding as good as before. I mean, in my opinion, the rap sounded quite basic in comparaison to what Mike did during the HT days. The guitar were nowhere as catchy and memorable as before. In My remains, IBG, and Roads Untraveled just had basic chord progressions that followed the singing melody. Meteora might be the most hated record on this forum, but I would take Don't Stay riff over anything of LT, guitar-wise. But, all in all, LT still is a cool record to me. Hey, I listened to it a ton during summer times after all Some cool melodies, some cool beats, some interesting synths parts, 2 innovative heavy tracks for LP, diversity. My (little) disappointement is probably due to LP being my favorite band, which causes high exceptations. In fact, if this record had been released by another band, I would probably enjoy it way more, ahah.
I only ever listen to LITE and IBG anymore. Occasionally, BID will get a click in iTunes but nothing else has really stuck with me.