Still my favorite album ever and, imho, the Best. Linkin Park Album. Ever. I find myself either listening to it from front to back or (most of the time) seperately. My favorite songs have shifted, from "The Catalyst" to "Waiting For The End" to "Burning In The Skies" to...heck, every song off ATS are all on my Top 25 Most Played playlist in my iPod. I always listen to it everyday, and whenever I don't, even though I feel fine I feel sorta empty without it. I feel as if Linkin Park's suddenly taken over my whole body when I listen to ATS now, mostly because I always envision myself covering some of ATS in a concert xD oh yeah, and that MGM Grand concert = best day of my life. It took (short) time for me to grow, but I liked it off the bat. After the 2nd listen, though, I fell completely in love with it. I know LP will continue to make even more amazing albums and I hope they continue going off into their current direction that made me an LP diehard in the first place (HT and Meteora made me a huge fan, but I loved MTM so much that I became a monstrous fan). But I do hope they take their time, because I don't want to get off the ATS addiction.
I was pretty indifferent when I heard the album the first few times but as I listened again and again it really grew on me. I still listen to it in full every couple days or so. The only song I skip is Robot Boy. I love that it really feels like a complete listening experience and the variety in sounds it has. Favorite songs: Waiting For the End Blackout When They Came For Me
When The Catalyst came out as a single, I went like... "What the fuck Linkin Park?! You've got a nice, rhythmic drummer, fucking use him, not these dirty, heartless beats...." Then came out W&K. I went clueless, and I was afraid. Was the entire album going to be like this? Less of emotion, and more of experiments? I really was scared. I got the leak... like 2 or 3 days before the worldwide release. That was around the same time The Script came out with their album. I was listening to The Script's album while ATS was in the process. For The Script, I was yawning before we even reached track 4 or 5. Suddenly, ATS finishes and I'm pumped. I close my room, turn all the lights off... feel calm, and press the play button with the official lyrics on-screen, wherever needed. Flawless. Epic. I swear I fall in love with Linkin Park's music the first time I listen to it... for most cases. I loved New Divide the hour it came out, I loved Not Alone the minute it was out. ATS grew on me the first time. Robot Boy, Waiting For The End, Journada Del Muerto, Iridescent, The Catalyst, The Messenger... I loved all of these. Robot Boy and Iridescent made me cry... yes, they did. For about two weeks, I would listen to the album in its entirety, about two-three times everyday. In total, first two weeks, about 35 complete plays. Then, life got busy. I now mostly listen to WFTE, RB, BITS. Less plays are received by The Catalyst, and When They Come For Me. The Messenger is off the list, I don't know why.
I've maybe only listened to it 5 times through since it came out. It's by far my favorite album from them, I've just been finding myself checking out a lot of different music instead of listening to ATS.
ALSO THIS. ATS is the ONLY album I own that I don't skip tracks on. Even my other favorites like Meteora I'll skip around or pick and choose. ATS really nailed down the overall experience into one package that I can't get from listening to it as a single.
some songs grew, some remained dull and a few went downhill. it's a good album overall and that's mainly it.
wen i first heard 'the catalyst'.i was lyk...LP...seriously...???..!! the song grew ovr me very quickly..i too was surprised..d last 2.30 mins of d song...are d best of d album for me.... wen W&K came out..i was like..ok-duh...i stil havnt liked d song much... but wel..wen i got d CD of ATS..i heard d album in one go..and i loved it...den ii saw d making of a ATS documentary..and was completely amazed by hw LP experimented... blackout nd WTCFM took time to grow on me...and now i wish der was a bit more of these songs on d album...WFTE,BITS,The Catalyst and Iridescent are d ones i loved almost wen i heard dem first tym...nd d best album LP released(m2m is a close 2nd 4 me) lyrically ..i think dis is d best one... i listen to d entire album atleast once everyday...and thru out... on d side note....the requiem nd the radiance shud've been clubbed as one nd not 2...empty spaces ..nt necessary acc to me... so..v cud hav had a couple more songs.. P.S. messenger is win
I still don´t know what to think about ATS. On the one hand I absolutely love it. Listening to it from the first to the last track and just "dive into the world of a thousand suns" is amazing. On the other hand, if I´m not that concentrated and just listen to it at the same time, it seems like an average album to me. Not really bad, not really good. But to be honest, the positive feeling prevails and I´m glad that LP made this album...
Sometimes it's hard for me to listen to ATS songs live (though, they absolutely kick ass) because of the fact that they're not performed in the exact order as the album and they don't play all of the songs (only robot boy is excluded) but even with one song missing and a bunch of songs in between it feels strange. Like the ATS songs are taken out of context and it doesn't feel quite as good as listening to the album as a whole. I've never been to a concert, and I know that if I were to go I'd probably have LOTS of fun but as strictly a listener it's a bit disappointing. I'm sorry to say this but Linkin Park needs to stop being pussy's and just play Robot Boy and ATS from front to back live. They want to take chances, to do things they wouldn't have normally done? Then do it. Damn.
The more I listen to it the more I still like it. I'm doing a 30 day song challenge on Facebook and the first day was to put your favorite song. So I loaded up itunes and sorted my library by play counts, since I couldn't just pick a song and say it's my favorite. The song with the most playcounts surprised me. It was Wretches and Kings with about 140 plays. So why was it so surprising? I've had my Ipod now for a little over 5 years and a song that came out only 6 months ago has the most plays. Anyways, the album kicks ass. It's one of those that you needed an open mind going into and I found it is easier to accept things that way. Accepting the album that way made it grow on me exponentially. I realize it's not everybody's cup of tea, but, I'm glad I didn't buy into the bad publicity BS that this album got for daring to be different. I'm glad that I gave this album a chance.
MTM is still my favorite album, and I'm convinced that it always will be, but I do love ATS. I still listen to the album all the time, but I've become really uninterested in Waiting For The End and a few other tracks already which is disappointing because I usually love all LP songs for years before I get bored.
ATS is a great album and LP's best work. I love it and though I don't really get the chance to listen to it anymore, whenever any of the songs come up on shuffle I listen to the whole song. It gives me high hopes for the band and it's future. It gives me that much needed chill feeling that I get when I hear any of the songs. I listen to heavier music all day and ATS gives me that nice calm feeling at the end of the day. Nothing is better then that.