"Session" - Song by Song, Let's Talk Linkin Park

Discussion in 'Linkin Park Chat' started by hawk, Jul 2, 2014.

  1. Michele

    Michele Praise Brad Delson, our Lord and Savior. LPA Addict

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    It was NoBrain.
     
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  2. Captain-EO

    Captain-EO Also Prog Nerd Now, Thanks Gibs LPA Super Member

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    MAH FAVORITE SONG BY LP...EMPTY SPACES

    Joking of course, my favorite is When They Come for Me. Something about that intro synth and the drums just gets me every time. The drums are just so pleasing to my ears. And all its Eastern influences. It's got this really primitive feel to it with the drums and chanting that sharply contrasts with the heavy synth (which to this day I swear must be a sampled and pitch-shifted guitar) and hip-hop-influenced verses by Mike. I feel like it's one of Linkin Park's most creative songs. And of course, who can refuse Brad shouting into a megaphone in Spanish (does anyone know what he says in the song, it's always irked me to not know). Plus, we get some good ol' scratching by Joe at the end while Chester's doing some kind of chanting action when all hell breaks loose at the end. There's also the little "hey, hey, hey..." vocal part at the end, which they revisit in Wretches and Kings, anyone else notice the connection there?

    #trytheketchupmotherfucker
    #dingleberry for the win
     
  3. minuteforce

    minuteforce Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance. LPA Team

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    "When They Come For Me" isn't quite in my top three when it comes to Linkin Park songs but it's damn close. The only flaw in it for me are a couple of lines in the verses that I'm still on the fence about

    On the flipside, "... once you got a theory of how the thing works / everybody wants the next thing to be just like the first" is one of my favourite LP lyrics. On top of being an awesome-sounding song that doesn't approach nu-metal at all in terms of sonics, the song bites at the band's detractors, addressing the "damned if you do/damned if you don't" dilemma that the band faced after "Meteora". Shinoda finally gets comfortable boasting about LP's success on one of their own songs, which I think they've definitely earned, but he also talks about how it's a double-edged sword that hasn't really solved anything and, instead, just pushes them to work harder. The end result is the song's final statement: "by the time you reach this level, we'll already have moved beyond."

    "When They Come For Me" is definitely my favourite live song. Visually, with everyone at their stations, Shinoda really appears to be leading the band; even more so once he leaves the keyboard to rap the verses.
     
  4. BTorio

    BTorio Well-Known Member

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    WTCFM took some time to grow on me, but I love it. When I tell people I like LP because they're genreless and they disagree, I play that song. though, Mike's raps don't fit the flow of BITS, RB, WFTE, and Blackout. I love both WTCFM and Wretches to death, but Mike's tough guy raps are out of place. I wish he either rapped more along the lines of HHH, or didn't rap at all.

    Also, Brad says something along the lines of: "Pay attention! Everyone, pay attention! Listen to me closely, right now!" There's more but that's all I can make out.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2014
  5. minuteforce

    minuteforce Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance. LPA Team

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    Careful what you wish for.
     
  6. Kevin

    Kevin A Pattern To Be Followed. LPA Administrator

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    Alright fine... I'll give you a sincere post.

    Empty Spaces ... cool.

    When They Come For Me is in my top 5 list of best Linkin Park songs, and it's pretty damn close to being first on that list.
    Ever since Fort Minor I've liked Mike getting cocky in his raps, and this is the first time I've ever heard him properly pull that out on a Linkin Park album. Lyrically it's on point. Instrumentally it's Linkin Park pulling out all the stops and just says "he fuck you, we're gonna do what we want and if you can't handle it... TRY TO CATCH UP, MOTHAFUCKA". Fitting with this whole album.

    Live, holy crap this song live. They played this at my second show and I'm really happy I got to see it, because sadly I don't think it's gonna return :cry: . The fun thing about the Stockholm performance of this song, in the middle of his bullhorn speech... Brad just screams "I WANT A MEATBALL" :rofl:

    Amazing song.
     
