"Session" - Song by Song, Let's Talk Linkin Park

Discussion in 'Linkin Park Chat' started by hawk, Jul 2, 2014.

  1. TEGCRocco

    TEGCRocco The LPL Invader

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    This song acts as a perfect ending to this album. While The Catalyst is a chaotic, almost panicked song, The Messenger is more mellow and optimistic, inspiring people to stand back up after you've been pushed down. Had The Catalyst closed the album, I don't think the album would have felt complete, and would have ended on a very negative note (in tone, not in terms of song quality). The Messenger helps make the album feel more like a complete story with a true ending, rather than just a collection of songs that are loosely connected.
     
  2. UltimateLegend

    UltimateLegend Well-Known Member

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    I missed Iridescent. Just want to say that it is likely my favorite song by the band. I love the lyrics and how the song goes from a somewhat minimalistic style to a full blown alt rock anthem.

    Now, The Messenger. Even though it does seem like one of the biggest mixed bags opinion-wise in the band's entire discography, I love the song. I like how it is so simple and stripped back unlike the rest of the album. It feels so concluding and it's the perfect way to end the album.
     
  3. Michele

    Michele Praise Brad Delson, our Lord and Savior. LPA Addict

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    The Messenger is one of my favorite songs and maybe Chesters best vocal performance for me. So emotional and powerful. Everytime i listen to this song i amgine the cover of the ATS deluxe. It shows perfectly for me the meaning of the song. There is hope in a world of darkness. And thats why this song fits perfectly after The Catalyst , the chaotic apocalypse of A Thousand Suns. From The Requiem to The Catalyst ATS goes through chaotic moments and silent moments, a storm is brewing, a big one. Sometimes it grows bigger (WTCFM, Blackout, Wretched And Kings) and sometimes its slow down (Burning In The Skies, Robot Boy, Waiting For The End, Iridescent) to end up in a tornado, who comes to destroy all living existence, called The Catalyst, just to make place for the peace after the war, The Messenger. The song that shows the hope , people couldnt find in a world of destruction , if they feel alone and lost in desperation, when they are Waiting For The End to come in a blackout, while Wretched And Kings are ruling the world. Not only Chesters voice is perfect, Brads acoustic playing is heaven to me and become more epic with Mikes piano. I need more acoustic songs from this guys. The lyrics are also one of the best LP has ever written. I cant believe now that i thought Meteora had good lyrics :lol:


    Yeah , my first concert ever and a LP concert was great. Back to The Messenger. This was awesome. One of my favorite concert moments of all time. :cry: Chesters voice is so strong in this one and live the song sounds more... dont know how to call it, but maybe... simple. There is just Chesters voice, Brads guitar playing and Mike on the keyboard and this is so amazing
    . Simple , i cried :cry: Yeah , its not a high energetic song some people want to hear live, but this one needs to come back into the set, because its so damn amazing live. I saw this video really often and it got me every time :cry: Especially Chesters and OUR "awwws" and the drumming at the end. So amazing. Love how Rob add them to the live performance. For me this is the best The Messenger performance, but i think its mostly because i can connected to the show :)

    All in all this shows, that The Messenger is an really simple but emotional track that is for me a highlight in Linkin Parks discographie and it has the best vocal performance Chester did on a record so far.

    Sadly its now over with discussion about ATS, my personal favorite record. My favorite and most personal album.
    As i bought the album i wasnt in thhis kind of love with it, ok i felt it was something different and cool tracks, but it had to grow on me to realize, that this is THE RECORD. Great lyrics, great sounds,great songs, great band. A masterpiece in Linkin Parks discography. Also great Artwork. All in all a perfect album you could listen to (weirdly if i listen to this album its mostly from the start to the end, not often single tracks :lol: )

    Filip, you are doing a great job with this posts and it would be sad if you wouldnt continue them (also i wont wrote so much to every song of LT :kappa:). Yeah , sometimes the discussions are missing, i am here with you, but there are so many informations you give us, that sometimes we dont know and thats pretty cool. So hold on the weight of the world, will give you the strenght to go :kappa (yes i know it was mentioned already). I am sure you will surprise us with many more informations and facts we dont know about songs.
     
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  4. Nicholas

    Nicholas Well-Known Member

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    "The Messenger" is one of the few songs where I genuinely prefer the live version. Not that I don't like the studio version (I do!), it's just that I find Chester to be a bit too harsh here. Considering the type of song it is, it feels like Chester is screaming the lyrics and I can't enjoy it as much as I'd like to. That's just my opinion though.

