But did you see the crowd's reaction as soon as the intro transitioned into the actual song? Who cares of LP made a nu-metal-esque song, it's a superb track that gets me pumped everytime I hear it. This album is known as a "firecracker" record, they don't need 1 minute introductions and weird structures. They went back to a simple formula that they knew worked. That's why they seperated Tinfoil and Powerless. No need for a 1-minute introduction, especially if it's going to be a radio single. Skin To Bone, Until It Breaks, and Roads Untraveled however have odd structures that are less v/c/v/c/b/c/o, so your argument falls flat. This album is excellent. A taste of new and old. You'd probably hear Lost In The Echo and Lies Greed Misery on HT/Meteora, I'll Be Gone on MTM, and Until It Breaks or Skin To Bone on ATS. It's a blend of new and old, with some folk incorporated pushing the bar even higher.
I like LT, it's one of my favourite from the band but this time, Jack's right. The demo is far better than the finished product. The final product is just a "throw a bone to the Old Skool fans" song. I don't say I don't like it. Just the demo had so much potential to be an amazing ambient song or whatever. Instead we got a Meteora-style song. And about the songs: I don't want LP2003, I don't want radio single's, I don't want "simple formulas that they knew worked." And I don't want Nu-metal eseque songs. (Like LITE) I want weird structures, 10 minute introduction, experimenting and nothing from the old sound.
Not even that, but they should have at least kept the folky songs sounding somewhat folky (COG, RU and STB). Their final versions are nothing folk at all. Kind of sucks because I would have absolutely loved to hear those.
You're viewing stuff from the point of view of a simple "radio-single" fan. With the potential LP have to make fucking GREAT songs they decided to make songs that a gazillion other people who dare call themselves musicians and actually make money off it have done. This is the lazy way out. I recently read that Mike or Chester, I don't remember well which one said it, thought they had "exhausted" the political/social issues and now wanted to speak about their "feelings". I'm sorry, I must have missed how songs like Iridescent, Waiting for the End, The Messenger, Burning in the Skies, Robot Boy and Blackout don't do that. Especially Blackout, seeing how the TRULY superb freestyle Chester had done was ditched for "You said it's not what it seems". How can my argument fall flat? 7 out of 11 songs are V/C/V/C/B/C. Of the other 4, one song repeats the exact same shit over and over again and has fifth-grade rhymes. One is 4 GREAT demos they didn't want to work on anymore put together for the sake of having another song. Another had enormous potential to be an epic anthem and even had group vocals, but no, hey, "Victimized, never again". The only one that I can say really was an effort to break out was Roads Untraveled. They worked on good lyrics and strayed away from the conventional stuff that's fed to people who listen to the radio. What pisses me off the most is the 180 degree turn they took. 2010 Phoenix stressed that VCVCBC was boring, yet 2012 one seemingly is fine with 7/11 songs like that. Or going back to relationship stuff when they clearly showed that they could talk about their feelings in an elaborate, non-cliche way. It's speaking about the crap Warner signed them to speak about 10 years ago, after breaking a shitload of boundaries. Singing in Japanese is breaking boundaries. Having a complete section out of nowhere with Middle Eastern-styled singing is breaking boundaries. Saying "Fuck you" to Warner and releasing The Catalyst as the first single is breaking boundaries. Not rapping about teenage stuff. I don't see how this album has pushed the bar. To me, lots of it is just wasted potential.
Calm down, the band was just trying to make some to bridge the gap between all their albums and bringing back some of the old formula is just part of that, you don't have be so self-righteousness with your music tastes. You should just be happy for the band, you can really tell from all the LPTV's and making of videos that that band was more comfortable and was having more fun with recording while the ATS ones had the band on edge and stressed out.
It could've been better, but then so could the next album. No, I'm pretty happy with this one. In fact there are songs that I hated at first and have really grown on me. Skin to Bone is one of them, strangely enough.
What I want from LP is a step forward on every album. Never looking back at their old work for inspiration.
I have the strange feeling that for some people, "step forward" only means what they want LP to be in regards to their music tastes: electro-pop-hip hop-folk- acoustic- alt rock. Face it, if LP went screamo, Electro Hardcore, or polka, you woudnl't call it a step forward, even if the music was innovating, weird, and different.
Not true at all. I dislike Victimized, for example, but I really respect the fact that they did something they've never tried before. I'd rather them preserve their artistic integrity and push themselves rather than just make shit to please everyone, like In My Remains, which I actually really like. So bring on the polka-metal. I guarantee you, most of the people bitching would be the same ones who haven't stopped for around seven years now.
