It's one of my top LP songs for sure. It's just the combination of the topic, the lyric quality, and the production that really does it for me. It just feels right in my opinion. Off-topic of SFN: I decided, with Kevin, that we should redo Hybrid Theory and Meteora since not all of those songs got the writeups they deserve (also I have spent the past month researching Joe's samples and scratching ). It only makes sense since they got anniversary releases and we now have a few new songs to cover anyway! Still trying to figure out if Friendly Fire should just go after Sharp Edges or if we save it for chronological release to group with QWERTY... Anyway, Halfway Right goes up tomorrow so get your last thoughts in if you have any!
I really like the instrumental and Mikes whole vibe in this song. It gets a nice summer vibve touch. Just a simple chill song
Halfway Right "Halfway Right" is the eighth track on One More Light. One of two songs on the album where Chester is credited as a writer, it was written by a team of Chester, Mike, Brad, and Ross Golan (whose credits include Maroon 5, Justin Bieber, and Nicki Minaj, among many others). Mike and Brad handled production on the track, with co-production by Michael Keenan, Alexander Spit, Andrew Bolooki. Written in collaboration with American songwriter Ross Golan, "Halfway Right" went through a tough developmental process according to the band. After an initial co-write with Golan, the band faced difficulties structuring and finalizing the song, struggling to match the vocal delivery with the initial arrangement. One of the primary issues they faced was that the Chester's vocal takes didn't work with the track as expected, feeling forced and unnatural. This led the band to rethink its arrangement, and they invited Golan to come back for another writing session to rework the song. Ultimately, they decided on a key change, and from there they were able to reshape the song into the final version. Chester mentioned this in a Q&A with NME when discussing how "Halfway Right' and "Heavy" were some of the harder songs on the album to write: Musically, "Halfway Right" is a mid-tempo pop song, anchored by synth work, piano chords, and laid-back sampled percussion. It reflects on Chester's past struggles, recounting a specific experience with drug addiction in a candid and open manner. This approach on "Halfway Right" marked a shift from previous Linkin Park efforts, where Chester often broadened his lyrics to connect with listeners (and Mike in the writing process), who might not share his specific experiences. As he noted in press for his side project Dead by Sunrise's debut Out of Ashes in 2009, normally when writing about his past struggles Chester would "take the actual story out and only leave the emotional attachment." By retaining Chester's personal angle without ambiguity or broad relatability, "Halfway Right" creates a very personal dynamic in which Chester shares his story with the listener. The song opens immediately with Chester's vocals over a synth pad, introducing a stripped-back version of the chorus before proceeding into the verse. The verses feature swelling synths alongside heavy 808 kick, trap-style hi-hat rhythms, and a recurring vocal sample, with Chester's vocals leading melodically as he narrates his past This leads into a soft pre-chorus piano passage as he reflects, "All you said to do was slow down / I remember, now I remember." In the second verse, clean guitar parts are added to support the instrumentation, most notably during the pre-chorus passage where it accompanies the piano chords. The choruses revolve around Chester's vocal hook, which in the later choruses is followed by a "na-na-na" gang vocal melody. Ross Golan also provides backing harmonies as part of this gang vocal stack. These choruses gradually add more instrumental layers with each rendition, including electric guitars, additional synth layers, and in the song's final moments, bells that enter to double the gang vocal melody. Lyrically, "Halfway Right" is one of the most candid and vulnerable tracks on One More Light, exemplifying the band's intention to make more personal, "human" songs with the album. Chester recounts a specific instance of his struggle with drug addiction, waking up behind the wheel of a car after blacking out. In a Linkin Park Association pre-release interview, Mike mentioned this song as an example of honest and raw songs that differed from their past lyric writing: "Halfway Right" shares some thematic qualities with "Crawling," another song that Chester pointed to as being openly about his addiction struggles. However, "Halfway Right" presents more a straightforward, narrative approach over the more abstract lyrics of "Crawling." In an interview with News Corp Australia, Chester opened up about this specific story behind the song: This unflinchingly honest and specific reflection on Chester's struggles with substance abuse is at the core of "Halfway Right." Lines such as "The road dissolving like an empty vow" create strong imagery that immerse the listener in this particular moment from Chester's life, and make it one of the most direct and autobiographical songs in Linkin Park's discography. "Halfway Right" received the least attention and promotion of any song from One More Light. Its dark, raw tone and mid-tempo structure likely made it a challenging fit for live perfomances or promotional focus, especially following Chester's death. While both "Halfway Right" and "Sorry for Now" were never performed live by Linkin Park, the latter found a place in Mike's solo shows. "Halfway Right," however, remains the only song from One More Light has never been performed live in any capacity. Despite this, the song stands as a testament to the emotional depth and vulnerability both Chester and the band were willing to explore during the One More Light recording process.
"Halfway Right" starts my favorite 3-track run on OML (although NCSM would be my overall favorite song).
This song is mixed for me. The fact that Chester placed us in his shoes in a first-person narrative style is really something special. We all knew little bits about his past from interviews and from the writing on previous songs, but this is a rare opportunity where he said "Here's a slice of my life I'm going to share with the world—a specific moment in which I really messed up." It's a visceral, humble, and incredibly humanizing moment from a man who seemed larger than life so many times. On the other hand, I dislike the production they chose to set this song to. The piano parts that develop throughout the song would have been a perfect setting to turn this into a very nice ballad. It has all the bones of a strong emotional ballad between the piano, guitar, bells, and gang vocals. Honestly, I think that last section is kind of magical with those bells—it's a very unique section on a Linkin Park track, and the fact that those are kind of buried upsets me a little. I think this song with different choices could have been an Iridescent-type track, while still staying true to OML's style. There's something really special that to me got muddled by the production choices, which really sucks now in retrospect.
