I don't know. I don't intend to make the debate go for much longer either, but I wanted to still react to this little bit. But only for those interested Spoiler: More Long Stuff It is obvious that in term of craftsmanship, harmonic complexity, instrument mastery, composition intricacies, most, if not all, of "insert piece of classical music" would be miles ahead of most, if not all, Eurovision songs, ever. But that only matters if you are looking for those features, specifically. In term of sing-along abilities, dance-ability, accessibility, ability to instantly connect with people, a lot of Eurovision songs would easily outperform pieces of classical music. I sure do enjoy some Eurovision bangers from time to time. Sure. It doesn't seem fair to put in the same category something that would require thousands of hours of work and something that maybe was written in one afternoon, with the sole purpose of winning a contest. And I would agree with that. It wouldn't really be fair. But I don't think those things should be compared to begin with. They have different target audiences, different goals, different everything. As I already mentioned, oranges and apples. Is one inherently better than the other? As much as it is tempting to say yes, I would disagree with that. And sure. I 100% think some songs are better written and better executed than others. But I recognize that it only goes by the standards I decide to judge them by. To be honest, I never quite understood the more harsh aspect of music criticism - I don't mean you here, just in general - and the tendency of certain critics / school of thoughts / etc. to downplay or even disregard entire styles or epochs of music. I suppose, in the end, that it comes down to our human nature, and the tendency we have to categorize, rank, compare, identify with certain groups, and assert domination over other groups. In the end, it is what it is. I don't think there is going to be a full agreement on this topic. I hope we can continue to discuss the next songs without being too harsh in our words, and with a search for nuance, if possible
Complexity of performance and composition hold only as much value as you assign to it. “Promise” by Voyager was Australia’s submission to Eurovision in 2023 and I’ve find more enjoyment in that one than most classical pieces I’ve listened to since it came out. You can’t fit objective principles on a thing that is inherently subjective. It’s fine if you don’t like those songs, but don’t go telling me one is better than the other when it’s all up to individual truth.
I disagree with this point because the term "good" or "high quality" when referring to something like a tomato is a concept that is quite hard to define (if you're trying to define it as an objective metric). Does it mean that it tastes better? Taste is completely subjective, so if that was the case, it wouldn't make any particular type of tomato "objectively good", just largely agreed upon to be good (but just because a majority of people agree on something doesn't make it objectively true). Does it mean that it provides your body the most nutrients possible (aka is healthiest)? Not really, since in that case you would just use the word "healthiest" and not "best"/"highest quality", since something can be healthier for you but also taste worse (subjectively). "Healthy" is an objective term, whereas there is no real objective meaning to good, bad, high quality, low quality, mediocre, beautiful, disgusting, etc. These are literally all subjective terms. The only difference between that and art (which music falls under) is that, while pretty much nobody would refer to a tomato that has "gone bad" as a good tomato (since humans have collectively agreed that food must be edible in order to be good, because people can literally die by eating food that has gone bad), there is no defined line as to when something stops being a valid form of art. Moonlight Sonata may be more creative, groundbreaking, complex, and difficult to play than any song on One More Light, but none of those qualities actually equate to it being better than any of the songs on One More Light. The objective qualities must be taken as what they are, objective qualities, and not misconstrued as some sort of "artistic merit" because "artistic merit" is a subjective term (although it's usually used in a way where it is implied to be an objective quality, obviously incorrectly, like what you are doing). I find a lot of artistic merit in some songs on One More Light. There are plenty of people who wouldn't see any sort of artistic merit in Moonlight Sonata because it doesn't make them feel anything (although I personally love it, but that's beside the point). Does having complex and unconventional chord movements and key changes make a song better? For some people yes, for others no. Does it even make it more interesting? Again, for some people yes, for others no (whether you find a key change "interesting" is completely subjective). I could go on, but I think you get my point If we're talking about my personal preferences, I think One More Light overall is by far Linkin Park's least engaging album in the overall sense, but clearly others put the album higher up on the tier list which is perfectly valid. Even if somebody were to have it as their #1, and have MTM, ATS, and Living Things as their bottom 3 (which I would almost take personal offense to), neither I nor anybody else would be in any place to call them objectively wrong.