  7. Bawa

    Bawa Could wait to see tomorrow.

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    Honestly, the raps in When They Come for Me fluctuate so heavily from "Damned incredible" to "Really, yeah, no." I can't get into the verses that well because of it, as one line might be well written and deep, and the other a Public Enemy reference about Chuck's difficulties with a 7lb paperweight. Some people dig these references, me, not so much. But hey, at least Empty Spaces delivers, for me!
     
  8. minuteforce

    minuteforce Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance. LPA Team

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    So your only issue with the raps are those references to older generations of hip-hop?
     
  9. Bawa

    Bawa Could wait to see tomorrow.

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    Not at all, just a lot of the vibe and general attitude of it rubs me in a way I don't enjoy... I just felt like keeping my reply short for the moment, and pointed out one area of concern on the lyrics. Most of the first verses are pretty solid, and the song itself is enjoyable.
     
  10. Filip

    Filip god break down the door LPA Contributor

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    Well, now I know exactly who doesn't read what I post. :lol:
     
  11. UltimateLegend

    UltimateLegend Well-Known Member

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    When I was still new to the band's music (well, new to their albums. Breaking the Habit was my favorite song for years since I first heard it in 2003 or '04), When They Come For Me was my absolute favorite song by the band, and at the time I heard it, my favorite of any band. It doesn't hold that position anymore, but I still feel that it is a very good song. Mike's verse are some of the best he's ever done, and the instrumentation is unique for the band. Also, Chester's bridge is pretty chilling, and I love how it crescendos. Definitely one of my top 5 songs off of the album, along with BITS and songs that are yet to be discussed.

    Oh yeah, and Empty Spaces is too deep for me to discuss. :kappa:
     
  12. Louis

    Louis Message me if you need to talk. We love you all. LPA Team

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    As far as "Empty Spaces" is concerned, I really could sit here and write a whole post about it. I'm afraid that I really wouldn't be able to leave any...empty space...on the page.

    As far as When They Come For Me is concerned, an awesome track but for so many reasons that I know have already been highlighted. The layers and rhythms of this track are probably better than any hip-hop track the band has put out (including Fort Minor, in my opinion). The sound production is ace, with the mix of acoustic drums and electronic sounds just working very well on this song. You don't really get to see a lot of that in other Linkin Park songs.

    I find it funny how much discussion there was over the introduction in the LPTV episode, because a lot of what Brad wanted out of that song more or less panned out. They kept that intro part interesting. I remember when I first listened to it, I was really weirded out. If I'm going to be honest, I thought that maybe my CD was skipping at the time and that I had gotten some messed up mp3 or whatever. I was wrong, but it ended up growing on me so fast. There really is nothing quite like this track anywhere else in the discography, particularly because of that introduction.

    In terms of the verses, I think I really appreciate the story that Mike is telling. Admittedly, I find it hard to listen to it sometimes not because I don't enjoy it, but because I know that it's a track that not many outsiders could appreciate. They'd really have to know the story of the band - they'd have to understand all of the external references that Mike is making. The allusions Mike makes are really what make his verses so good, because it's not just his run-of-the-mill "check out how underrated I am" like you'd see on LIVING THINGS or The Hunting Party. There was more to it here, which is why I think I can appreciate it so much but can understand why it might be hard for the everyday pseudo-fan to get into.

    I sincerely love the "choruses". I love how different they are, and I love how there's no stereotypical sense of a chorus on this song. It adds to the feeling of the track and just gives it that volume and that edge it has. It doesn't need words to fill the chorus, and I think I can really appreciate that. Perhaps the choruses could do without Mike throwing in the raps here and there, but it doesn't ruin the song for me at all.

    The latter half of the track, however, is where the band really shows what they're made of. I sincerely love Chester's portion of this track. I love how it builds and it escalates back into that "chorus," that is just so far more layered than it was before. The awesome part for me on the first listen was thinking that once it deescalated that the song was over. And boy, was I wrong. The last 30-40 seconds of that track are incredible. That is the part of the track that I listen to in the car and people ask what the fuck is happening and I always love that.

