It's too early to say for sure but so far both the hunting party and the singles off it haven't done to well commercially. Which makes me wonder, what could they have done differently? I think one error may have been the order in which they have released the singles. I mean they released 5 before the album even came out (though to be fair 2 were promo singles). That couldn't have been a good idea. Also the choices themselves were questionable. So if I was in charge of marketing for linkin park, this is what I would have done: First single: Final Masquerade (a couple months before the album drops) Nice and radio friendly track to lead things off. I'm not particularly fond of it but I could see this getting play, maybe even being a crossover hit. Second single: Rebellion (a month before the album drops) Not as radio friendly as FM but still has single potential and would likely please the fans more. Third single: Keys to the Kingdom (promo, a week before the album drops) Only to please the fans and get them super hyped up for the album, considering many fans just want LP to be aggressive again. Fourth single: Until It's Gone (a month or month and a half after the album drops) Fairly radio friendly, Linkin Park could get another hit with this. Fifth single: Whatever is doing well If there's another track that stations are playing and/or fans like, then release it. If not, then that's it for singles. What would you guys do?
3-2 Months before album: Until It's Gone gets release date, some days after that it debuts and new album "The Hunting Party" is confirmed. Scavenger Hunt or something nice to build the fans hype. Some LPTV episodes, etc 1 Month before album: Until It's Gone Music Video + Pre-Order + Tracklist and then Rebellion release date revealed 3 weeks before album: Rebellion debuts on the radio, the same way UIG was released. 1 week before album: Guilty All The Same drops as promo single ALBUM OUT 2-3 weeks later - Rebellion Music Video + Proper single release 2-3 Months later - Final Masquerade EP (A decent EP with a nice B-Side)
1. Rebellion - it's heavy as fuck, has a very influential guest appearance, and fits the "visceral" feeling of the album perfectly 2. Wastelands - another heavy track that features signature elements of Linkin Park, just incase some people were somehow alienated by the awesomeness that is Rebellion 3. Final Masquerade - even though it doesn't fit the "visceral/carnivorous" theme, the track is pure-single-gold 4. Until It's Gone - another radio friendly track, although it's at least a little more heavy than Final Masquerade 5. Keys To The Kingdom - a final hurrah to the album, and an effort to keep KTTK in set lists as long as possible because it is simply incredible GATS would remain a non-single because the radio edited version butchered the song
I liked GATS as the lead single. Final Masquerade should have been the 2nd single. It's still a poppy ballad so it's a good marketable single, but it's a much better song than UIG and sounds less like a filler or transitional song. Rebellion for 3rd single. Drives home that the album will be the heaviest record LP has put out. -Album Release- All For Nothing as the 4th and final single. The song is very catchy and is just a solid rock song. Also bonus market points for having Page Hamilton. Singles in 2014 aren't supposed to be the best songs on the album, it's supposed to be songs that you can market to non-hardcore LP fans. In that regard it needs to be catchy to different audiences. I think the songs above does that, it covers the hardcore LP fans to the pop LP fans.
Imagine the uproar had final masquerade been the second single. People were pissed when UIG dropped as it wasn't heavy enough lol
I agree except for UIG. You can't have two slower singles one after another. Drop Until It's Gone. Drop it.
Yeah, this. I know people think for some reason that the more boring songs are "radio bait", but I don't think I've seen a single person admit to liking UIG. A more boring New Divide knock-off like that probably did more to hurt sales than drum them up.
Everyone knows how much I hyped UIG at first, and how much I enjoyed it on the first listen. They're also aware about how drastically my opinion changed on the song after repeated listens, and after I got to compare it to the rest of the CD, how I skip it almost every time. It's just incredibly out of place on THP. This out of place feeling is made worse by the rumor that it apparently was written for Transformers 4 but didn't get selected, with Bay deciding to go with Imagine Dragons instead. This would explain the band's recent bitterness towards ID in interviews (and Mike's bitter sounding tweet about ID 'being hip'), because they likely feel slighted by Bay for him choosing to go with a new band instead of them. What I've heard (but not had confirmed anywhere so don't take this as gospel) is that UIG was only put on the album because it was a finished song and had nowhere else to go. Which means...we potentially had a far more interesting song kicked off the tracklist to fit that song. I don't mind when the band licenses existing songs to soundtracks...but writing songs for movies almost always guarantees a formulaic and 'by the numbers' LP track.
1. Rebellion (2 months before album) 2. GATS (promotional single) 3. Final Masquerade (1 month after album releases)
First off, I would like to say I have no idea what a lot of the hate on this forum for UIG is. I think it's an okay song, not great, but it's worthy of being on the album especially the way it's placed (a nice break from all the hardness). IMO, the real offender of being boring radio crap is Final Masquerade, which I haven't seen get that much hate on me. This blows my mind -- sure the lyrics in UIG suck really badly, but the synth is cool, like I said before it's well placed on the album, and a million times less generic then Final Masquerade. Also if I hadn't been on the album, it probably would have just been an eleven song album. So I doubt any songs had to be removed. But yeah, it sucks that UIG got passed up from a song from a more popular "rock" artist. (Imagine Dragons is pop rock at best.)
How could Until It's Gone NOT be considered generic for Linkin Park? Structurally, it's equivalent to the first half of Living Things: Intro which starts off slow and brings in the chorus with it's layered guitars but only instrumentally, then to the verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus. It's not nearly as bland as the first half of Living Things, but it's still just as generic. Structure aside, instrumentally it's still hardly anything new. - GATS was a great lead single, IMO. I would probably enjoy the song a hell of a lot more if I had heard it with the album, but I still love the song and I think it represented the album well. Either Rebellion or Keys to the Kingdom should have been next. KTTK would have been possibly unwise, but it would have been a great song to release to the fans. Until It's Gone was a poor choice for a single, and doesn't fit well in the promo's that it's been in for the album. Otherwise, I don't have much more of an opinion on what else should or shouldn't be a single.
FM is actually a great ballad while UIG is just one of the most generic songs they've ever made. I feel like they shouldn't have included it on the album. 1. Guilty All the Same (2 months before the album) It was a great lead single actually. Not necessarily the best one but a great insight. 2. Final Masquerade (3 weeks before the album) Could be a radio hit. Gets some attention from the mainstream audience right soon enough. 3. Rebellion / Keys the the Kingdom (1 week before the album) For the hype. Doesn't matter which one. Maybe both. 4. All for Nothing Just to piss you off since most people here seem to dislike it
Likely, but ultimately speculatory. Either way, I'm glad Imagine Dragons was chosen. 'Battle Cry' is pretty awesome.
First single - Rebellion Second single - Guilty All The Same Third single - All For Nothing Fourth single - Wastelands There are only 10 songs, I think 4 singles is enough.
I still really don't know why people say that. FM isn't BAD (it's okay), it's just super generic. It's a chord fest that employs the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-with-a-bridge-somewhere and just sounds like it could be by anyone, if the singer was different. UIG mixes a variety of synths, switches from 3/4 to 4/4 and back again, and just sounds more creative. And GATS isn't an awful single choice, but I really think it was a bad first single. You wanna rope people in and let them know that there is a new LP single with something really radio friendly, then put out something that's more typical of the album but also radio friendly. After that there's a lot more room for experimentation. Also the way I see it, a lot of people on this forum like AFN. It's mainly UIG, Wastelands, and The Summoning/War that people feel lukewarm about/don't like.