Sharp Edges "Sharp Edges" is the final track on One More Light, and the last chronological song by Chester Bennington to appear on a Linkin Park studio album. Written by Brad and Mike with the help of Ilsey Juber, the song explores a folkier, almost country sound. Brad and Mike were assisted in production of the track by R.A.C. and Emily Wright. “Sharp Edges” was written in sessions with Ilsey Juber, who also helped co-write “Talking to Myself.” Brad was the primary driving force behind the songwriting on this track, as noted by Mike in the global album listening party he and Brad hosted. The track showcases many of the folk elements that Brad subtly incorporated throughout One More Light, and is even reminiscent of the folk influences featured on Living Things, but here, those elements take center stage. Unsurprisingly, Brad named it as his favorite from the album (along with “Heavy”). Chester also mentioned that “Sharp Edges” was his favorite song from One More Light. “Sharp Edges” closes the album with a folky, acoustic guitar-driven song. Mike mentioned in an interview with digital audio company Waves that the main acoustic guitar used in the recording actually belonged to Ethan Mates, the lead sound engineer for the album. This guitar is the focal point of the song, forming its backbone with a very prominent fingerpicked pattern. "Sharp Edges" also features multiple other guitar layers, with additional acoustic guitars adding rhythmic patterns and light electric guitar layers creating ambience around the main fingerpicked pattern. Some of these guitar parts are panned hard left or right, resulting in differing guitar parts for each ear at points. Most prominently, an electric guitar with light tremolo effects plays a four-note hook throughout the song, creating a sustained melodic line that contrasts with the fingerpicked triplet pattern on the acoustic guitar. Though the song's focus is on its guitar layers, it also features some light sampled percussion and subtle airy synth pads to add to the layering, as well as a synth bass that enters in the second chorus. These elements support the guitars, but take a backseat to the melodic and rhythmic figures from the guitar layers. This allows the more folk-driven elements of the song to shine through. Lead vocals are handled entirely by Chester on "Sharp Edges," with backing vocals by both Mike and co-writer Ilsey Juber, most notable during the extended choruses and "ooh-ooh" portions of the song. Lyrically, “Sharp Edges” chooses to leave the album on a note of optimism, following the sorrowful mourning of “One More Light” with a positive turn. According to Brad, the title track was originally the album closer, but the band agreed that the optimistic "Sharp Edges" was a better way to end One More Light. Chester sings about life lessons learned through mistakes, drawing on the familiar adage "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." A central theme is the advice Chester wistfully recalls from his mother—lessons like not running with scissors, thinking before speaking, and choosing company wisely. This connection to running with scissors informs the hook and title of the song as he sings "Sharp edges have consequences / I guess that I had to find out for myself." In an interview with Upset Magazine, Mike and Chester elaborated on this theme: This idea of learning through experience and embracing life's mistakes underpins the song's optimistic tone, offering closure to the album. Despite Brad suggesting Linkin Park perform the song at their São Paulo, Brazil festival date on May 13, 2017—citing the opening lyrics as fitting for Mother's Day the following day—"Sharp Edges" didn't make its live debut until June 12. The song debuted in a stripped-back format in Berlin, featuring an extended guitar intro. In its live form, the track was stripped back to a guitar duet with Chester on a clean electric and Brad on acoustic. The two centered around the microphone as Chester sang. This intimate performance format was used to open the encore set, and remained in this slot for their remaining headliner shows of the One More Light cycle, being cut for festival appearances. Due to the majority of Linkin Park's performances in June 2017 being festival dates, however, this meant "Sharp Edges" only appeared on the setlist a total of five times before the cancellation of the remaining dates due to Chester's passing. Footage from the Berlin live debut of "Sharp Edges" was compiled and released on December 17, 2017, in promotion of One More Light Live, which featured the performance recording from that show. "Sharp Edges" was also included in the setlist of the band's Hollywood Bowl memorial show in October 2017, featuring Ilsey Juber as guest lead vocalist. Brad and Phoenix both performed on acoustic guitar for this performance, while Mike added backing harmonies. For this performance, the song was transposed up one and a half steps, from the key of D minor to F minor. Additionally, Mike added "Sharp Edges" to his setlist twice in 2018 during his solo tours. These performances featured his live bandmate, Matt Harris, on guitar and lead vocals. Matt notably also performed a different rendition of the song's main acoustic melody, opting for a pick over fingerstyle, possibly to fit with his singing performance. Mike performed piano and backing vocals for the tour debut in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, but elected not to perform for the second and final performance in Tampa, Florida. As he could be seen emotionally distraught from the side of the stage in Tampa, the song's removal from his setlist was likely due to its emotional weight.
