Original Meteora Ideas

They had alot of cool ideas, but they were all tossed to the side. We all know Breaking The Habit, From The Inside, and Nobody's Listening are creative song's in their own way, but after doing heavy amounts of research, here are some of their original ideas;

Don't Stay: Originally would've had a reggae-style vibe.

Faint: The original speed of this song was cut in half (70bpm).

Figure.09: Would've had singing verses.


I think these all would've helped the songs become more original and better to be honest. This album makes me .

 

I agree. I think it had something to do with the producer of that album, wasn't it's like David Gilmour or something like that? He hasn't really seemed to have worked with them for a while, haha, if you know what I mean, Rick Rubin has been a great help I think.

 

Fair enough, though I absolutely love the album (out of 1600+ its one of my favorites) I agree that a reggae vibe could have potentially helped Don't Stay as it sounds like a very intriguing idea, however it potentially may have came off gimmicky especially toward critics at the time. Though to be honest, I would love to hear that song re-done with this idea implemented into it, always liked "Don't Stay" a lot, it seems to be 99% there, but just missing 1 little thing, maybe that would have pulled it over.

 

Don Gilmore. I didn't think he was a good producer.

 

The demo of Figure.09 is better than the version that made the album, and quite possibly a few of the other songs for good measure. So yeah, if that's any indication Meteora could probably have been miles better than it ended up being.

 

I mean this album gets horrible criticism (even by me) but looking back on the ideas they originally had, it makes me sick knowing we could've listened to Meteora, not Hybrid Theory II.

 

Ah, that's right. Yeah, he wasn't an amazing producer and who knows if he was just another trying to make money off of their sound. It's a possibility. I find it odd he had them rewrite lyrics to songs like 160 times or so, they'd say... That's a little overboard. He must have wanted some really watered down poppy stuff. I would LOVE to hear some of those alternative versions, because I'm sure they were great and possibly tossed on occasion just because of an ignorant producer.

edit: I would like to say, though, that I think they were overall happy with the album and proud of it or else it would have been a drag to perform live for years on end. I'm sure, in the end(lol), they had a lot of say in how the album sounded or they would have been more angry after.

 

Don Gilmore is one of my favorite producers only because he did Hybrid Theory, Meteora, and Swan Songs (Hollywood Undead). On all of them the production was extremely slick and intricate.

 

Hybrid Theory is a really good sounding album, but one of my peeves with Meteora is that in my mind they kind of went overboard with the slickness there.

 

I'm surprised that you love Meteora that much. I love it too, but you seem to be more of a critical member (which is totally fine ) and Meteora is the easiest album to criticize...ever

 

Good to know I'm in good company I don't want to come across as someone who is critical, I love all types of music, ideas, etc.

 

I think you meant Faint doubled its BPM from 70 to ~135.

I think Meteora had better instrumentals than Hybrid Theory. Maybe even a couple songs that can stand up to HT. Oh man, those lyrics were bad though.

 

Reggae Don't Stay? What a way to kick off an album. Just look at how they could have fixed some lyrics and added some more originality and this album would've been hot.

 

I actually blame the mixer for Meteora's sound. It's very crisp but very spacey at some points. Meaning that it absolutely was lacking bass and almost anything low-end that wasn't guitar. It was the 1st album I ever listened to and hated because of the mixing.

 

I actually really like the way Meteora turned out, but I would love to hear what else they came up with. I can't really picture Don't Stay as reggae though...

 

By "heavy amounts of research" you mean reading the Meteora booklet, right?

Agreed on all counts.

He was the labels day to day studio monkey, there to make sure the band kept things within a certain criteria (structures, song lenghts, lyrics) and didn't get to far "out there". It all goes back to the label. They wanted to repeat the commercial success of HT and lets face it, they probably had the band by the balls.

A wise man once said, "The best producer is a transparent producer".
Rubin is that, he gives the artist space, comes in once every few weeks to give his opinion, doesn't try to box songs into certain structures/lenghts etc.
Gilmour was the opposite from what I understand. Being there pretty much every day over their shoulders saying "No, you can't do that." or "re-write that.... again." or "Think of the little kid in Cleveland!", essentially castrating the music.

There's some great ideas here ad there, if they had just let the songs flow naturally instead of constantly re-writing everything and forcing the songs to fit "the criteria" it could have been a great album.

Essentially I think the main problems Meteora can be traced back to the label interfering & putting pressure on the band to do things a certain way.

 

^^^

I would take your proposition one step further and say the best producer can be no third party producer but the band themselves (if they possess the know how, or want to learn) at the same time I still say Don Gilmore did a fantastic job with Meteora and for me and many others made it a classic.

 

Yes Mordirin I had to actually open up this dusty ass foldout, wipe it down, and read the booklet without laughing at how bad the lyrics are.

Reggae Don't Stay would be epic. Loosen up with the power chords, throw in some ska plucking and possibly shakers, and Chester going a tad softer on his vocals, and you got yourself a great track.

 

Looking at his list of production credits, I have to say I'm fairly disturbed this guy still produces music.