I think on one hand vocally Heavy sounds fantastic, and they should have really leaned into that. Chester sings in a way that just sounds so emotional and raw, and I appreciate the new dimension of having Kiiara on there to add a different vocal dynamic. But on the other hand, for me the production of this song brings it to a level of mediocrity. The earlier sections of this song, as well as that quiet ending to the bridge, are where Chester and this song really shine. The Mike Shinoda layered sound approach doesn't really do this song justice in my opinion. Just drowns out the parts that really give it a distinct identity (Brad's fingerstyle guitar, the stacked harmonies from Mike, Chester, and Kiiara). I'm also kind of ambivalent on the lyrical work on this one. Pretty average lyricism overall, especially compared to some of its compatriots. It's a little baffling to me that the lead single for the album where they touted a "lyrics first" approach has very forgettable and unimaginative lyrical work. And to your point @Atticus I agree that Heavy is what really tanked opinion of OML, unfortunately. I think if they followed the style of the title track more this song would have really been received well, and I would like it more personally. Overall, meh. This one, Good Goodbye, and Battle Symphony are probably the ones that I'd consider my least-favorites from the album.
Sorry for Now "Sorry for Now" is the seventh track on One More Light, and one of two songs featuring Mike Shinoda as lead vocalist. Originally planned for release as a single—with a European single manufactured—its release was cancelled following Chester Bennington's death. "Sorry for Now" was written entirely by Mike, as with "Invisible," his other lead song on the album. Production was handled by Mike and Brad, with additional co-production from Blackbear, Andrew Goldstein, Michael Keenan, and Andrew Bolooki. "Sorry for Now" was among the earlier songs written for the album. Like “Invisible,” it was inspired by Mike’s experiences as a father. However, while "Invisible" addresses future conversations with his children, “Sorry for Now” speaks to them in the present, reflecting on the emotions of being away while on tour. Mike described it as a playful apology, knowing that as his kids grow older, they’d understand why he had to be away. While the other band members knew after hearing Mike's demo that they wanted to work on "Sorry for Now," they felt something was missing, leading them to bring in extra producers to flesh out Mike's idea. This resulted in a collaboration with Blackbear, as well as producer Andrew Goldstein. Their contributions added a new layer to the song's dynamic, particularly in the drop section heard after the first chorus and at the end of the song. The drop section features pitch-shifted vocals from Shinoda—his actual chorus vocals are pitched down, while scat vocals from earlier takes are pitched up and layered in to create a melody. It also features guitar work by Brad that Mike described as reminiscent of The Police. This guitar part mirrors the pitched scat vocal melody while playing around the vocal hits, creating a layered doubling effect. It also features a pinch harmonic several times, a technique only found incidentally on The Hunting Party and intentionally on the bridge of Minutes to Midnight's "Given Up". Another major element of focus in the drop were the percussion elements. Mike, Goldstein, and Blackbear decided they wanted to add some kind of hi-hat rhythm to the section to create contrast. He and the co-producers thought the rhythm should focus on being offbeat, almost as if it wasn't in time with the track. Mike recalled this in the radio spot he and Brad did with Zane Lowe the day before One More Light's release: Beyond the drop, "Sorry for Now" builds a strong layered palette of guitars and synths. The opening melody to the song, created by a heavily effected guitar line, establishes the foundation, while bassy synths accentuate the verses. Like with many other One More Light tracks, the choruses add additional synth voices and stronger guitar elements, culminating in a final climactic chorus, where a new guitar line echoes the pitched vocal melody from the drop in a sustained, gliding fashion. One unique aspect of this song is the bridge, where Chester delivers a rapped verse. This inversion of the roles between Mike and Chester brings a unique character to the song, with this being the first time their de facto roles were completely switched for an entire song. Lyrically, "Sorry for Now" reflects Mike's experiences as both a father and a musician who spends time away from his family, apologizing to his children for being away. He described the song's tone as "a little lighter," as while the lyrics express regret, this is more about upsetting his kids than regretting the decision itself. This juxtaposition of his placating apology with his steadfastness is central to the song and its title lyric, "Sorry for Now." The chorus, "I'm sorry for now, that I couldn't be around / There will be a day that you will understand," underscores Mike's belief that his children will one day understand his choices. This theme of parenthood gives the song a relatable quality, transcending its focus on Mike’s life as a touring artist. "Sorry For Now" was one of two songs from One More Light never performed live by Linkin Park during the album tour cycle. However, Mike eventually incorporated the song into his solo shows, where he frequently rotated rap verses to feature in place of Chester's original verse. Mike rotated verses from Linkin Park songs such as "Step Up," "Nobody's Listening," "Hands Held High," "Keys to the Kingdom," "Dedicated," or "High Voltage." However, he also featured verses from his solo song "Lift Off," Fort Minor song "Petrified," and his verse on the Styles of Beyond track "Second to None" at points. At times, he also performed his original demo verse written before Chester's part was included, and also frequently added a drum solo into the bridge starting later in 2018.
