I know it's a little late, but i want to know why there's so many hate on UIG on LP fansites. There's so many people right now saying UIG is shit, comparing it with the new songs intending to say LP always had bad poppier-cliche-repetitive songs. I know the lyrics are very simple and repetitive, and i know the song is not complex at all. But hey, this is Linkin Park. The sounding of the music is pretty good, guitarzz and synths.
I didn't mind the song, but a lot of the people hated that the band used the old cliché of "You don't know what you've got until it's gone." It has been so over used and done to death, not to mention left so open and undefined, that it rubbed people the wrong way. Most people look at that as a lyrical cop-out.
Boring and formulaic for starters, it's the best/worst example of that 'some What I've Done shit' people would complain about or dread with every lead single after 2007. But there's also the idea that it was actually written as (and rejected) as a Transformers single, as in the broader scope of the album it doesn't really fit the whole 'gritty' -or whatever the theme was- for the rest of the album. It feels pretty out of place on the album as a whole in addition to not being very interesting as a stand alone song. I really haven't listened to it much since the first couple of weeks since it's come out. The lyrics are terrible but on it's own it's just a very uninteresting listen. It's a version of a Linkin Park song they've done better, several times over, and years before.
I don't hate UIG but it's my least favorite song off THP. the instrumental is of course really good but the lyrics and vocals are absolute meh & forgettable. especially if you compare it to Final Masquerade the other pop-ish song off THP.
Agreed with all the sentiments above. If you removed What I've Done and New Divide from their discography, it might actually be a little fresh, but it felt so much like those songs that seem so easy for them to make that it's just no exciting in retrospect. Other tracks like Rebellion are still like "damn, I can't believe they pulled this out after LT", at least to me.
'Cause you don't know what you've got Until it's gone Until it's gone Until it's gone Until it's gone Until it's gone Until it's gone Until it's gone Until it's gone 'Cause you don't know what you've got Oh you don't know what you've got No you don't know what you've got It's your battle to be fought No you don't know what you've got 'Til it's gone 'Til it's gone 'Til it's gone Seriously, the music isn't very original and the lyrics are on Best of You by the Foo Fighters levels of repetitive. It's just... not a good song. And you know it's not a good song when LP themselves drop the song off the setlist for the tour. Like, they're touring to promote their new album and decide to remove one of their singles from that album off the setlist. That's pretty damning.
I think there's hate on it too because apparently it was written for a Transformers' movie, but it wasn't accepted so the band put it on THP. Some people have speculated that the band potentially bumped off a much better song to fit that on the tracklist.
That's irony, though... A song talking about not knowing what you've got until it's gone taking up a spot for a song that we never really knew, but instead getting what we got.
Can you imagine a song so shitty that Michael Bay rejected it in favor of an Imagine Dragons song for a TRANSFORMERS movie?! Because if you can't imagine it, I can help you get the basic idea:
Admittedly, the lyrics are a bit snooze worthy but I enjoy it purely because it's something different on an album stuffed with very samey sounding rock tracks.
http://www.soundonsound.com/people/inside-track-linkin-parks-hunting-party "I began with three days, February 19-21, during which I mixed the first single 'Guilty All The Same', and a song with the working title 'Thanksgiving' that was destined for the fourth Transformers movie." Thanksgiving was the working title for Until It's Gone.
Worst lyrics on the album (not including GATS thanks to Rakim saving it, but LP's contributions make it the worst lyrics without him) but one of the best songs on the album imo. Just a more lax vibe from the pseudo-"FUCK THE WORLD" music on the album. That second verse always gets me in the feels too.