o, I bought the album on release day and have managed to listen to it at least 4 times over the weekend and for me, the album is a definite hit. When it comes to music I am easily pleased; especially with Linkin Park as I love their sound. I'm a sucker for catchy melodies and they are aplenty throughout this album. So that alone gets a thumbs up from me. Both Mike and Chester deliver fantastic vocals and credit has to be given to Mike for his vocal performance and how much it has improved over the years. Mike singing more on this album adds an extra dimension to it as well as the band itself. Sure, Mike has sung before, but not as prominently as on One More Light and it's refreshing to hear. I appreciate the softer music. You see, my musical taste is very broad and I think that is the case for many of Linkin Park's long time fans. So the prospect of a 'poppier' record wasn't a turn off at all. In fact I welcomed it. Now is the album innovative? Ground-breaking? No. Not at all. A lot of the melodies will sound very familiar. In fact comparisons have been made to Owl City and Mumford & Sons, for example. But I don't think innovation was the intention/purpose with this album. This album was about the band opening up to the world on a personal level and telling their story, and as they said, creating a sound to best relay that story. And they did this very well. One thing about this album that is very typically Linkin Park though, is the experimentation with sounds. This is evident particularly on Sorry For Now (and other tracks)! So while I may not consider OML to be their best work, it's certainly an album that I appreciate and one that will sit proudly in my Linkin Park collection. Favourite tracks: Sorry For Now, One More Light, Battle Symphony, Sharp Edges.
I think you're being a bit generous here - if LP fans were so ~open-minded~, they probably wouldn't complain so much about every new approach the band tries.