    I think if I were to have one complaint about the track, it would be to wonder its place on the rest of the album. Is it merely just an effort for the band to say "fuck you" to anyone who questions their decisions? It's not that I don't appreciate it, but contextually it was always the track that I thought maybe didn't sit so well within the album. It certainly belongs on there in terms of how innovative it is for them, but otherwise I've always been a bit curious about that.

    Otherwise, very awesome. God, I love this album.
     
  13. minuteforce

    minuteforce Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance. LPA Team

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    Chester's part is really just a short sung part that says what the rest of the song is saying, and I compare it to the similar part that he has in "High Voltage"

    As for its place on the album, sonically, there's hints of warfare, arguably-militaristic drums and rhythms, harsh, atonal sounds and so on ... and that links it to other songs on the album and that makes up an overarching theme. There's an air of violence in the lyrics and the vocal delivery as well, of course and that loosely ties it with other more aggressive songs on the album. The fact that these links are loose (plus, this is just my interpretation of things) is important to note because "A Thousand Suns" isn't an out-and-out ~concept album~ but, instead, an album where songs, sounds, lyrics and motifs are linked together in a variety of different ways, sometimes just by association like a stream-of-consciousness-type thing

    So, yeah, that's how I look at it. There's still the prism of violence and war; the song just tackles that from a particular angle, perhaps using a particular metaphor
     
  14. TobinKnowsBest

    TobinKnowsBest 20.03.1976 - 20.07.2017 LPA VIP

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    I despise this song.

    I especially hate the lyrics.

    I hate the lyrics so much that I decided to get a section of them permanently tattooed on myself just to remind me how much I hate this song

    :kappa:
     
  15. Captain-EO

    Captain-EO Also Prog Nerd Now, Thanks Gibs LPA Super Member

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    Guilty as charged. I got way ahead of myself because I wanted to make my post. Otherwise I wouldn't have said anything about the "hey"s or the Spanish part because you covered that. Oh well, shoot me.

    One day I hope we get an instrumental version of When They Come for Me, because I'd play the hell outta dat shit.
     
  16. Jesse

    Jesse Out of the abyss. LPA Über VIP

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    "When They Come For Me" bravely marks the very first song on a Linkin Park Studio Album that indirectly and directly criticizes the band's fanbase and the label upon which the musical act resides. The lyrics encompass an idea that there are those that are unable to accept that the band not be placed into an image that they were previously cast as, expecting the act to conform to the image in which that base expects them to be. It is also the first track on a Linkin Park Studio album that directly quotes and names, and gives homage to other hip hop artists. Once again, it is also The first full song on a Linkin Park album that actually lacks a standard or traditional chorus, opting for a tribal chant of "Ahhh."As you can see the theme here, this song hold many of Linkin Park's firsts, it's one of the most creative and courageous tracks in Linkin Park's discography.
     
  17. Filip

    Filip god break down the door LPA Contributor

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    Is it just me or is that Vimeo embed not working?
     
  18. Qwerty19

    Qwerty19 Well-Known Member

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    When They Come For Me is one of my favorite off ATS, and probably one of the most creative and interesting song the band has written. Gotta love the tribal drums, the tons of subtle samples, as well as the not-so-subtle sampled guitar sound, Mikes verses, Chester apparition in the bridge, the "oriental" ending, the overall production. Pretty much everything in this one is great. Though, to balance a bit my positivism, the track is kinda repetitive, but it is the case for most of LP music anyway.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2014
  19. Rippin on That

    Rippin on That Stared at the sun once

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    I like When They Come For Me because it's really one of the first times I heard LP get confident enough to tell people to get over the fact that they are not going to another Hybrid Theory styled album. The fact that the song carrying this message is fucking good is icing on the cake.
     
  20. Michele

    Michele Praise Brad Delson, our Lord and Savior. LPA Addict

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    :rofl:
     
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