In Perspectve: Numb

So I know that Meteora is not the big thing on everyone's mind now-a-days, and I know it certainly is not the pick for best Linkin Park album here on the LPA, but, I was listening to it yesterday and something had crossed my mind.

The way the CD ends, as all of you know, is with the song Numb. I always had this idea that the song was about a relationship with a parent or with a significant other. In this relationship, it's about losing your self identity to appease what another person wants you to be. I always interpreted the meaning of the song as regaining your identity back, thus becoming Numb to what the person wants you to be.

Last night I kind of had a revelation. I looked at the song as if the band was writing it to us, the fans. After Meteora, The band started making music that they wanted to write, instead of trying to fit the mold of what kind of label was given to them. Thinking that the band wrote the song to the fans kind of blew my mind. It was like they were telling us at the end of Meteora that they were changing direction. I know that the song was one of the last to be written for the album, right before they entered the studio. Do you think that Numb was written as a send off? Does this make sense to anyone else?

Here's the lyrics if you'd like to digest what I just suggested:

 

While it's a really interesting way to look at the song, I don't think Numb really had any particular experience or exact influence behind it, especially considering that the band really didn't seem to have their "mentality shift" happen until closer to Minutes To Midnight. A lot of the songs they wrote back then during Hybrid Theory/Meteora were deliberately open ended with the intention of being interpreted any way the fans wished to interpret them. It's what made Linkin Park brilliant songwriters, because their lyrics were written to appeal to general emotions rather than their own exact personal problems (just like to Chester, "Crawling" is about his drug battles, but to others it's about feeling insecure in your own skin). So no, I don't think Numb has an exact meaning or was directed to the fans, although it certainly takes on a whole new meaning given what has happened to the band since that point.

 

Yeah, they started writing an album that was basically in the old style and if I remember right from the documentary, Rick Rubin asked them if they were truly making the music they wanted to make, or the music people expected them to make. It pretty much came down to the fact that the band was creating the same album (Hybrid Theory) over and over again because they thought that was the only way their fans would accept them. Once they got past that mindset and stepped out of the box, that's when they experimented with their sound and most fans (except the A THOUSAND SUNS SUCKS FB group) accepted the changes and the band progressed past there.

 

If I recall Rick pretty much said to them (not an exact quote, more paraphrasing here) that "if you want to make an album that sounds like you're last two records than I'm not interested in producing", which really caught their interest because it was clear he wanted them to evolve as a band. Rick is very hands off during the album process (letting bands basically come up with their own sound) but he's become notorious as a go to guy for bands to reinvent themselves/try something new, because he pushes bands to push the envelope and not tread back on the same old path they did before. He hardly ever actually puts his hand in the music, but he's one of the best and most respected producers out there because he pushes for artistic integrity. He's not afraid to be blunt and tell a band that he's "heard that song before" or that something sucks, because he wants artists to reach their full potential. Rubin is a gift to this band, because any other producer would've let the band keep making the same record again, again and again.

 

Yeah he's not exactly responsible for changing their sound (he was mostly hands off during MTM/ATS) but he did teach them different ways to go about recording music, and how to embrace their own creativity rather than do what everyone else wanted them to do. It can be argued based on that, that he indirectly is to thank for Linkin Park evolving as a band.

 

To be honest, Numb is still one of my favorite Linkin Park songs. There's no reason, it's just a good song to me.

Anyhow, I agree completely that Rick has been the key to pushing Linkin Park to use their full potential. I feel like this upcoming album will be the first truly Linkin Park album where they're completely comfortable. Minutes to Midnight was just Linkin Park being pushed (by Rick and Mike) to change sounds but the idea of a Linkin Park sound was still there. A Thousand Suns was the band trying to really edge outside of their comfort and change. Now that all this has been done, it feels as if the band is finally comfortable and ready to produce that "long" awaited album where they can utilize their full potential where experimentation and past experience has lead them. They're finally at the point where they can just "make good music"

 

I thought they wrote One Step Closer out of frustration from not being able to figure out the right lyrics to another song? That's at least the way I always understood it .

 

*Backs away slowly*