Here's To Hoping

Discussion in 'Linkin Park Chat' started by Cylock_Dnb, Jul 24, 2014.

  1. #1
    Cylock_Dnb

    Cylock_Dnb Well-Known Member

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    Here's to hoping that LP really get their sh_t together for some serious time and honestly figure out what they're going to do for their next record.
    It just pains me to know that they're so talented and capable of making great music but decide to waste their time doing something as meaningless and gimmicky as THP.
    I just don't get it. LP are capable of doing so much more. In the last records, they've had plenty and plenty of hits and misses speaking of songs, but I find that when they tried their LEAST hard to fit into a gimmick, they were able to make the best songs they've written. Particularly in M2M, this is very noticeable. I'm just tired of LP doing gimmick album after gimmick album. What's the next one gonna be? "We're tired of all this EDM music that everyone is making, so we're gonna make a record only using sticks and cups." Like, idk man. They just need to put their f/cking heads together and WRITE GREAT MUSIC. THEY'VE DONE IT BEFORE. THEY CAN DO IT AGAIN.


    That should be the name of the game - Just write g r e a t music.

    Think of genuinely great songs that LP have written, for LP standards of course, but still.
    I can think of tracks like:

    Bleed It Out - A bit experimental for them at the time, but doesn't feel forced. Lyrics don't sound rushed or crappy, and the whole song is catchy and works out.
    Shadow Of The Day - Genuinely pretty ballad that LP have written - Good lyrics, beautiful music - great song. Same for LOATR, except has a bit crappier lyrics.
    Across The Line - Dunno why this one didn't make it. Lyrics are a bit "emo," but the song as a whole is actually good and it gets heavy without it being heavy for heavy's sake.
    even What I've Done - A bit generic and poppy for LP, but still, works great - lyrics are on point - very good song.
    TLTGYA - Possibly the most beautiful song LP have written. No bullshit, great instrumental track, poetic lyrics - GREAT SONG.

    Past M2M,

    Burning In The Skies - Beautiful instrumental, great and interesting lyrics, not a dull moment. Great song.
    The Catalyst - Not their best, a bit silly, but still holds great together as a solid song.

    Even older stuff like High Voltage - which is my favorite style of Mike's rapping.

    Idk man, I'm on a real soap box here, but my point is simply - LP have made great songs before, what I consider to be solid, good music. Why are they making weird and useless stuff like THP? I truly think that LP have the potential to write a great record if only they would stop focusing on a gimmick and just let their ideas flow like they did in M2M (not in ATS, because they were trying to write weird music for the sake of being weird.)

    They have very great, strong abilities and they just need to channel them through the right energy. I know that they can make a great album if they just stop f—cking around and WRITE SOME GREAT SONGS. HEAVY, SOFT, BALLAD, ELECTRONIC, WHATEVER. They can take the raw sound of M2M, blend it with the spaced-out'ness of ATS, and the electronic side of LT. (and FUCK THP.) and they have a great freaking record.

    I honestly hope they do something great on the LP7. They have it in them to do it.

    /RAAAAAAANT
     
  2. #2
    minuteforce

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

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    If that's how you perceive "The Hunting Party", then, were "Midnight" and "A Thousand Suns" truly gimmick-free? All of Linkin Park's albums have been promoted using buzzwords and whatnot. The fact that they're capable of changing their sound for every album can itself be considered gimmicky.

    What makes these new songs inherently inferior to their past work?
     
  3. #3
    Filip

    Filip god break down the door LPA Contributor

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    Don't you realize how subjective this is? None of this is a gimmick, it's just what the band wanted to write right now. Say, Arcade Fire wanted a disco inspired album, and they did it. Because they wanted to. You speak of this Godly MTM here, and it's my least favorite album from the band. All of this is your opinion, not a fact.
     
  4. #4
    lordblood

    lordblood Radiance of a Thousand Suns

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    I understand the subjective nature of the topic, but I do think that LT and THP feel flat on the lyrics front. I think this in unfair blame to place on Linkin Park though, because I think ATS was their best work from many different standpoints so everything else feels lesser to it.

    On the new album, I think Mark the Graves is a genuinely good song. It's experimental and has surprisingly natural transitions from soft to loud parts, something that brought to mind one of my favorite Metallica songs: Unforgiven. I also think War is one of their best songs ever made (top 10, possibly), it's straightforward but very catchy and heavy in a natural way.
     
  5. #5
    minuteforce

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

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    If you think that the songs "feel flat on the lyrics front", then, no, it's fine to blame the band who wrote them. :) The fact that they'd already made "A Thousand Suns" at that point shouldn't really be an excuse.
     
  6. #6
    Erica

    Erica Meh LPA Über VIP

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    I mean, did they write the missing link within rock? No. But IMO, they wrote a pretty good record. And like minuteforce said, the very idea of Linkin Park is kind of gimmicky. That's kind of the point, really. If you don't like this one, stick around, I bet your in for a door next time around.
     
  7. #7
    lime treacle

    lime treacle You are not alone Über Member

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    *stops reading*
     
  8. #8
    Derek

    Derek LPAssociation.com Administrator LPA Administrator

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    This.

    The fact the song was re-written as many times as it was, proves it probably should've been scrapped. The same thing happened with Somewhere I Belong and that song is flat out terrible. Linkin Park have a bad habit of trying to re-write bad songs and try to force them to be good. Is Bleed It Out terrible? No. But it's also not an example of their 'finest work' as the first post suggests.
     