Halffway Right an okay song. Once again, great chorus melody, with one of my favorite Chester’s delivery on the record. Unfortunately, the verses are not doing much for me on this one, neither on the vocal department nor in the production style. It's a bummer because the lyrics in the verses are definitely special, but the rendition doesn't really work imo. The “na na na” part is cool, definitely catchy.
@Christøffer your write-ups really are excellent In terms of this track, it's a nice change of pace to get a very specific meaning and reasoning behind the lyrics, as opposed to the usual vague and 'it means what you want it to mean' style You can kinda see why this was never performed live pre or post Chester passing for that exact reason
Halfway Right is a song that has grown on me more recently than when it first came out. I always felt like the very real and honest lyrics were at odds with the more bland pop production, but I've softened on that take. It's a good track.
Honestly this is a highlight for me off the album. Chester’s verses are so bluntly specific to the situations at hand, that it is lyrically some of the best writing on a song they’ve done. Even the chorus of “I don’t lose, I don’t win, if I’m wrong, then I’m halfway right” is some really clever writing to highlight the rationalizing of choices. I always loved the “Oooohhh ooohhhhh”s in the background (from Mike?) too. The production isn’t necessarily my favorite but that permeates a lot of the songs in general, so it doesn’t bother me. Overall, a very poignant track and really highlighted the potential of them marketing “lyrics first, music second” approach they were doing during the era.
I really like the lyrics, they feel different from everything else the band had written before, especially the verses. The chorus is catchy and I love those bells in the "na na na" parts haha.
I don't listen to Metallica personally, but a member of that band once said that you can't really sing about anything over metal. It has to be grandiose, otherwise it doesn't work. In that vein, I don't know why someone would decide to sing about a dark drug-related life episode over some bland, trendy pop production and a facepalm-inducing "na na na" hook. I had not paid much attention to the lyrics before, so it's interesting to learn what the song is about. Just because lyrics are on a meaningful subject, though, doesn't make them quality lyrics, and "Halfway Right" remains representative of that which plagues the songwriting on One More Light: an overarching vapidity that, needless to say, has no lasting artistic value. As for "Sorry for Now," this is certainly a highlight on the album that particularly benefits from a strong chorus melody, though again, the production, which seems to be an attempt to echo previous Top 10 fads and Awolnation's "Sail," together with Chester's verse, which I won't comment on, mean the song cannot rise too high above the rest of the record.
The verses of Halfway Right have a similar issue to Heavy's verses for me (Chester singing in that poppy style sounds really weird to me) although much less pronounced. Overall I really enjoy the song though; solid lyrics, great melodies in the intro and choruses (and I like the whooaaaaaoooooohhh part by Mike in the chorus as well) and the pop production isn't an issue for me, in fact I'm quite entranced by the soundscape. I'd rate this song 8.5/10
This song was from the beginning one of my least liked tracks and sadly it doesn't grew a lot either. The chorus is kinda ok i guess, but the way Chester is singing the verses annoys the hell out of me. Especially annoying for me that this song seems to be one of Chesters more personal ones and i wont get into it.
This pretty much exactly. Halfway Right is SO close to greatness, but it's plagued by the same emptiness the rest of One More Light suffers from. The autobiographical lyrics put us in Chester's shoes more intimately than ever, but they sound completely out of place against the hollow, glitzy pop production and the "nah nah nah" bridge is so uninspired.
Man, it's 2024 and people are still acting like the "glitzy pop production" of One More Light is any less artistically valid than the glitzy nu metal production of say, Meteora. I think you could make a strong argument that the first two LP records are far more "vapid" (to borrow an adjective used above) than One More Light. That being said, Halfway Right is probably my least favourite song on the album. I don't dislike it, I just think the other 9 songs are stronger. The bridge is the highlight of the song for me, and I agree with whoever mentioned that the bells should have been louder.
I agree with the first sentence, but I think the second was maybe too much of a free attack to the good old days. HT is far from vapid. Sure, it has less production know-how, which is logical given the leap in experience (and technologies available to the band) between 2000 and 2017. But still, every powerchord, every scratch, every beat, every synth, every glitch, every melodies, every vocal performance, heck every sound, blends so well together on HT, that it created a landmark album not only for Linkin park, but for rock music as a whole. Which is something that, and I don't mean it bad, doesn't hold true for OML. The intricacies in HT should not be underestimated due to it being "nu-metal", as much as OML should not be dismissed due to it being "pop". I don't include Meteora in this reasoning because it comes second and to some extent dumbs down a few aspects of HT, but I wouldn't call it vapid either ^' And to go back on topic, I can't wait for the session thread to dive back into those old songs
I think you both make good points. Meteora definitely has some nu metal production sheen to it that loses some of the magic there was on Hybrid Theory, if you ask me. But I definitely don't think you can say that about HT as a whole. It's such a deliberate blend of styles and production choices. I don't know if I'd use "vapid" to describe any of their songs...even if I'd really like to with songs like Figure.09 or Lies Greed Misery. I think production choices hold back several songs throughout LP's career, but I don't think they've ever flat-out ruined a song. Halfway Right has a spark in it that shines through even with what I find to be okay production.