Your Minutes to Midnight Tracklist

Since previously unreleased demos/songs have been unveiled from the Minutes to Midnight sessions in the recent years (Not Alone, Blackbirds, What We Don't Know, Across the Line), I was wondering if anyone thought of what songs they would have liked to see on the album and/or what tracklisting they would have liked to see.

Me personally I would have liked to have Blackbirds and What We Don't Know as well as No Roads Left be an actual song on the album, not just a B-Side. And although QWERTY and Pale were written before the band decided to change their 'musical direction', those might have been cool too. Might be a little farfetched though.

Anyway, just wanted to see if anyone thought of this.

Btw, Hi!

 

I would scrap all of MTM except The Little Things Give You Away. Every other song was a half-assed attempt at doing something different.

 

01 No More Sorrow (with long intro)
02 Given Up
03 Leave Out All The Rest
04 Bleed It Out
05 Blackbirds
06 What I've Done
07 Qwerty
08 Valentine's Day
10 No Roads Left
11 In Pieces

 

01. What I've Done (Studio Ambo Intro)
02. Given Up
03. Leave Out All The Rest
04. What We Don't Know
05. Blackbirds
06. Shadow Of The Day
07. Hands Held High
08. No More Sorrow
09. Valentine's Day
10. In Pieces
11. No Roads Left
12. The Little Things Give You Away
13. Across The Line (Deluxe Edition Bonus Track)

 

I thought Blackbirds is from ATS sessions?

 

Nah. They had a very (and by very I mean probably 2 or 3 second clip) on the MTM DVD of them working on the strings for Blackbirds. It was only released on the iTunes ATS because LP wanted to release it some other way than 8 Bit Rebellion.

 

I think they should have kept the same 12 songs and then added the bsides and labeled them as bonus tracks.

Though, Given Up and No More Sorrow never needed to see the light of day.

 

Here's the tracklist I've reworked on my iTunes:

01. What I've Done
02. Given Up
03. In Between
04. Qwerty
05. Leave Out All the Rest
06. Bleed It Out
07. Blackbirds
08. Wake
09. Hands Held High
10. No More Sorrow
11. In Pieces
12. No Roads Left
13. The Little Things Give You Away


"What I've Done" does double-duty as a commentary on what the band did on the album, so it's really a stylistic manifesto that should open the album instead of being in the middle. You want to keep the audience excited after that, and "Given Up" is a good follower, even if it's a pretty standard rock-cruncher.

But you also want to show the variety the album intends to present, so it's a good idea to jump from one of the hardest numbers on the LP to the softest. This also helps the listener get used to Shinoda's presence on the album as a singer.

"Qwerty" isn't great, but it hearkens back to old LP, and I'd prefer this album be a bit rockier than its alternative stylings allow. "Leave Out All the Rest" leads into "Bleed It Out" so purposefully that it's hard to imagine them without each other. "Blackbirds" mixes it up with a good blend of soft instrumentation and traditional LP style, and its grave imagery nicely sets up "Wake" as a mid-album break that separates the traditional songs from the more politically-charged tunes.

Like "Leave Out All the Rest" and "Bleed It Out," hard to imagine "Hands Held High" and "No More Sorrow" separate, even more so in this case, because the two form a neat political diptych (even if they're not the most inspired lyrically speaking).

No matter what, the album has to end with "The Little Things Give You Away." "In Pieces" and "No Roads Left," sandwiched between the other songs, gain a bit more resonance, because their vague lyrics can now be considered politically, with one song about a destructive one-sided relationship and the other about the loss of options. "No Roads Left" sets up "Little Things" with its mournful acceptance.

"Shadow of the Day" and "Valentine's Day" are omitted, the former because its U2 power balladry is simply too derivative and obvious, the latter because it sucks. These revisions don't make the album a hell of a lot better, but I think they make it more organized and balanced.

 

This is like adding a pile of suck to a pile of mediocre.

And when I say "suck" I mostly mean QWERTY.

 

01 Wake
02 Leave Out All The Rest
03 Valentine's Day
04 In Between
05 In Pieces
06 No Roads Left

 

Adding "No Roads Left" as track 13 would have been the icing on the cake.

 

01. Wake
02. What I've done
03. No more Sorrow
04. Hands held high <3
05. Leave out all the rest
06. In Pieces
07. Across the line
08. In Between
09. Blackbirds
10. Shadow of the day
11. What we don't know
12. Bleed it out
13. The little things give you away

 

Yeah, well, that's just your opinion, man... MTM is a pretty descent album, couple of bad songs (HHH, I'm looking at you), but overall good album.
And I don't get why is everybody hatin' Qwerty. It's a great song... Killer riff, great drumming, nice little chorus. What's there not to like?

 

I cant speak for everyone, but its the lyrics. Honestly, if there's a reason to hate pre- MTM stuff, it's probably the lyrics

 

1. Halo (would be great)
2. Given Up
3. Leave out all the rest
4. Bleed it out
5. Shadow of the day
6. What i've done
7. Hands held high
8. What we don't know
9. Valentines day
10. Across the line
11. In pieces
12. The little things
13. No roads left

 

Using the ones ive seen i would have to say:

01. What I've Done
02. Given Up
03. In Between
04. Qwerty
05. Leave Out All the Rest
06. Bleed It Out
07. Blackbirds
08. Wake
09. Hands Held High
10. No More Sorrow
11. Shadow of the Day
12. In Pieces
13. No Roads Left
14. The Little Things Give You Away

 

01. Wake
02. Given Up
03. No Roads Left
04. What I've Done
05. Leave Out All the Rest
06. Bleed It Out
07. Valentine's Day
08. Blackbirds
09. What We Don't Know
10. In Pieces
11. Across the Line
12. Hands Held High
13. No More Sorrow
14. The Little Things Give You Away

That's how I'd do it, transitioning slowly from the more emotional songs into the political tracks quite nicely.

 

1. No Roads Left

 

1. Sterile Poon