A Thousand Suns love

I'm curious about something. I've heard a lot of people online say that A Thousand Suns is peak, but once I got on here, pretty much everyone I see seems to consider it their best album. However, it's my second least favorite. To be fair, I am much more of a metal Linkin Park fan, but even looking at it from an outside perspective, I just don't see it. I could understand if it was Living Things, as while that's my third least favorite, it's still a really good album, in my opinion. I still like A Thousand Suns, don't get me wrong, but I am curious what about it makes it better than... really any other Linkin Park album aside from One More Light?

 

A Thousand Suns is peak. End of the discussion.

Seriously though, it's the entire experience. My first listen of A Thousand Suns was more confusing than anything. It took me quite some time to truly appreciate it. I even once argued on this very forum that Living Things was superior. But I was a sweet summer child and A Thousand Suns has aged like the finest wine.

Hybrid Theory has a million imitators trying to replicate that sound. A Thousand Suns sounds uniquely its own even fourteen years later. There is no band, no album, no music that sounds like it to this day. The band was at its peak of ambition with amorphous song structures, beautiful prose, sublime experimentation, multi-layered harmonies, and completely undefinable genres. Doing a deep dive further into the lyrics, recorded speeches and themes of the record only made me appreciate it more.

Name me another song anywhere that sounds like When The Come for Me, Waiting for the End, Blackout, or The Catalyst. You can't. That's the magic of A Thousand Suns.

 

All good points. When it comes down to it, I think it may just be 100% a matter of personal opinion. It's extremely creative, unique, well-made... but personally I just enjoy all but one of their other albums more. Though it could also be that it needs time as you're not the first I've heard to say it grew on them, and I'm a relatively new LP fan. So I might just have to wait and see how my opinions change. Thanks for responding though, it does make sense.

 

My love for it comes from its creative ambition and the band’s unwillingness to be put inside a box.

From the conceptual nature of the album, to the Eastern influenced Industrial Hip-Hop of When They Come For Me to the atypical song structure of Blackout, its a record that feels like the band really trying to forge something unique in a way where they aren’t just doing what’s expected of them, I’d say to great success. It also has my personal favorite Linkin Park song, Waiting for the End.

I really wish I could’ve seen them on that tour for the album, but alas, I waa but a sophmore in high school at the time.

 

For me, A Thousand Suns and Hybrid Theory are their best works. And ATS beats out HT between the two of them.

I have a huge amount of respect for how the band was able to really meld and mix styles on Hybrid Theory. Mike and several others of the band were so steeped in hip hop that it really shines through in a way that a lot of their contemporaries just couldn't do (hence why Mike wrote "Step Up"). The sample work, the jungle beats on "Papercut", the samples and drum breaks Joe used that were sourced from some of the most legendary DJs and their battle records. It's a really well-polished album that allowed all their favorite things to shine through while keeping an edge of commercial appeal.

However, in my opinion, for all the creativity there, it still pales in comparison to A Thousand Suns. Mike regards that album as the best thing he has done. Even in their marketing choices you can see it: they fought to have the epic album closer as the lead single over the more commercially appealing picks, made everything grayscale, had a simplistic album cover, and made songs that were more challenging than normal for them and their core fanbase.

The album content is pretty intentionally thought-out as well. The interludes reference other songs both sonically (resampling elements from all over the album) and lyrically to support the idea that there's a unifying concept to the album. The album's core idea is deeper than "we can blend styles" or "we can do the blending styles twice, haters" (as much as I like those first two albums). It's not a collection of "you" and "me" angst-ridden personal conflicts but a much broader exploration of human emotion and apocalyptic themes. I mean, they went as far as to sample the father of the atomic bomb. And it does it through some beautiful and also banger tunes. "Iridescent" is one of their finest ballads, "Waiting for the End" takes a minimalist approach before exploding into a climactic finale to amplify the payoff tenfold, the electronic chaos and screams from Chester in "Blackout" dissolve into a beautiful outro...just to name a few. I could go on, as I love every track on the album, interludes included.

It's just so sonically diverse and unique of a listen. It's one album I do not tire of easily, and for me at least it actually became my favorite at first listen. But I think different people have different tastes, and this album has a few layers that you can discover to appreciate it more.

 

I do really like the screams on Blackout.

 

I'm on record as saying I thought it was their best work ever when the album leaked, and I stand by that to this day.

Multiple people have discussed the blending of styles, the unhinged creative approach, the lack of regard for the conventions of their own process and tried and true formula. These are all great points as to why it's regarded so highly within the hardcore LP fanbase and you can find so many threads of people praising it.

There's just so much that you can dive into and appreciate in the album. And it truly is an ALBUM. While LP may do a lot of connective work between songs to let them bleed into each other, this is a cohesive package that they had never done before or since. There's a reason why the album came with a digital download of the complete album as a single mp3: because it was meant to be played as a whole, and it truly shows.

One of the things the hardcore LP fanbase loves about the band is the near constant need to do something new, with only one notable exception (I'm looking at you Hybrid Theory Part 2, AKA Meteora). Even if we may not like some directions taken, whether it be the exploration of folk influence, going full pop, dropping the rapping, or, in the most egregious case, letting Brad Delson write a guitar solo, we will always love the band for not resting on their laurels and doing the same thing as before except that one time.

With that love of change, growth, and the new, how could we not love ATS, the apex of that ethos?

 

While none of this is really helping me LIKE the album more than I do (because I still do), it certainly is helping me appreciate it more.

 

I think that's another thing that places it lower for me than for most, is that I look at albums song-by-song moreso than what the album is overall.

