What exactly is tough? Edit: Jeez, the post you refer to mentions Paramore as a more relevant or popular act? Where does this come from^^ No disrespect to their music but this is just wrong when we are talking about sales or whatever.
Well I loved their older music style better, the 4th album is really good though. The drama and semi splitting that happened though just makes me sad. I think he meant the competition.
I didn't mention they're more relevant than LP. Heck, LP is miles ahead than Paramore in terms of sales.
Heavy and Battle Symphony are nice but they're like the pop music equivalent of the default faces in a video game character creator.
So.. I haven't heard it and obviously record company gods are doing a good job at taking down leaks.. but from those that heard it.. it's basically similar or almost the same crap as Heavy. :| 2 songs in a row, I am starting to wonder if it's going to be better than A Living Things or worse. I actually like Living Things over The Hunting Party even though LT lacked that heavy guitar work as far a synth were it was oozing of Linkin Park (which is part of the reason I love LP so much). I guess i'll wait till Friday, see if TIDAL gets the single and see if at least Battle Symphony > Heavy in ear candy terms.
I appreciate music because I love music. Now there are a lot of songs/artists that I don't like, and they're not my cup of tea. For example, Avenged Sevenfold, just not my thing but they don't suck and I've never said they do suck. They make awesome music and they're great at what they do, it's just not my preference. That being said, I love Heavy and Battle Symphony. I understand and respect the ones who don't but to bash it so bad and talk about how bad it sucks? I feel like some peoples hate for generic pop or pop in general has a lot to do with it. You can hate it all you want, but it doesn't suck at all, like really. I'm sure some people will quote this and tear me apart for this post lol but i haven't said anything, I've been quiet since Heavy came out and all I've seen is negativity. I just thought I'd share my opinion
So basically you judged something you still didn't even listen to based on others opinions? And you will listen to it for the first time already having an opinion about it. That never works man, for anything not just music. You will probably judge wrong this way because you already have an opinion and you are trying to prove it right instead of just being neutral to begin with.
Based on history with this band and opinions here they usually aren't that far off. I am sure it may "change" a bit but I am going to go with my gut on this one. I am not about being neutral here because it's my taste, my likings, I know what I am looking for to satisfy my cravings. At the end, they put out an album with a certain "theme" to it (this is their job, hence why the have a contract with WB) if they were about just making music open to interpretation it'd be out there in soundcloud or youtube or whatever new free venue is out there for upcoming artist. So yea I am going to go with what I am seeing so far. People weren't wrong about Heavy, I was open about it; I heard it and agreed with them. I am just judging a song, not the entirety of the album. I still got my hopes up for the album. I am not here to start an argument either I was merely posting my opinion but you can't say to me "it never works" when you are not in my head and know what I am looking for or like. I am way past that mindset, maybe if you would've caught me back in 2004 or 2005 you could've persuaded me. Not the case anymore. Update: To add, I am still open that while I may have not heard it, one opinion I am already pro for is that "sound wise" it's poppy but Living Things was poppy and I liked living things (I saw you didn't quote that part) so I am hopeful for the way they use synths or synth guitars that it was done a in a linkin park-ish kinda way. Maybe that will sway me to like the song but doesn't mean i'll "OMG I LOVE IT. LINKIN PARK BEST EVER YES!". But I am looking for a song like that in this album. I know from a psychological stand point you want me to change my "frame of reference" but I am done doing that for Linkin Park because I know what I want. What I don't know yet is the instrumental (to be exact). I am heavily interested in that, no amount of opinion written here can give me that. I got an overall idea based on public opinion and the use of lyrics of the overall song but not the instrumental. I am already dead set it probably won't be the "song I am looking for to wow me" but I could be wrong because again.. "living things" was pop (even though pop is subjective these days since the definition keeps changing over the times, cuz music evolves!) and I liked Living Things > The Hunting Party. A song is crap to me if the formula of both the instrumental and lyrical delivery don't intertwine with each other. They don't produce a euphoria, they don't have me listen to it on repeat. Linkin Park is good at creating music (instrumental music) that heightens a state of concentration like Steve Reich even though it's in small tid bit but Linkin Park to me are a genius when they do it right. They are the only band (IMO) that is able to do both in lyrical and instrumental delivery. Reich only focused (as far as I know) on instrumentals so yea.. If the use of the word "crap" for judging offended you. I am sorry but I am entitled to my opinion. My findings still stand that it will probably be crap to me. Not saying Linkin Park is crap.
Because I am not talking about the song or LP's music specifically. I am talking about judging things before you even have the chance to listen/read/watch/do them. You will probably not have the same opinion you will if you stayed neutral and had an open mind. I don't know what you are looking for or your taste in music, so may be you are correct. However in general, may be wait to give something a shot or two without having an opinion. May be you will end up not liking it anyway but in this case you'd probably have better, more real and more personal reasons. Generalising, pre-judging and early judging are never the best thing to do.
