I'm 18. Yes, the lyrics aren't great. I just like the sound of the album. The screams and stuff. That's what I like about that album.
I can barely listen to to Meteora anymore. It's pretty bad in terms of production and most of the lyrics are cringe-worthy to me now. It's sad because Meteora used to be my shit back when I was between the age of 13-15. It gradually lost its appeal over the years. I'm 22 now btw.
It did it's purpose for me (making me a fan) and will always be special to me because this and Collision Course is how I first heard them. But, they kept me around as a fan because of the great work on Minutes To Midnight and A Thousand Suns.
I always felt Meteora would be better had it not been so overproduced. Chester's vocals are layered so much it just kills it and Rob's drum work is barely heard in Easier to Run. Maybe if they strip it a little bit, or even remaster it and give it a little bit more rawness then maybe it would be a little more bareable.
There's no such thing as "over-produced". It's "pop" and it was produced and mixed like a pop record. Same with Hybrid Theory. That's what Don Gilmore is good for...but Andy Wallace didn't do the greatest job mixing this record.
I don't get the person who said they loved how raw Linkin Park was back in the HT and Meteora days. I don't think they were raw at all, but very layered. I think Minutes to Midnight is their rawest album and What I've Done is their rawest track. When I heard WID for the first time - yeah I was 8, but I was old enough to get it - the first thing that came into my mind is how rawer it is than their work before. Also, Chester mentioned this: "The lyrics in the first verse are 'In this farewell, there's no blood, there's no alibi,' and right away, you'll notice that the band sounds different: The drums are much more raw, the guitars are more raw and the vocals aren't tripled. It's just us out there." Just proves my point.
I think it was a great album. It doesn't matter to me that it was the same as HT. All that matters is that I personally enjoyed the songs it had to offer and that's all the matters to me.
One person's overproduced is another person's close attention to detail. I never cared for listening to lyrics - I still couldn't sing to a number of LP songs - but I like Meteora for how it sounds. 23 btw.
Here's my take on all songs on Meteora: Great: Numb - catchy, emotional, great melody Faint - killer riff, killer chorus, killer bridge, catchy, great beat Breaking The Habit - epic, original, great lyrics From The Inside - heavy and melodic, emotional Good: Nobody's Listening - original, great lyrics Session - original, unconventional Figure 09 - catchy, great riffs, great flow OK: Lying From You - great riff, ok lyrics Meh: Don't Stay - great scratching, great drums, negative points for trying to be One Step Closer Hit The Floor - instrumental is good, so is chorus, bad flow Somewhere I Belong - good instrumental, annoying chorus and bad lyrics Easier To Run - Crawling wannabe
I loved it when it was first released (I was 14 then). It hasn't aged well at all for me. I listened to it the other night along with their other main albums and it just sounded very weak. Any creative points it gets for stuff like Session, SIB intro, NL flute, great riffage etc. are really neutered by the formulaic structures & weak lyrics. Looking at the poll, with over 50% saying it's "great" to "the best", people can now stop saying LPA hates Meteora. Also, I still really want to hear the reggae vibed demo of Don't Stay. Fingers crossed for next LPU.
I've never heard that the original demo had a reggae vibe. I'd definitely love to hear that one in the future!
Yup, and it was called "Sick". I remember when I first read that in the booklet of Meteora I thought that version would be way cooler, even though I was 14 and hated reggae, just because it would be so different to the rest of their songs.
Great album, but I can't call it the "best". Actually I don't say it for any of LP albums. I love them all, and each of them has differences.
At the time I thought it was pretty groundbreaking, probably their most diverse album to date, everything from heavy metal to hip-hop, techno, drum and bass, pop rock, i'm hoping the next album will be similar and have the same energy across the whole spectrum.
So, for me it's like this. Hybrid Theory > Meteora > A Thousand Suns > Minutes to Midnight, as far as the quality is concerned. A Thousand Suns > Meteora > Hybrid Theory > Minutes to Midnight, as far as the sound and personal likeness is concerned. Yeah, I think I like it.