Here's the thing, though. Contentment makes for boring fucking music. I'm pretty sure that the guys in Nickelback are perfectly happy with their station in life because they know that despite all the vitriol leveled against them, they'll still have hundreds of thousands of people who'll happily gobble up their flavor of fly-over rock. Deftones released possibly their best album after their bassist went into a coma. Lupe Fiasco recorded The Cool while dealing with the death of his father and the imprisonment of his business partner. When writing Sgt. Pepper, the Beatles became exhausted with touring and set out to make a record that wouldn't merely satisfy their fanbase and with Let it Be, the Beatles had to deal with Phil Spector. Art through adversity.
My buddy swore by Hybrid Theory and Meteora for the past few years. He said MTM was for pussies, and ATS was an attempt to stand-out. I always got in these debates with him, because I love all of their styles. LIVING THINGS comes along, and he said Burn It Down was okay. The album came out, and he was all over it. His favorite song ended up being "Until It Breaks". Weird, right? This album is awesome. I'm a huge ATS fan, but since when does radio structure and "going a step back" hurt the quality of the music? If A Thousand Suns never came out and this was the album instead (even though they said ATS helped them do this, as well as the others), you would like it. Stop bitching that this isn't A Thousand Suns 2 because honestly it was nice to take the politics and speeches out of the music and just have a solid record that I can listen to while cleaning, walking, running, lifting at the gym, playing xbox, and eating food. I don't feel like listening to The Requiem - The Messenger every damn time I play ATS, and that playthrough is optional I know, but still... it's better played the way they want it to be played. If this was ATS2 people would bitch anyway. My friend told me to sign up for these forums, but everyone seems so damn unsatisfied. Smile and be happy for once.
Yes, it did disappoint. They said it was a firecracker record, that they wanted fast paced songs to keep live shows entertaining and not drag. The only firecrackers on the record are: LITE LIES GREED MISERY VICTIMIZED and even still, VICTIMIZED is really short. It is a disappointing album for me because of this and also because it lacks emotion. I can safely say I love every song on the past 4 albums, but LIVING THINGS seems 70% filler to me.
Two problems with this: 1. By the time Phil Spector came along, the Beatles had already broken up, so there was no "dealing with him" to be had. 2. Art through adversity, that is their time together from 1967 onward was what caused the band to break up. Let It Be almost didn't happen for that very reason; that's why they called in Phil Spector in the first place, was to fix up and release an unusable recording session. So no, it's not a foolproof philosophy.
I was quite thoroughly disappointed by Living Things. Don't get me wrong there are many greats tracks on here and the sound is something no other band could replicate. It follows the exact same formula as Hybrid Theory and Meteora, two great albums also. I just felt like with these albums though that Linkin Park didn't push themselves. Minutes to Midnight and A Thousand Suns, while different, were two huge steps in the right direction. They were innovative, daring and challenging to listen to. I felt blown away by the level of detail and passion in both albums. Then when Living Things was released I just felt like they knew what they could achieve and went back to playing it safe. Living Things is a simple quick fix for 6-12 months, there is no substance or 'blow me away' tracks to it. I hope they use this sound they've created though and push themselves again with it with their next album, if they do that, we will definitely know what Linkin Park are capable of.
At the first time I heard "Living Things", I wasn't really into the album. But after about one week, I listened again and the song that touched my heart first was "Roads Untravelled". And I love this album, though some songs like "In My Remains" and "Victimized" bored me. Anyway, though I am a Hybrid Theory fan, I don't think this album is disappointed. It's worth for my wait.
LT is the only album that I don't have the same sort of unconditional love for like I do the others. I listened to Meteora and minutes last night for the first time in a few months and it always is surprising to me how attached I still get. After all these years. So its not to say I don't like it. It just doesn't hold the same place in my heart like the other 4.
^^^ That unconditional love is normally called nostalgia, which takes time to develop... What I find speaks volumes about the music in Living Things is how passionate and excited the band is about playing it live. You NEVER saw the band this passionate about playing The Catalyst or Waiting for the End for example or any other song from A Thousand Suns for that matter. Whether I'm listening to the DSPs or watching pro-shot videos, the highlight of the show is Lost in the Echo, simply because the band is clearly having a blast when they play it. There's almost a garageband-jamming sensation to it when you look at how dynamic they are, whether it's Chester or even Joe who's been a bump on the log for the last 8 years on tour. The same can be said for Victimized, In My Remains, and Lies Greed Misery. Even Burn It Down shows enough of that passion. The point is, what everyone is failing to recognize is that what's considered "boring and uninspired" to the haters here is seen as "fresh and exciting" for Linkin Park. No matter what degrading remarks come out about the band "going backwards", clearly the guys wanted to make this kind of music at this time in their lives, otherwise the stage performance would be downright abysmal, and the setlists would incorporate a LOT more from MtM and ATS.
The album has re-grown on me. It was a 6/10 a few weeks ago when I last posted in this thread, and now it's back to around 9/10. What did it? Why, listening to the album in surround sound of course.