I'm not necessarily saying to just drop Wastelands on another album, as-is. That wouldn't work out production-wise in terms of the sound of another album. But if you were to say, put a bunch of distorted synths over the top of the guitars, turn the guitars themselves down, and use more of a mixture of sampled and live drums, then it would fit in on Living Things. Give the song a more gradual dynamic build throughout instead of using the "loud chorus, quiet verse, different part for the bridge" format, and it would work as a Minutes to Midnight song. I know this is entirely hypothetical, I'm just saying that if a song would have been arranged/mixed with another album in mind, it would have sounded different. Look at Primo vs. I'll Be Gone. My thoughts on Wastelands are that the verses are good, the guitars sound alright (heavy, but in a familiar way, and for the love of ol' Leo, why did Brad use a Strat for so much heavy stuff on this record?), the chorus is decent but gets very repetitive melodically (and you can't hear the vocoded harmony vocals for shit in the full mix), the chord structure of the bridge is cool, but the "play a note, fuck around with the pitch/modulation wheels, move up a note in the scale, repeat" synth solo over the top of it is one of the most filler-sounding moments on the entire album, and the last chorus is unique for having a changed chord progression with a nearly identical melody, but sonically doesn't really take the song to a much higher level of intensity compared to the first two choruses. I also feel like having Rob Cavallo co-produce this track was a mistake, as it really stands out in terms of sound quality, in a negative way that is really uncharacteristic of both Cavallo and Linkin Park (the opposite is true of Emile Haynie's production on Final Masquerade, btw).
This is an insightful review of the song. I agree about the mixing, any of the band's songs could've been arranged to fit on other albums. It makes me think of a documentary I watched about Slowdive's album Souvlaki, where their mixer had the original tracks for their songs but then paired them down to the point where they stopped sounding like noisy guitar songs and more like pop songs. He didn't move anything around or add tracks - he just simply adjusted the levels of the tracks he was given and that changed the songs completely. Muting unneeded tracks also changed a lot of the songs for the band. But maybe that's too different from what you are saying about LP and mixing. As for Brad using the Strat so much. I can't presume to know about guitars much since I've only been playing for about 2 years. I have an American Standard Strat, SG standard, and a Tele with a bridge humbucker. I just know that I often prefer the sound of the Strat overdriven rather than the other two humbucker guitars I have. Sometimes the humbuckers are too noisy or overpowering for my taste, and maybe that's why Brad likes using the Strats (though I don't know what kind of pickups Brad uses). Mike is usually playing a guitar with humbuckers while Brad is playing Strats, if I'm correct. But again, I'm not really the guy to go to for guitar tech or knowledge. Are you the one who made linkinparkguitar.com? I like that site a lot. I was just wondering more about the pickups the guys use.
I don't hate it. I actually really like it. I don't have a problem with something being Meteora-ish, which I wouldn't say it is (sound wise, and Guitars + Rapping doesn't = Meteora for me) but I do have a problem with Mike's lyrics; they don't string together and they are pretty... Mediocre, IMHO. But the rest of the song is great. It's my favourite off of THP and I haven't been able to wear it out.
Really? I think they flow pretty well. That isn't much of an issue with Mike. His flow is far better than it was 10 years ago...Plus one of his more technical ones too...
No, no, I don't mean HIS flow, I mean the bars don't really link up. Although I get what he's talking about, some of the bars don't connect. It's kind of hard to explain. Try to think of a strip, compiled of different pieces, and you rearrange them or take pieces for another and force them into that one.
Oh, okay. It doesn't really need to though. That's why his rhyme pattern in the track is interesting. Plenty of MCs do that. It's better than rhyming with a simple meter and only rhyming the last syllable or word in each bar. The way the pattern switches imo was dope but each their own....
Wastelands sounds more like a Living Things song than a Meteora song. It might have been a leftover track from the Living Things era.