    However, the live version is PERFECT, Chester is much softer there and sounds exactly as I thought he should for the song. Absolutely beautiful live. The song is a great closer for the album too, you get this warm sense of peace and closer to break away from the rest of the album's dark subject matter. I can't really say much about it, but the others here seemed to have captured my sentiments towards the song.

    In short, beautiful closer to an awesome album, and even better live!
     
  5. Atticus

    Atticus Bullets lance the bravest lungs

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    Overall I think The Messenger falls short of the brilliance of much of A Thousand Suns, but as others have pointed out, as an epilogue the song is a beautiful, passionate and intimate affair. I truly do wish that Linkin Park would make more acoustic music because of The Messenger.

    On a side note, I'm really excited to see what people think of Living Things now. Two and a half years later the album seems to have been lost in between the fond memories of A Thousand Suns and the colossal tidal wave of The Hunting Party.
     
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2014
  6. Captain-EO

    Captain-EO Also Prog Nerd Now, Thanks Gibs LPA Super Member

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    Living Things is still one big hunk of meh to me. But I'll save that for the posts.
     
  7. Filip

    Filip god break down the door LPA Contributor

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    Speaking of "The Messenger" artwork (quoting Michele), I love the eagle that represents the song in the ATS booklet.
     
  8. Michele

    Michele Praise Brad Delson, our Lord and Savior. LPA Addict

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    Oh yes, thats awesome. I really love what they did there.
     
  9. minuteforce

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

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    I still wish "The Messenger" had been recorded in a lower key. I'll never understand why the band felt the need for the key to be so high

    I love the song, otherwise; "remember you're loved / and you always will be" is one of my favourite LP lyrics. And seeing it live was pretty cool. :)
     
  10. hawk

    hawk because the internet LPA Super VIP

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    i didn't like the song at first. and then i did. and now i don't again.

    i really don't know why.
     
  11. brady

    brady I am the LPA LPA Super Member

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    #deep

    Anyways, can't say that I'm a fan of the song being sung in a lower key live. Chester, in my opinion, doesn't sound nearly as good when singing this song live in a lower key compared to the original. But I absolutely love how the snares come in near the end during the live version. It's almost like the military-esque drum beat is bringing everyone together.
     
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  12. Tocaraca

    Tocaraca A part of me screams away silently

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    I think the problem is that even though you spend a lot of time and effort writing your posts, some people just simply don't have the time or effort themselves to read your whole post. When the thread was started, Hawk hardly put anything in his post, except the music video and he explained what he thought of it. My solution would be to just not make your posts so long, and give us information but not a massive page of text.
    I love The Messenger. Even though it has it's flaws, if the song was actually sung properly then I would give it 5 stars. I just wish my singing voice was better than it sounds when I record it and listen to it :(
     
  13. hawk

    hawk because the internet LPA Super VIP

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    if anything, tony and filip made this thread so much stronger with their posts. i'd stray away from the shit i was dropping, was lazy af.
     
  14. Tyler

    Tyler Well-Known Member

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    The Messenger is a sweet acoustic song. Easily one of Chester's top vocal performances. Pretty simple instrumentation and solid lyrics. As a closer for ATS, it fits, but I think it would have been nice if there had been one song in between The Catalyst and The Messenger because this seems like a look back at everything and an epilogue. The Catalyst is the Climax and leaves a very brief falling action. For example, Green Day's American Idiot ends with Homecoming as the climax and Whatsername as the look back on the events but Homecoming is 9 minutes of storytelling and it ends there.

    Anyway, still a good song, and I'd like to see another acoustic song soon. I always see on LPlive that there is a "Choir Version" that they did during the ATS sessions. I don't know, but you can faintly hear another vocal track at the end with Chester's "ooh oh"s.

    Live, it's ok, but better for LPU summits than the arenas and freezing outdoor concerts. Chester goes through a lot especially while singing in the cold like in the Madrid video, so he can't nail it in that situation. They do alright in the radio shows when the key is different though.


    About this thread: Yes, please continue everything, even if we just do one song a week. That may make it to a point where the thread is not visibly the most active, but it gives everyone time to check at least once and write their own piece. I know I sit down for a little while to type up my own take on the songs, but you have definitely been putting the most effort into it, and I respect that. Plus if we slow down on the schedule, we will be ending off A Line In The Sand closer to a new release. Had we been following the original 3 day approach, we would be through Living Things (I don't know, I'm estimating here). So let's just see how it goes here.