But see.. you fail to see that I was already neutral and it was with "Heavy". Since generally (again) the albums share a theme.. I am sure "Battle Symphony" shares some attributes (message/feeling/direction) of Heavy because at the end, the album has to come as a whole and a complete circle.. otherwise it's not a traditional album. It will be a conceptual album like A Thousand Suns and I have not seen a peep from Linkin Park themselves saying this album is a conceptual album so I already have a basis for my opinion based on Heavy, general opinion here, and just the PR Mike Shinoda has about the album. Also the 2 snippets for the other songs also give off the vibe of direction so yea. I'll leave it at that. I totally understand your point if I was going 100% in the blind but there's enough material out there regarding this album to give an opinion on one of the songs from it. If I hadn't heard Heavy first, I'd definitely be neutral. Unfortunately, I've heard Heavy, heard the snippet of the other songs and the vibe I see so far it's "yea it's kinda like Heavy" I didn't hear "oh it's kinda like one more light" or "talking to myself" I read it's kinda like "Heavy" so .. yea.
It's definitely more like Heavy than those other two, but I wouldn't exactly call it a Heavy clone either. The chord progression and melody cover a lot more ground than Heavy does, and this one has a bridge section that's actually a departure from the rest of the song instead of just a repetition of stuff from earlier in the song like Heavy.
Ok, fair enough. About the music, I would say that Battle Symphony isn't that much similar to Heavy as you might think and I doubt any other one on the album will. If the direction as a whole is not your thing then, sorry for that. That would be a disappointment to you.
Well then that's something to look forward to then. Thanks for that information . That's a definite plus over Heavy. So it falls in between. I look forward to a lossless listen through on TIDAL. Even though I am a disappointed it's not the song I am looking forward to. That leaves Talking to my self & One More Light up there still. The direction is already meh to me but see this is something I can't judge entirely because when Living Things was first promoted I MADE THE MISTAKE you mentioned earlier and then when the album came out I was like "oh. I like it. oh I can't stop listening to it. oh it's on repeat!" and I know a core percentage of linkin park fans do not like that album. A Thousand Suns surpasses it and probably The Hunting Party as well but for me on the other hand I put Living Things above A Thousand Suns and put A Thousand Suns above The Hunting Party.
LIVING THINGS was like Meteora having a child with cancer. LT was horrible. If it was a cohesive album like ATS then it will be my top album. I'LL BE GONE was a pure example of a song with cancer where the original demo was superior than the final product. Jeez. if Skin to Bone retained that folky element without the annoying electronic background then it would be perfect. UIB, they butchered Three Band Terror which again superior to any song on LIVING THINGS. such a waste potential.
I don't think it's their best but I definitely would've preferred this one would've existed right after Reanimation and not Meteora. In fact I think Living Things > Meteora. It's funny you used "i'll be gone" as the example because I could see where you are going with this but I particularly like that song alot. Substance wise I could see again where you are coming from but that's one particular song that "oozes" with that signature Linkin Park sound, the only thing bringing it down a bunch of notches in my book is the lack of Mike Shinoda. Other than that, I love the production value they put into the song, the transitions and usage of the instrumentals was just what I'd expect from Linkin Park. I have not heard the demo but I am almost certain it provides a nice "alternative" reality in the same manner the other HT demos did for Hybrid Theory.
Well, I was disappointed when LT came out 4 years ago. I was hyped because of the folk influence of the record they're teasing before. It's evident a year later when LPU XIII came out with Primo, Three Band Terror, etc. So much potential to be a better album. Well, I'LL BE GONE is a good song, actually... but the mixing of the song is the only problem.
I'm listening to it right now but some of the perks of the final version are missing which make me not like it BUT, I do like the extra lyrics but don't like the tone. It's also a little too long IMO with that extra sequence 3:28 ~ 3:45. I dunno it felt a little to "club" like for me in that section for the build up the rest well just felt like an extremely stretched out version of I'll Be Gone and the catchy synth is missing. I like it thought because as I said earlier, nice alternative reality version of the song. *update* so apparently Linkin Park is one of the FEW artist on TIDAL that actually has the "master" version of the song . I definitely need to put this on my DTS-HD marantz.. I wonder if MASTER ups it to 192khz.. o_o. Guitar sound extra crunchy and I definitely hearing more stuff in it. EDIT: Oh snap! It's 96kHz / 24bit! I guess this deserves another playthrough later . OH SNAP. SO IS HYBRID THEORY / A THOUSAND SUNS / & MTM ***sorry for the caps.. had to share for those that are audiophiles out there ***