Even in art there is objectivity. You can critique a piece of writing based on its use, or lack thereof, of metaphors, phrasing, vocabulary etc.
All these criticisms about the lyrics, what do you want? Lyrics written by Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars and Ariana Grandé?
I don't have anything to contribute to your post, but your avatar is the best penny to be worth 4 quarters.
Not a fair comparison imo, since those artists obviously aren't trying to write Earth-shattering lyrics. They're just your teenage-pop artists out to make radio hits.
Personally, I am excited to hear female vocals in conjunction with Chester/Mike. That studio session preview with Linkin Park that Kiiara posted on her Instagram gave me goosebumps...
LP's new single is co-written by the writers of Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber. Fair to say that LP is trying to make a pop radio hit.
Honestly, at first glance I thought the lyrics were horrible. Then I remembered that outside of Rakim, Guilty All The Same has even worse lyrics yet the song is still fucking fantastic. That said, considering the hype I was hoping for something a wee little more substantial on the writing front. Still waiting for the track to pass judgment.
Luckily for me, I never looked at HT or M through the lens of edgy kids even when I was 13 so that's one of the reasons why I still like HT and M. I can look at them with a different meaning then when I was a teen. In terms of these lyrics, like @Alexrednex said, Chester has never been the one with the most poetic style. Hell I'd say this is better writing then the last two first singles. GATS was terrible lyrically outside of Rakim and while Burn It Down had decent lyrics with nice metaphors, the songs was nothing more than a club banger. It is what it is. On average, Mike always had the better lyrics anyway.
Upon reading the lyrics, I am going to love this song... The lyrics showcase their talents as writers IMO -- not in their ability to tell an intense, personal story, but to nail a general emotion so perfectly that it's easily relatable to the masses. Even songs like Breaking the Habit, that Chester related to so personally, were generalized on a grand scale to be about addiction (and not just, say, the heroin addiction Chester was experiencing). Reading the lyrics, I relate to it due to one of my best friends who is dealing with a mix of intense anxiety and depression. Her anxiety pushes her further into her work, causing her to forgo any focus on her personal well being in search of escaping her own emotional state. Then wehn she has quiet moments alone, her depression hits fully, and thus she chases being busy to avoid dealing with her problems. I love the line "There's comfort in the panic" -- I think she'd describe her own life that way.
Actually, LP used the lyrics bit as a way to mention how they had more time to focus on the vocals. If you go back and listen to what Chester said in that group live session where they all were sitting on the couch, Chester clearly mentioned many times how having the lyrics down so early on let him get to know the song and perform it better. Since the beginning, they mentioned how having the lyrics being done early gave them the opportunity to get to know it better and perform the song better. That's why, il save judgment of this song until I hear the vocals because everyone was praising Chester's singing. About the lyrics alone, its just like every other lyric they've written.