I have a love-hate relationship with “Sorry For Now”. On the one end, the verses are super chill, and the chorus is simply gorgeous, and one of my favorite from the band. Also, the lyrics are super personal and genuine, which is cool. On the other end, I don’t really vibe much with the bridge. And. Most importantly. The high pitched stuff in the drop …. Damn, I just can’t. It actually annoys me for real ^^’ So it’s a bit of a weird track for me. I understand why it could be considered one of LP’s best, but I don’t enjoy it as fully as I’d wish to.
“Sorry for Now” is my favorite song on One More Light, and a top 10 Linkin Park song in general. It’s SO good! Over the course of their discography, you could hear the progression of Mike Shinoda’s vocal ability; this song feels like a culmination of that work. It’s perfectly suited to what he can do. I remember when the album first came out @minusxerø and maybe @The Emptiness Machine were hyping up how good it was, and I totally bought into that when the first drop section hit. It feels like the band diving into uncharted territory, and absolutely nailing it! The way Mike and Chester essentially switch roles on the song is also so cool. It’s a shame the song never got the chance to be released as a single, because I think it could’ve done numbers, and has crossover appeal. I really hope they bring the song live with their new line-up with this album cycle. I would be overjoyed!
Yeah, I'm definitely among the camp that thinks this is one of the best on the album. It's my favorite song on OML easily. That drop section has so much crazy creative stuff going on. Even without knowing the background I dug up for the post...that guitar line interplaying with the pitched vocal melody, the heavy nasty synths, the wild percussion contrasting with the big single note synth lines. All of it creates a sonic palette that I'm pretty sure made my jaw actually drop the first time I heard this song. It was love at first listen. And that's not even talking about the lyrics! I like Invisible a lot, but I think SFN blows it out of the water because of Mike's lyricism. That first verse set the mood perfectly: Watching the wings cut through the clouds Watching the raindrops blinking red and white Thinking of you back on the ground There with the fire burning in your eyes I only halfway apologized So good. The imagery is beautiful and just evokes something in me. I love it so much. And that last chorus where everything comes together and we get the drop melody on that electric guitar just really seals the deal.
Great song! It's incredibly catchy and creative, featuring one of Mike's best vocal performances for sure. I’ve loved the chorus ever since they teased that snippet, it’s been stuck with me ever since. While some may not be fond of the drop, I actually think it's one of the album's highlights, especially with that sliding lead guitar in the final chorus. It really adds a unique touch.
The chipmunk vocal part in this song doesn't irritate me nearly as much as the ones in Nobody Can Save Me and Good Goodbye, but I still think it would be better if it was just guitar. Otherwise, this song is awesome, my 3rd or 4th favorite on the album. Agreed with Christoffer about the lyrics, and like everybody said, it's one of Mike Shinoda's best vocal performances. Maybe even his best. He was definitely in shape for this album. I generally love the songs with Mike singing anyway, I sometimes like his voice more than anybody else's in the band. His tone is a soothing, although he can also deliver power well (like in the second chorus of Skin to Bone and the final pre-chorus of Rebellion).
