Alright S TIER Good Things Go Overflow The Emptiness Machine Up from the Bottom A TIER Cut the Bridge Stained Over Each Other B TIER Casualty Unshatter IGYEIH C TIER Heavy Is The Crown Two Faced
I'll play too. S TIER Casualty Overflow A TIER Two Faced IGYEIH The Emptiness Machine B TIER Up from the Bottom Cut the Bridge Good Things Go C TIER Over Each Other Stained Heavy Is the Crown D TIER Unshatter The hype of "Good Things Go" has really worn off on me. I was tempted to put it in C tier honestly. I also feel "Stained" hasn't held up for me. Conversely, I've warmed up to "Heavy Is the Crown" more.
Except for Stained, I feel the exact same way Was tempted to put HITC in B category, but in the end, decided to keep it in C with OEO and CTB. I feel those 3 are very close in term of quality. I think what gives me extra appreciation for HITC is how well it translates live, and how much hype it gets from the crowds.
12. Over Each Other 11. Stained 10. Up From the Bottom 9. Unshatter 8. Good Things Go 7. Cut the Bridge 6. Overflow 5. The Emptiness Machine 4. Heavy is the Crown 3. IGYEIH 2. Casualty 1. Two Faced And if you want to know why the colors are what they are, their based on how the colors are arranged on the text color pallette
Enough time has passed. The rankings within each tier are somewhat malleable depending on the day, but also pretty set in stone. I cannot believe how consistent and repayable these songs are. Not a single bad or even mediocre track to be found. Good Things Go Let You Fade The Emptiness Machine Overflow ------------------- Unshatter Cut the Bridge Heavy is the Crown Casualty ------------------- Stained IGYEIH ------------------- Up From the Bottom Two Faced Over Each Other
Couldn't agree more. FZ consistency has been remarkably high. And somehow it feels like the new line-up hasn't peaked yet. But the foundations are hella solid. May as well give my final ranking, I guess S TIER Casualty Overflow IGYEIH Let You Fade A TIER Two Faced Stained B TIER The Emptiness Machine Good Things Go Up From The Bottom C TIER Cut The Bridge Heavy Is The Crown Over Each Other Unshatter
Updating this from last month to add in 'Let You Fade' S TIER The Emptiness Machine Up from the Bottom Good Things Go Let You Fade Overflow A TIER Cut the Bridge Stained Over Each Other B TIER Casualty IGYEIH Unshatter C TIER Heavy Is The Crown Two Faced
S TIER: A TIER: Overflow The Emptiness Machine B TIER: Cut The Bridge IGYEIH Casualty Stained Good Things Go C TIER: Over Each Other Let You Fade Unshatter Two Faced D TIER: Up From The Bottom Heavy Is The Crown Controversial take, but none of the songs from the album are S tier for me. S tier for me are Papercut, Numb, In Pieces, Burning In The Skies... songs that I listen to after 15-20 years, and I still get chills or some kind of emotion. It's not only about the song composition, but the whole picture including vocals and how they sound and how it makes me feel.
S TIER Heavy Is The Crown Good Things Go Unshatter Overflow Two Faced IGYEIH A TIER Casualty The Emptiness Machine Let You Fade B TIER Over Each Other Up From The Bottom C TIER Cut The Bridge D TIER Stained
S TIER IGYEIH Overflow The Emptiness Machine Let You Fade A TIER Two Faced Cut the Bridge Up From the Bottom B TIER Casualty Good Things Go Stained C TIER Heavy is the Crown Over Each Other Unshatter
So I got a bit curious and checked on some of the "mass" opinions on Reddit - may my soul ever recover. It's interesting to notice, by far, the songs that come back again and again as, supposedly, the weakest of the records are (with some common criticisms) Casualty - Too heavy, too shouty, too try-hard Stained - Too pop, too much "Rihana/Katy Perry/Insert 2010 pop start", too commercial Cut The Bridge - Too repetitive, too much Bleed It Out Over Each Other - Too pop, too repetitive Overflow - Too boring, too much "car commercial" (ouch) I find this quite interesting actually. I've been thinking for a long time that what most people look after in LP are "middle-of-the-spectrum" anthemic songs, as those seem to be the most popular among the fanbase. TEM, UFTB, and GTG rarely if ever gets quoted as low points. CTB kind of would belong to that category too, at least in my head, but I guess the similarities with BIO sometimes put it under troubles. Yet, it's still a song that's wildly popular, as the Spotify numbers and the crowd reactions at shows proves it. That said, some of the above criticism, I never quite understand Especially the kind of "Heavy for heavy sake", "Experimental for experimental sake". I mean, yeah, that could be right. Casualty was literally born because Brad wanted the band to go more nuts on one song... I feel that very experimental or very "heavy" songs, for a band like LP, will not often spontaneously appear while composing, unless they really want to intentionally lean on more extreme or uncomfy ideas. Bit of a dumb illustration, but if someone happens to sing in the shower, it will rarely be "LET ME OUUUT!!!" - at least I hope for the neighbors. More melodic and/or anthemic approach is what tend to naturally come first in a lot of people's musical imagination. More experimental ideas, or more extreme ideas, may often come from the intentional desire to step out of that comfort zone, and see where that leads. So indeed, a bit "for the sake of it". But does it matter when the final product slaps? There it is for my random rambling of the day ^^
Art is subjective and people's tastes are different, but this is just wrong. I guess they like Heavy Is The Crown and Two-Faced?
