The End of LP

I'm probably wrong, but based on what you wrote, it's Warner's (partial) fault ATS "didn't sell a million copies".

 

It should be up to Linkin Park™ to put their foot down and tell the label that all this promotion is damaging their image, it's making them look like sellouts, it's putting down the intelligence of their fans and the album itself is spitting in the face of everything they set out to accomplish on Minutes and A Thousand Suns.

Brad is not to blame, Mike has messed up Linkin Park™'s work process and now the sound and originality are gone, the open minded band we heard on Minutes To Midnight will not return all the time Mike's ego complex is in full swing, we barely see Brad, Rob or Phoenix making any contribution.

On A Thousand Suns, we saw the whole band contributing to the songs, Rob had a large part in writing Little Things Give You Away, now he's just a session musician, his beats are barely anywhere to be seen, the beats are all done by Mike on a drum machine which lacks energy and relativity to fans of rock music when played live.. then he boasts about the amount of work he puts into Linkin Park™ as if it's his solo project, I remember the following quotes from Mike:

"I wrote 99% of the guitar parts on A Thousand Suns."

"People couldn't tell whether it was me or Chester singing."

"It's human nature to say negative comments rather than positive comments."

Mike has turned into a hypocrite:

During the making of A Thousand Suns:
Mike "I don't any of that What I've Done shit."
Then 2 years later the band make I'll Be Gone.

What annoys me more than anything is not the lack of soul this album has, but the self indulgent, arrogant nature which I take away from it.. As if Linkin Park (or Mike) is aware that they are good, rather than letting their fans make the decision:

"I'll be laying on the ground before you're even in my view."

..and even on A Thousand Suns:

"Ya'll oughta stop talking
Start trying to catch up mother fucker
And all the people say
Try to catch up mother fucker."

Self indulgent or what? It comes across in some of these lyrics that Mike is just sticking his finger up to anyone who doesn't like the new music, he forgets that music is subjective and we can think whatever the fuck we want, calling us motherfucker and 'insignificant' because we don't like the new music.
Let the fans make their own minds up, and stop trying to tell us how to perceive your album, it feels as if everything LP do is labeled and conceptualized by the band.

Then on the other hand we have a great song about spirituality and goodwill: Castle Of Glass, which is then used to promote a video game about war! In exchange for funding on the music video.

Along with the Linkin Park Shoes™, Transformers™, Linkin Park Music Software™, Linkin Park iPhone apps™, Linkin Park iPad games™ is there anything Linkin Park does now that doesn't have a means to an end of maximizing profit?

Stop insulting the fans, Linkin Park™ is a franchise.

 

This is dead wrong. Mike was talking about the lead single of ATS when he said that. Also, if I remember right, the quote is: "I'm not onto some What I've Done shit."

Anyway, I personally believe Mike is a good guy. As Derek said, Brad or Phi don't want to stand out. Also, Rob did work on Living Things. Did you see any of the LPTV-s? I'm sure everyone participate as much as they want to, and sometimes step up with ideas (Rob's drums on Powerless and Brad's singing on Until It Breaks).

 

Yeah cause people keep asking about it, so he addresses them.

 

I do agree with some things in this thread (lack of motivation for live shows, annoying advertising, LT cycle being weak in spots), but, seriously, I think it's totally unfair to doubt LP motivations as a band because of LT sound. And I'm saying this while I'm not the biggest fan of Living Things.

But come on. LP not making ATS 2 doesn't mean they made Living Things because of label pressure. They simply wanted to make short energetic songs again. They've explained this tons of times, and Chester even said he wanted this record to be uptempo from day one. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure LT sound was their decision. Those who aren't believing this...well, sorry, but a lot of you sound frustrated. I hope I'm not offensive by saying this, and that's not my goal, but it's like you can't accept the direction LP took this time. Ironic , since most of you claimed during ATS era that nu-metal fans had to accept LP new direction. Now, it's you that can't accept LP changing their sound again.

And don't tell me otherwise. I can point out threads that were discussed before LT leak, when all we knew about that 5th record was that it was going to be firecracker. I can quote posts from some people here that were disappointed by the "firecracker" announcement. Yes. We didn't had a single clue of the style of the record, yet some people were dissapointed because it was going to be "firecracker". Sorry, but this pretty much sounds like some people are not open to energetic music and think only mellow progressive music deserve recognition as art. And if LP doesn't deliver what they're looking for, then, it must be because of label pressure...

 

That's right. They chose between The Catalyst and "Meadowlands"(Waiting For The End). Brad wanted to work more on The Catalyst and to make a radio edit of it but that was when Mike said that "that's not gonna happen".
Just to clear thing up.
And yeah, Mike's a cool guy, he hasn't got big ego, as he said in the MOATS everyone waited from him to make demos. The Inside Living Things is not shows everything. Brad was the one was with Chester when they started recording vocals for Burn It Down, he made his part for UIB in his home studio. We don't know how much stuff from Mike or from the other guys but no, Mike isn't a hypocrite or asshole.