Can someone dig up that initial snippet we heard of Sorry For Now from way before the album released (probably 2016)? Would be really interesting to hear. I'm pretty open with my opinion that OML is a very well-written album, and SFN is no exception. I think the drops are fun, the lyrics are clever, and Mike's vocals are stunning - I still think it's the best lead performance we've heard from him, maybe on par with No Roads Left. Completely random, and maybe only I feel this way, but the ending of the last chorus gives me the same feeling as Totos' Africa, and I love it. I think it's an interesting song relative to the band's discography. It's the only Chester-era song with a female vocalist, and giving both singers a verse and a chorus each isn't something they dabbled with that often with Mike/Chester. For me there are a lot of songs in the band's discography that are less interesting.
I think Sorry for Now is easily the most ambitious song on the album, and the drop is its creative peak. Chester's bridge is fun but it doesn't feel nearly as earnest as Mike's performance.
When I first heard the song I loved everything about it except the drop after the first chorus. It just felt so out of place for me and kind of an annoying sound. But I loved everything else about the song, the lyrics, Mike's voice, the freshness of Chester's bridge. So I just kept listening it over the years and now I won't say I love that part but I've gotten used to it lol, so it has become one of my favourites from the album.
I love the melodies and the chorus a lot. Mike delivers a really beautiful performance that naturally feels like a continuation of the “family” theme from his previous solo track, Invisible. That being said, I’m not a huge fan of the sound and the instrumental built around the track. The lyrics are really good from Mike’s end. And the Chester verse is cute, but nothing to particularly note other than the inverse role (I’d like to think Chester wrote that part, but I could be wrong) On one hand, I do wish Mike’s demo verse made it because I think it’s one of the best verses he’s ever written combining technical, storytelling, and a personal narrative we never hear much from him. However, Chester’s verse fits the theme of the song a lot better than that verse, so I understand why Mike ditched it.
It's one of my top LP songs for sure. It's just the combination of the topic, the lyric quality, and the production that really does it for me. It just feels right in my opinion. Off-topic of SFN: I decided, with Kevin, that we should redo Hybrid Theory and Meteora since not all of those songs got the writeups they deserve (also I have spent the past month researching Joe's samples and scratching ). It only makes sense since they got anniversary releases and we now have a few new songs to cover anyway! Still trying to figure out if Friendly Fire should just go after Sharp Edges or if we save it for chronological release to group with QWERTY... Anyway, Halfway Right goes up tomorrow so get your last thoughts in if you have any!
I really like the instrumental and Mikes whole vibe in this song. It gets a nice summer vibve touch. Just a simple chill song
Halfway Right "Halfway Right" is the eighth track on One More Light. One of two songs on the album where Chester is credited as a writer, it was written by a team of Chester, Mike, Brad, and Ross Golan (whose credits include Maroon 5, Justin Bieber, and Nicki Minaj, among many others). Mike and Brad handled production on the track, with co-production by Michael Keenan, Alexander Spit, Andrew Bolooki. Written in collaboration with American songwriter Ross Golan, "Halfway Right" went through a tough developmental process according to the band. After an initial co-write with Golan, the band faced difficulties structuring and finalizing the song, struggling to match the vocal delivery with the initial arrangement. One of the primary issues they faced was that the Chester's vocal takes didn't work with the track as expected, feeling forced and unnatural. This led the band to rethink its arrangement, and they invited Golan to come back for another writing session to rework the song. Ultimately, they decided on a key change, and from there they were able to reshape the song into the final version. Chester mentioned this in a Q&A with NME when discussing how "Halfway Right' and "Heavy" were some of the harder songs on the album to write: Musically, "Halfway Right" is a mid-tempo pop song, anchored by synth work, piano chords, and laid-back sampled percussion. It reflects on Chester's past struggles, recounting a specific experience with drug addiction in a candid and open manner. This approach on "Halfway Right" marked a shift from previous Linkin Park efforts, where Chester often broadened his lyrics to connect with listeners (and Mike in the writing process), who might not share his specific experiences. As he noted in press for his side project Dead by Sunrise's debut Out of Ashes in 2009, normally when writing about his past struggles Chester would "take the actual story out and only leave