Yeah those two seem pretty popular That also matches with the stream counts. Fits though. Old formula, anthemic, on the louder end of the medium spectrum, but not going too far with it either. Hit machines.
Kinda ironic how the nu-metal LP fans criticizing songs for being repetitive, while every single song on HT/M has the exact same chorus copy pasted 3 times.
I'm not gonna include the bonus tracks yet since I haven't listened to them enough times. The Emptiness Machine: This song seems in need of defense as many people here don't consider it one of the best. In my opinion, this song reached the perfect "middle ground" point of everything that makes Linkin Park good. The melodies are all incredibly catchy (without being too repetitive or overly poppy and irritating), the riffs are perfectly produced (although in and of itself the main riff is pretty basic and not one of my "favorite riffs"), Emily's entrance into the song is at the perfect moment and provides the "dynamic" aspect that takes the song to the next level, Mike's vocals are smooth as hell and I'm a huge nerd about Mike's singing voice, and the song crescendos exactly as it should. On top of that, the drumbeat is pretty infectious too, at least to me as a drummer. This song still just WORKS for me the best out of any of the songs on the album, and is in my top 15 of their songs in general. I wouldn't change anything about it; it still wows me every time, whether I listen to the regular version, instrumental version, or even acapella version. This song 100% deserved its massive commercial success, and I hope it remains in their top 5 since it's superior to any of the other songs in their top 10 Spotify IMO. Overflow: I particularly love that Mike harmony in the second verse, where he sings "the ground is shaking as it opens up to pull me in, fall into oblivion". Good Things Go: Best guitar work on the album. Great vocals and harmonies too. IGYEIH: Just listen to the drums and riffs in this song. I wish the outro was a little less repetitive, but I kinda don't really mind it nowadays. Stained. The chorus doesn't quite hit that "perfect medium" in terms of melody like TEM does, and it ends up being slightly irritating, but I was able to move past that pretty easily, since the vocals and production and riffs and everything in this song is just so good. Heavy Is the Crown. Great song with a top tier breakdown and Emily scream, but the chorus is just lacking any sort of really "soaring melody" that brings me back to most post-Meteora Linkin Park songs. Two Faced. I absolutely love the guitar riffage in this song, the broken scream at the beginning, and the extremely catchy chorus. However Mike's rap verses are some of his weakest from a flow standpoint, and the bridge is just a clear copy of One Step Closer's. Over Each Other. Lovely song. Nothing against it. Just not as great as some of the other songs. Casualty. I've come to really like Mike's vocals in this song (both his yelling and his rapping), but this song is just missing any sort of melody or interesting chord progression or anything that really draws me to it unless I'm in a specific mood. Cut the Bridge. This is kind of painful since I do like this song (particularly the extremely infectious CUT IT DOWN CUT IT DOWN DOWN chant part), but I've always found Mike's vocal bends in the bridge section (the "something in my head feels broken" and other similar lines) to sound really "off". I've heard others say they think it's one of Mike's best performances, which is crazy IMO. It sounds almost intentionally bad to me.
Very fair breakdown @Tocaraca , it was a fun read! In all fairness, TEM is the song of this cycle. On my end, think it's one that I've overplayed a bit, but it's a great track nonetheless. I also see the point with Casualty. It's not a melody-based song, more like structured chaos that focus on groove and unleashed aggression. As you say, doesn't fit every mood. I'm one of those who's a big fan of the bridge in CTB Mike vocals do indeed feel intentionally raw and unperfect, but I think it gives the song almost like a pop punk edge. I don't know, I like it a lot, but I've seen comments there and there about those vocals being annoying. I guess I understand.