    Happy New Year to everyone at LP Association!
     
  15. Captain-EO

    Captain-EO Also Prog Nerd Now, Thanks Gibs LPA Super Member

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    What the fuck no. There's so much information to be discovered in Filip's posts. I'm dying in anticipation of the LT posts, because I know little to no trivia about that album, except for Castle of Glass, but I must save that for the discussion... Don't listen to this Filip.
     
    Last edited: Jan 2, 2015
  16. lime treacle

    lime treacle You are not alone Über Member

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    One of the rawest recordings Linkin Park has ever dared put on a studio album, "The Messenger" closes A Thousand Suns as a beautiful epilogue, the message it rather directly conveys being in a sense the message of the album itself, leaving no room for misunderstanding. If it's not perfectly executed, it is indeed perfectly placed.
     
  17. BTorio

    BTorio Well-Known Member

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    I also view it as a kind of bonus track to ATS, The Catalyst is the perfect ending and I don't think The Messenger really belongs where it is. But I do love the song, it's one of the big reasons I got into guitar. I wish Chester sang it differently on the album, his clean performance at the charity event is terrific.
     
  18. Filip

    Filip god break down the door LPA Contributor

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    "Issho Ni" you want, "Issho Ni" you get.


    "Issho Ni" is an instrumental song created by Linkin Park for Download to Donate for Japan, a Music For Relief charity collection of songs made to collect money to aid children affected by the March 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The song's title "Issho Ni", when translated from Japanese, means "we're in this together" or simply "together", a very nice callback to "Not Alone", made a year earlier to benefit those affected by the Haiti earthquake. It was released only eleven days after the earthquake, on March 22, 2011. All the money collected from the Download to Donate for Japan campaign and album went to Save The Children, a charity organization that Music For Relief chose to partner with. The goal of the charity was to help the children affected by the earthquake. The fanbase helped collect over $500,000, as Mike stated in the "Ishinomaki City visit with Save The Children" LPTV episode. The band was also finally recognized for their contributions to disaster relief and other charitable causes, as they recieved a letter from the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon.

    [​IMG]

    Upon the songs release, Mike stated on his blog:

    And remix they did. Mike posted his favorites only a week later, which included remixes by the fanbase-favorites, Xefuzion, Penneysound, zwier.Z., Dmitry Zemtsov and Nairod.

    The song is entirely instrumental, with small bits of echoes, which may be vocals in the background. It was produced by Mike Shinoda entirely, as he mentions on his blog, "it’s an instrumental song that I cooked up this week to benefit the cause." "Issho Ni" starts with sorrowful keyboard sounds soon accompanied by sampled drums, and gives off an A Thousand Suns-like vibe from the very beginning. There are very quiet synths building in the background aswell. The melody continues for a while before the song gets new elements, which is something fans had complained about. Soon enough, there are several keyboards, bass and drums. It provides a movie score-like atmosphere, which fits with the cause of the song well. About two minutes in, the song gets it's Linkin Park moments as it completely explodes with more and more synths appearing, aswell as some distant echoes. It is a moment worth waiting for, and shows how progressive Linkin Park's mindset was during the A Thousand Suns era. The song ends quietly, with only noise and sampled drums. I, personally, feel like vocals wouldn't have fit over this piece, and I'm glad it remained instrumental. What do you think?

    The song was never performed during a live show.

    In addition to "Issho Ni" and the rest of the Download to Donate for Japan, Mike designed two T-Shirts for the cause, one reading the words "NOT ALONE", while the other had a butterfly symbol which definitely left an impact on the fans, as it was frequently referenced in fanart.

    [​IMG]
     
  19. Michele

    Michele Praise Brad Delson, our Lord and Savior. LPA Addict

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    Good Song , love the vibe.

    But honestly it dont go me like Not Alone. Its a good sharity thing of course, but defintly not a song i have to listen to.

    (Sorry for this short post)
     
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  20. BTorio

    BTorio Well-Known Member

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    I honestly don't know if I've ever heard this whole thing until now, I don't remember it ever sounding that "big" in the end. But honestly, the track doesn't do much for me at all. I probably won't listen to again unless it comes up in discussion. I would put it above Drawbar and Tinfoil, though I think Session is still their best instrumental effort. Not Alone is far superior to this imo.
     

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