the emotional attachment." By retaining Chester's personal angle without ambiguity or broad relatability, "Halfway Right" creates a very personal dynamic in which Chester shares his story with the listener. The song opens immediately with Chester's vocals over a synth pad, introducing a stripped-back version of the chorus before proceeding into the verse. The verses feature swelling synths alongside heavy 808 kick, trap-style hi-hat rhythms, and a recurring vocal sample, with Chester's vocals leading melodically as he narrates his past This leads into a soft pre-chorus piano passage as he reflects, "All you said to do was slow down / I remember, now I remember." In the second verse, clean guitar parts are added to support the instrumentation, most notably during the pre-chorus passage where it accompanies the piano chords. The choruses revolve around Chester's vocal hook, which in the later choruses is followed by a "na-na-na" gang vocal melody. Ross Golan also provides backing harmonies as part of this gang vocal stack. These choruses gradually add more instrumental layers with each rendition, including electric guitars, additional synth layers, and in the song's final moments, bells that enter to double the gang vocal melody. Lyrically, "Halfway Right" is one of the most candid and vulnerable tracks on One More Light, exemplifying the band's intention to make more personal, "human" songs with the album. Chester recounts a specific instance of his struggle with drug addiction, waking up behind the wheel of a car after blacking out. In a Linkin Park Association pre-release interview, Mike mentioned this song as an example of honest and raw songs that differed from their past lyric writing: "Halfway Right" shares some thematic qualities with "Crawling," another song that Chester pointed to as being openly about his addiction struggles. However, "Halfway Right" presents more a straightforward, narrative approach over the more abstract lyrics of "Crawling." In an interview with News Corp Australia, Chester opened up about this specific story behind the song: This unflinchingly honest and specific reflection on Chester's struggles with substance abuse is at the core of "Halfway Right." Lines such as "The road dissolving like an empty vow" create strong imagery that immerse the listener in this particular moment from Chester's life, and make it one of the most direct and autobiographical songs in Linkin Park's discography. "Halfway Right" received the least attention and promotion of any song from One More Light. Its dark, raw tone and mid-tempo structure likely made it a challenging fit for live perfomances or promotional focus, especially following Chester's death. While both "Halfway Right" and "Sorry for Now" were never performed live by Linkin Park, the latter found a place in Mike's solo shows. "Halfway Right," however, remains the only song from One More Light has never been performed live in any capacity. Despite this, the song stands as a testament to the emotional depth and vulnerability both Chester and the band were willing to explore during the One More Light recording process.
This song is mixed for me. The fact that Chester placed us in his shoes in a first-person narrative style is really something special. We all knew little bits about his past from interviews and from the writing on previous songs, but this is a rare opportunity where he said "Here's a slice of my life I'm going to share with the world—a specific moment in which I really messed up." It's a visceral, humble, and incredibly humanizing moment from a man who seemed larger than life so many times. On the other hand, I dislike the production they chose to set this song to. The piano parts that develop throughout the song would have been a perfect setting to turn this into a very nice ballad. It has all the bones of a strong emotional ballad between the piano, guitar, bells, and gang vocals. Honestly, I think that last section is kind of magical with those bells—it's a very unique section on a Linkin Park track, and the fact that those are kind of buried upsets me a little. I think this song with different choices could have been an Iridescent-type track, while still staying true to OML's style. There's something really special that to me got muddled by the production choices, which really sucks now in retrospect.
Halffway Right an okay song. Once again, great chorus melody, with one of my favorite Chester’s delivery on the record. Unfortunately, the verses are not doing much for me on this one, neither on the vocal department nor in the production style. It's a bummer because the lyrics in the verses are definitely special, but the rendition doesn't really work imo. The “na na na” part is cool, definitely catchy.
@Christøffer your write-ups really are excellent In terms of this track, it's a nice change of pace to get a very specific meaning and reasoning behind the lyrics, as opposed to the usual vague and 'it means what you want it to mean' style You can kinda see why this was never performed live pre or post Chester passing for that exact reason