 

I think that's a perfectly fair take, but for me it's less about the strength of the execution in comparison to other concept or experimental albums, and more about it in comparison to Linkin Park's other works. Absolutely, there are way more experimental albums out there, and WTCFM for example throws the entire "concept" of the album for a loop. And the lyrics, while different from the traditional Linkin Park fare, are still largely grounded in the vague "it means what you want it to mean" category.

But for me, it's like this: I like Linkin Park. And Linkin Park doing something wild like ATS is really cool to me, even if it's not the most earth-shattering thing on a macro level. Because I do like stuff that's proggy or weird or boundary-pushing, so it's two things I like mixing together to some degree. I like hearing what their take on a concept album sounds like because Linkin Park has their own sound that's always been at least a little unique. There could certainly be something out there, but I can't think of an album that blends these art rock, electronic, and hip hop ideas in this exact way. Joe's scratching a sample taken from a recording of a college protest movement. Mike wrote the crazy dense percussion and sample webwork of WTCFM, took it in a hip hop direction, and then said, "Hey let's chant over this". It's not redefining things by a long shot, but it seems like ideas that would only come out of the LP wheelhouse.

And I guess in a way it was probably shocking in its own right that the hugely commercially successful band just off the heels of a song written for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen followed up with this album.

Not sure if I'm articulating that well but that's where I'm landing with it.

 

I think that, in terms of creative statement, genre-blending ethos, and strong songwriting, ATS is easily up there at the very top of LP's discography. It is a record that takes you on a fulfilling musical journey, rich in details, amidst multiple soundscapes and textures. It is a record that proved LP could come up with a new and unique sound of their own without replicating the past. As it has been written above, songs like WTCME, Waiting For The End, Blackout, or The Catalyst are really special in that you can't really name another artist that could have composed them, much less on the same album.

I will say that Hybrid Theory still slightly tops it for me. There is a sense of urgency and youthful energy to that album that initially sparked my interest in the band, and that I tend to favor over more textured work. Hybrid Theory has maybe more of a timeless feel to it - or at least I tend to come back to it more often, and the melodies and the atmosphere continue to grab me after 20 years.

That said, I understand why many, including Mike himself, rank ATS at number one. All in all, it is definitely their most unique and ambitious record to date

 

Meteora is my favorite LP album!

I think I'm getting more and more that I should listen to the whole album at least once before I fully judge my opinion on it lol

 

It's definitely working better as a whole than just picking out single songs.

And that's what I kind of like about it. The whole album has an atmosphere that flows from start to finish. I really enjoy this apocalyptic vibe, if that makes sense Especially with the climax in "The Catalyst." Followed by the "aftermath," which is "The Messenger," I think the album ends with a positive message after dealing with a lot of human issues.

I've also always loved the interplay between Mike and Chester, and I think ATS really excelled in that regard. Another standout is that it's not just the simple Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Bridge/Chorus structure, but it also mixes things up, like the entire second part of "Blackout" or "The Catalyst" in general. As someone who also loves the softer side of the band, I think "Waiting For The End" and "Iridescent" are still among my favorite tracks the band has created. I can fully understand if others aren’t into this, but I think with A Thousand Suns, the band showed they can handle both: aggressive sound and lyrics (like "Wretches & Kings," "When They Come For Me," "Blackout," "The Catalyst"), but also the more melodic ones (like "Burning In The Skies," "Iridescent," "Blackout"). That’s why I think "Blackout" is a special track in their discography because it combines both parts and still works. Also, "Robot Boy" is definitely a special song in their career.

The album is so diverse that it gives the listener a lot to discover. But I think you really have to sit down and listen to the whole album to catch everything that’s happening, especially in the interludes, which also introduce and reprise themes throughout the album.

Creatively, this album was probably the most interesting one, and that's also the reason why I'm so fascinated by it.

 

ATS is their best album because it's by far their most creative imo. Every song has a distinct sound, with everything working perfectly (transitions, song structures, production). I'll suggest to listen to the album as a whole.

 

I was gonna say that I go back and forth between ATS and Hybrid Theory for my favorite LP album - but now that I think about it, if I was gonna name my three favorite LP songs, it'd probably be "Waiting For the End", "The Catalyst", and "When They Come For Me".

So, turns out, it's actually clear which LP album is my favorite.

Also, as @Atticus described, it's uniqueness gives it nearly infinite replay value.

 

A Thousand Suns is the most cinematic the band has ever gotten. The scope is unmatched in their back catalog. And there are very few albums out there that I'd do a whole ass tribute remix album of.

 

I think it speaks volumes that the band (and Mike especially) have said that ATS is where the band peaked creatively, with Mike frequently saying it's his favourite album etc

I know that the album process for this one was incredibly stressful for the guys, so I get why they choose not to go into this level of intensity when creating new projects (you've got to consider that they're all - for lack of a better term - getting old now, why would they want the stress?). One of the things they've frequently talked about in the FZ era is about how "fun" the music is to make, and I don't think the word "fun" was ever used at any point in the making of ATS

I guess, selfishly as a fan, it does get frustrating at times when you look at how great both instrumentally AND lyrically ATS is, and compare it to some of the tracks that have been released since, because we know for example that Mike has the capability to go off like he does in WTCFM, and then you compare it to something like All For Nothing.

There is almost like a resignation from the band themselves that "yeah ATS was great, we'll never be able to do that again"

Back to the original point of the thread, ATS rocks

 

For me it's because the songs are more unique and interesting and not overly straight forward like most Linkin Park songs. I like the new album but don't see myself listening to it much in 14 years like I still do with A Thousand Suns. That album was an evolution of LP similar to how my music taste changed. I want more unique song structures, interesting sounds, more atmosphere.