 

I thought Brad was the one who likes (liked?) to play it safe and write songs for radio?

 

So what is Living Things direction? Let's try and imagine the initial meeting for Living Things, if everything on the album was intentional:

Mike: "Hey guys I have a great direction for the new album, it will include the following:

• Absolutely no soul or concept to the album, I don't want people feeling immersed by it, fuck that shit

• The worst mixing of our entire career

• Mainstream dance song aimed at young teenagers and advert usage to maximize profit, this will be the lead single

• Half-assed attempt at copying the sound from Meteora and Minutes To Midnight to get old fans attention, you know the ones we told to fuck off with our last two albums?

• All sounds produced 90% on my laptop, fuck organic sounds that connect to humans

• We'll have a really heavy song, our heaviest song ever! But we'll make it impossible to play on drums live, angering any fan of metal

• My most basic rapping yet

Chester: "Awesome! Will it sound good live?"

Mike: "No fucking way! Half of it will be impossible to play live without 6 separate samplers anyway!"

Phoenix: "You know what? Fuck it, i'm done trying to get you guys to be sensible, i'll just continue looking cool and be the fan favourite after you guys screw everything up."

 

Great post. Summed up what I wanted to say really well.

 

And I don't think anyone in this thread has done that (Edit: Maybe DyingThing. Just maybe). If they have, then yes, that is unfair.

I'm kind of sad that this is sort of turning into the "why Linkin Park sucks" thread. Again, I don't think that the band making a poppy album is, in and of itself, a sign that the band is mailing it in a bit. It's the fact that they made a poppy album, plus the lack of new songs live, the side projects, plus all the Linkin Park branding onto random stuff to sell to the fans, just makes me wonder if maybe they're bored. That's all.

 

I just said it to anyone who was willing to listen, lol. I've listened to all types of music since I was a kid (still kinda one in my head) LP became my favorite band for a long time. I loved the way they kept changing their style. Well this is how I feel. *nods* Umm I kinda stuck on my soapbox. Alittle help here, lol.

 

Bah. You prooved me you didn't accept LT direction since you're happily bashing it, that's already one thing I was right about Don't get me wrong, LT is far from being my favorite LP record. But I'm trying to be fair about this, and not putting the fault on label pressure or any crazy shit like this.

Now I know I misinterpreted this, but

This part (and some other posts) got me into writing my post. It sounded like you were doubting LP musical integrity because they released quickly a more radio-friendly record than ATS. Which made you have fears about LP motivations for their career. At least, that's how it came off to me.

Also, Derek admitted he had hard time in believing LT sound was LP decision.

Thanks

 

Burn It Down isn't exactly dance. Electronic =/= dance.

 

Exactly. I think the only thing you can call Dance are the 3 or 4 remixes of Burn It Down from the subscription.

 

There is so much stupidity in these posts (and a majority of your other posts throughout this forum) that I honestly can't address them all. But I'll just say this, you have a tendency to take things out-of-context, make assumptions no one could possibly know except the band, and mix subjective and objective criticisms. In addition to a lack of respect for the band. I don't understand how anyone who likes a band enough to be on a fansite can be so disrespectful just because they don't like an album. It's childish. Along with your knack for hyperbolizing, I can't help but be reminded of all those butthurt nu-metal fanboys that have come and gone over the years.

 

I in no way think that there's no soul (Powerless) or creativity (UIB, CoG, STB) on Living Things. I also am not TOO bothered by all the products and commercial stuff, they've always been like that, they are a huge band. Maybe it was a little much this time around, but I think that has more to do with the randomness and confusion that has come from marketing and promoting this album. It's been everywhere. The boots, the software(?), the computer, Medal of Honor, LPRecharge (wtf happened to that?), the Honda Civic tour that missed big chunks of the country, the lack of singles being released in a sensible way (never once heard LITE ANYWHERE), and all the rest. It just got very confusing and very overwhelming in a short span of time.

Also, apparently the Honda Civic Tour was LP's highest grossing tour EVER, so it confuses me as to why they'd ditch the idea of a second U.S. run when they are on such a high note. It'd be better even if they did just head back into the studio after this current run of shows, and continue working, but do a short U.S. tour after Japan for like a fall / winter tour maybe. And debut new songs then. Idk.

I've just mainly been confused by the fact that the band WAS legitimately excited for this record (whether or not it was good doesn't matter), and have talked up about making the shows exciting again (which I personally think they've succeeded at) and all that, but have seemingly dropped the ball on making this cycle a true success.