Fantano-esque clickbait title, so I'm hoping people bite! Anyway, after a few listens, I've realized one of my main gripes with the album is the order of the songs. Too many sudden and weird mood and energy shifts. I realize the band are no strangers to this (for example: Given Up - Leave Out All the Rest - Bleed It Out; or Castle of Glass - Victimized - Roads Untraveled), but on this album in particular I feel like it works to the albums' disadvantage. So, I propose a different order of the tracklist, and I'm wondering if anyone has other ideas or can suggest improvements. I've only gone through this once so I'm open to playing with it, but some things worked surprisingly well in my opinion. From Zero (Intro) The Emptiness Machine Heavy Is the Crown Casualty Over Each Other Cut the Bridge Stained IGYEIH Heavy Is the Crown (Arcane Version) Overflow Two Faced Good Things Go Couple of points: "Heavy Is the Crown" works really well as the defacto second track, just to get the feeling that this is unquestionably the same old Linkin Park. It's sequenced a bit like a live show, with a high energy opening, then "Over Each Other" brings it down a bit for the middle section, "Cut the Bridge" is a solid energy pickup after it and works much better in the middle of the album than at the start. The "screamy pants" comment makes less sense, but, fuck it. Of course, the transitions are not perfect throughout, but, generally the mood is more stable. After the screaming end of "IGYEIH", the atmospheric synth works great to reintroduce a whole different sound. By adding the Arcane version of "Heavy Is the Crown", the album is a bit longer, and having this reprise works really well to introduce the more atmospheric "Overflow", so this makes more sense than the "Casualty" - "Overflow" transition. Also, why would you not have this? "Overflow" into "Two Faced" works really well and "we're on the same page now" is a great comment before "Good Things Go". The beginning and end is untouched so the loop thing still works. I'd love to hear suggestions, or more likely, that I've gone insane. Spotify playlist link if anyone is willing to give it a chance.
In a recent KROQ interview Mike said he loves having Casualty before Overflow because of the big contrast of having arguably the heaviest song on the album lead into Overflow, the most experimental song on the album. I think it works and kind of agree with him after hearing him talk about it. Overall I think the tracklist is well balanced but will have to think if there's anything I'd change with the order. Definitely not against having Heavy is the Crown extended with the Arcane version though.
I see what you did there, I can't count the amount of times I experimented with the MTM tracklist back then, trying to insert B-sides, change order, etc p^^' To be honest, I think the sequencing on FZ is one of my favorite they've ever done. HITC > OEO > Casualty > Overflow > Two Faced > Stained > IGYEIH > GTG That above is pure class. Every transition and every style switch seems to be the one I'd hope for after what came before. In fact, that only leaves the beginning of the album out of the equation. I think the intro into TEM could have worked a bit better. TEM > CTB > HITC is also a bit less smooth, but it's still fine. And I can't really mix those tracks to the later part of the tracklist, because it'd alter the perfect suite
I expected most would disagree, but, damn! Can't believe that everything works for others apparently.
I don't really have a problem with the current order of songs on From Zero. However I don't necessarily have any attachment to the whole album looping thing. The loop could have been so much more seamless than it is. As a fun exercise I could suggest some changes I might be happy with. Here it goes... I replace the From Zero Intro with the Arcane Heavy Is the Crown and move Heavy Is the Crown to 10th on the album. Why you might ask... I could argue this would be a homage to ATS with the opening track The Requiem using lyrics from The Catalyst in it... I'm sure if I spent more time thinking about this I could come up with more changes than this but I think I'll stop here.
Ok, here's my version of the album. Tracklist: Cut the Bridge IGYEIH Heavy Is the Crown The Emptiness Machine Over Each Other Overflow Stained Two Faced Casualty From Zero (Intro) Good Things Go Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7cY7EJxSsmUqRkhdNrXncf?si=c2c1ab559a874571 Justification: Cut the Bridge, it's a fun and energetic song, which makes it a good opener, it's also not a particularly soft song. So after that we carry on into IGYEIH, an Emily led song which carries on the heaviness without going too crazy. Heavy Is the Crown is next, we're still on the heavy train, but it's starting to slow down a bit The Emptiness Machine comes next, while still heavy, it's not on the level of the previous songs. Over Each Other, now the heaviness is gone, but we haven't gone all the way down yet. Overflow, might be the least heavy song on the album, but the ending brings us up enough to carry on to... Stained, still pretty soft, but not we're building back up. Two Faced, we're building rapidly here into the true heavy. Casualty, now we're fully back into heavy again. From Zero (Intro), wtf? why is this here? To chock you, and bring you down from the Casualty heaviness. Good Things Go, it's just needs to be the closer. It has also sorta became the defining song for this album to me.