  9. #9
    Nicholas

    Nicholas Well-Known Member

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    I can't say that I agree with this post, but I do think the band ought to be more focused than what they are now. I have no problem with wanting to experiment and try new things, in fact I encourage it. However, my problem is that there's little sense of direction. The band is at this point a gimmick band, you'll get an EDM remix album from them one minute only for them to release an album after that blames those genres of music for "watering down" rock. They're too all over the place, and it's a shame to see a band with so much talent wasted on one trick pony albums. You can try new things without coming off as a gimmick, and I don't know why the band struggles to understand that.
     
  10. #10
    minuteforce

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

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    Not having a consistent, overarching direction that acts as a thread between multiple album cycles has an upside and a downside. The upside is that, as a fan, if you don't like one album, you could well enjoy the one that comes after. For the band, if they get sick of one "sound", they can jump on another one immediately. Obviously, the downside is that it can get a little confusing, especially for casual fans. In this case, going from "A Light That Never Comes" and "Recharged" to "The Hunting Party" is, for better or worse, ridiculous.
     
  11. #11
    Derek

    Derek LPAssociation.com Administrator LPA Administrator

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    My opinion on THP is this:

    It's a great album, but I just feel like if you're going to try to experiment between albums, you shouldn't do it by bashing the album that came before it. To me it makes it difficult to take the music seriously, if the band themselves can't stand behind the work they've created. Wanting to never stand still and make the same sound is fine (and admirable), but it can be done without throwing your previous work under the bus.

    That's what I think frustrated me about this album cycle. I've heard the band practically bash ATS/LT for being too electronic...when ATS was soo fervently defended by the band when they released it. The band declared it their masterpiece, only to have Chester pretty much put it down in an interview this cycle (I forget which one, but it happened). I'm just annoyed. I love this band, and I love their music...I just wish they'd stand by their work and not crap on the previous album everytime the new one comes out.
     
  12. #12
    minuteforce

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

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    You could also mention the fact that they didn't really outright bash those albums for not being "heavy" enough, but nonetheless criticised modern rock as a whole for not stepping it up. They've acknowledged but also refused to acknowledge their own part in making modern mainstream rock what it is today.
     
  13. #13
    Derek

    Derek LPAssociation.com Administrator LPA Administrator

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    Exactly. MTM, ATS and LT we're all significantly less 'aggressive' than the first two albums. Was that a bad thing? No. Infact, at least two of those albums were a bold creative leap for the band. But if you're going to make music that is softer than your previous work, then complain that rock music has lost it's edge...it kind of feels hypocritical. The fact that the comment sections on rock websites all make this argument constantly, proves it isn't just the die-hard fans who feel this way either. To rock music communities as a whole...it just feels like the band ignored the fact that they hold partial responsibility for rock music going soft, even if ATS is absolutely fantastic.
     
  14. #14
    Gibs

    Gibs The Prog Nerd Über Member

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    Linkin Park fans should now by now that every single album isn't going to pander to every little demographic within their fanbase. If you can't handle that, maybe you shouldn't be a fan. You say that THP is a bad, gimmicky album, yet you don't offer up reasons why. All you do is say, "Hey, it's not good dude! *insert past song here* is better!" I'm not the biggest fan of THP, but I can at least offer up reasons for that opinion. All you seem to do is very subjectively shit on an album with no actual thought.
     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2014
  15. #15
    Filip

    Filip god break down the door LPA Contributor

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    Interviewer: What were your three great records? What do you count them as?
    Chester: Well, the three records I am referring to that we've released in the last six years. You know, I think A Thousand Suns...

    Interviewer: I love A Thousand Suns, man!
    Chester: Dude, it's one of those things I feel I can't really say how I truly feel about it, because it's a record that I made. But, if I was outside of the band and just a fan of music, I would say that is one of my favourite records of the last 10 years.

    (source)

    So, he said this 3 months ago. I'd love to see him put ATS down.
     
  16. #16
    Derek

    Derek LPAssociation.com Administrator LPA Administrator

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    Perhaps I took his comments about ATS in an interview out of context or remembered them improperly then. Good to see him giving ATS the respect it deserves, because it really IS the band's best work.
     
  17. #17
    3DU4RDO

    3DU4RDO Burning in the Skies

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    Amen.

    This is what happens to me with this record. I like THP, I really do. But I can't enjoy it properly because of this. All their pointless comments this album cycle have ruined the experience for me.
     
  18. #18
    Atticus

    Atticus Bullets lance the bravest lungs

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    The fact that you described Bleed It Out as not only a bit experimental but one of the band's best tracks and then go on to bash The Hunting Party for pretty much no reason is absolutely ridiculous. Bleed It Out is literally the nu-metal formula over an alternative rock guitar riff. Big freakin' deal.

    Quite frankly, if you can't enjoy the heavy sound of The Hunting Party, then that's acceptable. But you should be able to at least appreciate the drastic improvements the band has made in instrumentation.

    To me your entire post comes off as nothing more than subjective delusion.
     
  19. #19
    Sonic

    Sonic Searching for the last Chaos Emerald... LPA Super Member

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    I find it funny that the OP praised Minutes to Midnight, but complained about The Hunting Party, when for me (and I've seen other say this, too) The Hunting Party is really close to what Minutes to Midnight is/was all about in terms of sound, feel, and direction.
     
  20. #20
    minuteforce

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

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    The band's approaches to both albums involved keeping electronics to a minimal and emphasising live instrumentation (specifically guitars) and a rawer, less "produced" sound, so I would agree that that's accurate.
     

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