Yeah I know. I wish they'd use that darker electronic sound more, with singing over heavy beats instead of rap or screaming. Skin to Bone is bae Seriously though, Skin to Bome is the type of stuff I want to hear from them. Unique original electronic music. Fuck I love that song.
"We don't make the same thing over and over" - Heavy and Battle Symphony could fit perfectly on Living Things -
IMO, everything made before this album so far were experimental, electronic, nu-metlal, and rock. This one is legit radio pop.
Pop Songs like New divide, The catalyst, WFTE, and so on are very listenable and enjoyable, but heavy and battle symphony are just bad pop songs. Why couldnt LP just do a country or jazz album instead of going straight up generic pop
Yeah, we've definitely not heard this argument during ATS cycle. lol Heck, I remember seeing comments like this even when New Divide released. Everything sounds "Not LP" at first. But from the next album, you can expect such songs as well and then it automatically becomes "this is LP stuff". Would 'Skin to Bone', 'Waiting for the end', 'The Catalyst', 'Robot Boy', 'Roads Untraveled', 'Castle of Glass' all have fallen under your "This is LP stuff" category when it released? You'd be lying if you said yes. There was nothing LP about those songs apart from Chester and Mike's vocals. Yes, Meteora and LT were not radio friendly at all. I mean, Burn it Down was not made with the mindset of it being a commercial success at all.
The first half kind of is. IMR, BID and IBG are pop, but with annoyingly loud guitars. These new songs are boring but at least it doesn't hurt your ears to listen to due to bad mixing. You could barely hear the drums over the guitars in LIVING THINGS.
Gotta say that I love the chopped vocals. And just the summery-vibe to the song. Certainly a song to listen to to pick me up outta of a shit mood.
I know this territory is new for Linkin Park but it doesn't feel challenging or groundbreaking. I was blown away when Catalyst and Guilty All The Same were released. I really wish some of these new songs could give me those feelings. That's my only problem. Hope the rest of OML will give me those typical LP 'wow' moments.
Every single one of those songs sound like Linkin Park because they sound unlike anything else. You can't say the same for Heavy and Battle Symphony.
I don't really know how people who love LP's previous albums can vehemently hate this. I could easily see this fitting on Living Things beside the more electro songs like LGM and STB, and beside the more uptempo, happy songs like IMR, BID and IBG. I genuinely don't see that big of a difference. And if you strip away the production, all of these songs (BS included) aren't that different to half the tracks they've put out across their entire career. That being said, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit disappointed. I like the song, in the same way that I like LP's previous pop output (LOATR, BID, etc.), but it's really just a fresh coat of paint (coat of armour? ) on the same tired old formula they've been using for almost two decades. Now, I don't have an issue with that per se; the formula clearly works, and some of my favourite LP songs follow that formula to a tee, but it's just a little frustrating sometimes seeing the band talk about "experimenting" and "never doing the same thing twice" so much over the past decade when aside from ATS and a small handful of songs on LT and THP, almost every Linkin Park song follows the same song structure, has the same length, features a big, hooky chorus repeated exactly three times, etc., just with a different gloss of paint on top to give the illusion of diversity. Now, I'm not saying every song has to be "experimental" or "out there", as others have mentioned, LP's music has never been particularly innovative, but I just hoped that the new songwriting method would be the catalyst that made the band abandon the rigid formula they use on almost every song. Almost every time they've pushed themselves away from that formula, they've come back with top-quality material IMO. Just to reiterate, I like the song, but it just sounds so similar to what we've gotten in the past, just with a few extra bells and whistles (ie. the slick, modern production) added on top. It's a good song, and I'm liking it more than say, IBG or BID right now, but I still just wish they'd push themselves a bit more to write more unorthodox songs. Keep it poppy, sure, I love pop, but you can have poppy hooks and production without conforming to the same old boring structure and clichés of the genre. Again, it doesn't need to be groundbreakingly experimental, but I just want to hear twists that I don't expect, even if it's still all within the pop genre. Just my 2 cents.
Chester can't keep screaming and yelping all the time. He's a singer, first and foremost, and we've clearly heard that his constant screaming and yelping have made his voice worsen a bit, not to mention that he's already 40. As a singer though, it's nice to see him lowkey. Think of "Shadow of the Day", "Leave Out All the Rest", "Waiting for the End" and "Skin to Bone". They don't have Chester's massive yelps because they didn't need to. They just needed his gorgeous voice. Living Things is their poppiest record by far. "Burn It Down" was pop rock. "Lost in the Echo" was catchy despite having dubstep and a few guitars. "Lies Greed Misery" was electro-hop-ish, not to mention that they rarely used guitar in that song. And the entire second half of the album just screamed pop. Sure it's still rock, but it's melodically a lot more pop than usual.
Get out of my mind. This is exactly the problem i have with these 2 songs. they're basically LT without powerchords. I NEED SOMETHING NEW.
You're not alone dude. This is pretty much where I'm at with the new material. I think I'm even more let down because the clip of Sorry For Now as well as the live clips for OML and Talking To Myself sounded pretty good. As for this song, meh. It's better than Heavy but it did absolutely nothing for me. Reminds me of the songs that play at like Old Navy and H&M while you're trying to buy clothes. Essentially just safe, sterile background noise. Completely unremarkable for me. Looks like this is the first LP album that I won't be picking up on day one. :/
Thank you! I thought I was going a bit crazy, everyone's arguing over how "this doesn't sound like anything they've done before and that makes it amazing/terrible!!", and I was just sitting here thinking that it sounds exactly like I'd expect a new Linkin Park song to sound like.
The little finger snap in the first verse made me laugh for sone reason. I have no idea why I like that one bit so much
The Catalyst is not pop. But I agree with the rest. I guess this was inevitable...LP was always kind of pop (with the exception of some songs). But as you said, at least it was good pop. These new songs are not the case at all...