Haha, this. Everyone that followed the band's statements leading up to LIVING THINGS knew what to expect, but as already pointed out, that doesn't mean I can't personally feel disappointed about the direction that Linkin Park chose to take. A Thousand Suns, love it or hate it, was BY FAR the band's most ambitious album. I love how people try to refute this by pointing out 2 or 3 songs that may sound a lot like their past works. Yeah, ok, but what about the other 70% of the album? Plus, even the songs that aren't as creative still help tell a story, which is something the band has never attempted before in past efforts.
I do agree but besides "When They Come For Me" "Robot Boy "Waiting For The End" and "The Catalyst" I don't see where all of this creativity is. Even Blackout isn't too creative. The whole "let's take a different direction to finish the song" was already done in And One which was released in 1999. And that ending rap verse wasn't ever titled a "interlude" or something else on the CD. "The Messenger" is almost like a studio version of an acoustic track played live. I see songs like "Hands Held High" as much more left field and different. Structure has nothing to do with the creativity of a song. If we got Somewhere I Belong opening with the bridge, played the chorus twice, then the two rap verses, then the chorus one more time would it change the fact that the lyrics are so god damn tasteless? Ya know?
I'm counting seven. The band have played LITE, IMR, BID, LGM, COG, Victimized and Tinfoil live since the album came out. That's a majority however you slice it (6 out of 11 or 7 out of 12), and it came at the expense of playing ATS songs live (only The Catalyst and Waiting For The End have been played regularly since LT's release). I guess I'd rather enjoy LIVING THINGS for what it was advertised as, instead of deconstructing it for what it wasn't. I got what I was lead to expect. If the band had made a promise and not delivered on it, I'd be pissed off. But they told us they were going back to their roots on this album, away from the experimental side of things, so I re-calibrated my expectations. Yeah, we all know the band is capable of more. ATS proved that. Perhaps now that the band has this album out of their system they'll go back to pushing the boundaries a little more. It's funny, I'm not even a huge fan of LIVING THINGS: It's an inconsistent album quality-wise that doesn't feel cohesive theme-wise. I don't ever need to hear LGM, UIB or Victimized again. But the album has some of the band's best songs ever, in my opinion, like LITE, COG and Powerless. I just came into this knowing what we were getting.
I can't believe how your're carving into stone that LP is 'going EDM'. Seriously? Based on what? A collaboration?? It's beyond me how can people jump into such insane conclusions without even a GLIMPSE of the new album. You're gonna have to excuse me but that's just stupid. Plain stupid to make such assumptions with no evidence.
Or the Danny vs Deuce war that is going on in every HU or Deuce video. If you like Deuce, listen to his band. If you like Danny, listen to Notes From the Underground and American Tragedy. If you like both, good for you!
Yeah, that is true. I should have said they only play four of the tracks regularly. IMR was played for some of the shows in the Honda Civic Tour. As was LGM. Tinfoil isn't exactly preformed either. I guess it doesn't matter, though. They wanted to write songs that would fit with their set list. And to be fair, LT has (give or take a few) the same amount of songs being played live as the other albums. They're giving equal attention to all of the albums. When I look at LIVING THINGS as an album, I like it. When I look at it as the fifth album in the progression of the band, it falls a bit short and looks lazy. I do agree with what you're saying. It shouldn't be something to analyze and call "lazy" just because in the context of other albums it sounds shitty. The band did say that the album was going back to their roots and that it was more of a mix of everything they have done, but I feel like it's them saying "look, we made an album. We couldn't manage to push the boundaries but we're still dropping this shit regardless. So here's what you can see it as and call it decent."
Some people clearly don't know what they're talking about. Simply just don't know shit about anything. Everyone getting pissed off first with Chester and STP are now saying "we'll at least Chester is saved by STP from this EDM bullshit.". It seems the majority of the fans vase hasn't changed at all since 2003, and that's sad. All this bitching and moaning over 1 live performance. That's pretty sad, just enjoy the ride. Linkin Park have been collaborating since 2002, and all of this bitching is the same as when LP were doing all of "that rap shit". I hate this damn fan base with a passion. There are very few people that see things clearly and it's partly why I only come here just for the news.