From an objective musical standpoint, I'd say A Thousand Suns is definitely Linkin Park's best album to date. It's a flawed masterpiece.
A Thousand Suns will remain as their most ambitious, experimental, riskiest, and creative album to date. Living Things will not break that plateau. In hindsight, I think that Meteora could have resulted as an absolutely phenomenal sophomore record. Looking back at all of the statements Mike and Chester uttered prior to the release of Meteora, they were going for a "timeless" feel. Bits and pieces of this element can be heard within the album, but unfortunately I'm positive that the original intent of their vision was never achieved. In the better case scenario, had the band been able to execute exactly what they wanted during that era, I'm confident that listeners would have been treated to a much more dynamic album that expressed a natural progression of their sound, whilst breaking barriers; something akin to Reanimation? Perhaps Living Things will be the modern-day 'Meteora' with the band having full creative control.
I can't tell if you're being serious or not, but I've always regarded Reanimation as one of LP's deepest and most substantial albums. It's hard to explain, because it is a remix album but despite that, I feel like it is a meaningful piece of art. It truly feels like a journey to me and always did, complete with the recurring motifs that tie the album together (heard on Opening, Ntr/Mssn and finally, Krwlng) a la Downward Spiral (Melodies in Piggy, Closer & TDS / mantra "nothing can stop me now" in Piggy, Ruiner & Big Man With A Gun). A Thousand Suns just felt rushed to me and, quite frankly, a dishonest and forced work of art. I know they didn't want to be pigeonholed to one genre but the fact that they deliberately wrote shit that sounded weird and different bothers me, not because it sounds different but because of their intentions to be something they aren't, if that makes sense. I'm not a hater of change, but when it comes from a place that doesn't feel sincere, it just doesn't rest easily on me. My 2 mothafuckin cents.
Louis said the things that needed to be said, and now they have been spoken, so I can leave in peace. Here is a rabbit with a dog. Look at them. They are living things.
It depends who you ask Lol. Once you get into the zone of ATS, it truly is a journey. In that sense, you could probably say it is the most complete ALBUM they've done. The others were just a group of songs put together. The lyrics are definitely deeper, as a rule. There's more going on in the background of the songs than on other albums too, but sometimes less is more and it may feel cluttered and just too much for some people. To answer the question though, I'd say for them, yes, it is their best album lyrically and musically.
I'm being completely serious. For a while I had ATS and Reanimation tied as my favorite LP albums. ATS snuck it's way to first though. They're not being insincere. They were, to bring on the overused reference, branching out to find new things they enjoy. That's not to say they were trying to be not-Linkin Park but rather they wanted to see how far they could push the sound of LP into new directions. Which is one of the many reasons I love it so much.
ATS, Reanimation, (some parts of MTM/HT), The other parts of MTM, ...Meteora. Reanimation is a creative masterpiece. If the rest of the band had been involved in the making of Reanimation as much as they had in the recording of ATS and MTM, I would have appreciated it even higher. But Reanimation was mainly Mikes project, though I don't want to discredit the work of the other guys. Don't get me wrong on that.
My thoughts exactly. Also my thoughts exactly! I love everything from ATS, even and especially the interludes. I mean, Jornada Del Muerto? That's a beautiful piece of music. Before I heard ATS though Reanimation was definitely my favorite. A friend asked me how a remix album could be my favorite work of theirs, but I think it was exactly that, more of a reanimation than a remix.
How do you know the band's intentions were simply to make "shit that sounded weird"? Isn't that merely your interpretation?
I am a huge huge fan of the early LINKIN PARK with their awesome nu-metal style, mixing rap and rock, it was perfectly done, and after Minutes to midnight I was a little disapointed that Linkin Park will not surprise me anymore by going into dark lands, and ATS was a shock, the album is so much strong, even if a lot of tracks are useless, but the real songs of the album are a pure artistic demonstration, it's their strongest album, even if for me LP remains a rock band, and I am really happy that Living Things will bring what they have done the best on all their albums, I think Living Things can be epic, but I don't know if they can surprise us as they did with ATS
A Thousand Suns is a masterpiece. If only it got more recognition it could be considered a classic and remembered as a crazy original album
The one issue I have with the album as a whole is that it is really repetitive: lines are repeated consistently throughout the album. When I listen to A Thousand Suns I get a little impatient because of the interludes and usually end up skipping them, to me they feel bland. (The Requiem, The Radiance, and Wisdom, Justice and Love) The Catalyst, all though a good representation of the album, it set my expectations really high. Which lead me to feel a little disappointed (song structure wise) with Burning in the Skies and The Messenger, but after listening to them a few times they really did grow on me. Songs that impressed me musically: Blackout, The Catalyst, Waiting For the End, Robot Boy, Wretches and Kings. Songs that impressed me lyrically: Iridescent, Robot Boy, Blackout, Burning in the Skies, The Messenger The only song that I really didn't like was "When They Come For Me" I don't the way it sounds until it makes the transition into Chester's singing. Compared to their other albums, this one has to be the most far fetched; as it was intended to be- experimental. Some people are saying that the record doesn't have as much energy as their other records, I agree; it doesn't have as much energy as their other records do, but it is still exciting. Compared to other albums in general: I can honestly say I haven't really heard any album similar to this one, I like the uniqueness. Overall, I'd give the album an 8/10
As a fan of Linkin Park... No. No no no no no. You have a bad opinion, and you should be chastised for saying the thing that you said, either by corporal punishment or excessive smug belittling. You've just said that A Thousand Suns is better than any album ever cut by Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Presley, The Who, The Kinks, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, The Supremes, Madonna, Cream, Chuck Berry, The Band, Queen, Frank Sinatra, Nine Inch Nails, David Bowie, Marvin Gaye, The Cure, The Rolling Stones, Sam Cooke, and the remainder of the Beatles catalog that isn't Sgt. Pepper. This is ignorance, ignorance of a profundity I've not seen since the box office receipts for Transformers 2: Revenge of the Other Transformers.