Sharp Edges is a song I am ambivalent about. Initially, if I am being honest, I disliked how “derivative” I found it – that is, in regards to melodies and types of songs I would hear on the radio at the time. I don’t really have one specific song in mind, but I remember instantly feeling like I had heard it before. To be fair, it was a bias on my side. You could call many songs in LP catalog derivative of X and Y, and those would be songs I love. In the end, the issue I had with Sharp Edges was not that it was inspired by X or Y, but that I didn’t really enjoy X or Y. I have learned to appreciate the song a lot more nowadays. The acoustic guitar is my favorite part of the song, by far. It is smooth and pretty. The lyrics are also uplifting, and that is something still less common in Linkin Park songs.Another element to it, is that Share Edges became the favorite Linkin Park song of a person I spend a lot of time with, and that helps looking at it from a different perspective. All in all, it is a good song, with especially a really solid guitar performance. Like a few other songs on the album, I think the pop production brings down the raw emotional nature of it, but maybe to a lesser extent than in something like "Halfway Right". Solid, but had more potential.
This is a pretty succinct summary of my thoughts as well. I really like the folky guitar on this song with its very cool fingerstyle pattern, and it's pretty clear Brad loved this song. I love that. That said though, the bassy kicks, claps, and resampled snare sometimes take me out of it. I guess it could have been weird to have two songs in a row with no percussion, but man does it feel wrong here to me. And they played it live with no percussion too, to boot. Maybe just like a cajón or something could have worked, who knows? There's also just a couple of points where Chester's delivery feels weird to me ("we all fall down" section). Strange inflection to me but not a song-killer.
This one really clicked with me recently. Sometimes it makes me just as emotional as the title track. Beautiful lyrics, Chester's voice is great, I wish I had more to say but all the elements just work for me. I think I prefer the instrumental arrangement in the live version with just Brad and Chester, but Chester struggles a bit on the high notes in that live performance so I'll still take the studio version most of the time. Matt Harris did a great job on the performance of the song in Mike's solo show as well. I'd put this at #3 behind the title track and Invisible
This is one of the better songs on the album. It mercifully lacks any chipmunk vocals, cricket hi-hats, or sickly sweet vocal deliveries, although it does sound like they may have been trying to emulate Avicii. I suppose the lyrics could be less obvious. But I mean, it's Linkin Park. And I do remember Chester being impressed by a Kelly Clarkson performance, so it makes sense. EDIT: I forgot to add that this is probably the closest we've come to that.
Sharp Edges has always been one of my favourites on the record. It's an acoustic thumper and reminds of early Ed Sheeran. The vibes never fail to put a smile on my face by the end. And in a song full of cliches, "put your nose in paperbacks, instead of smoke and cigarettes" has always stood out to me as a highlight in the band's prose.
Glad to see the appreciation for Sharp Edges. I've really come to like it more in the past week after going through all the live recordings. Up next...we start back from zero ( ) with Hybrid Theory 20th Anniversary, starting with the one and only Papercut! Taking a little bit of a break before posting but it's coming! I'm really looking forward to it!
Yes. It felt more appropriate to put it there since they did additional work outside of the OML sessions that probably gave it new dynamics compared to the OML demo.
Always had a soft spot for this one, wish there were more like it on the album. Such an uplifting, positive track for me. Definitely my favorite on the album, and basically the only one I sometimes come back to. Love the live performance aswell! Also, only took 10 years... who knew!
Like most songs on OML i dosnt really cared for the song at first. Now it at least grow enough that i dont skip it when its on
Forgot one thing about SE. The live version is actually great and, for me, hits home much more than the studio one. It's kinda a hidden gem.
Busy busy lately, so I’ll catch up on the songs I missed soon, but I gotta talk about Sharp Edges. This has always been one of my favorites, if not my favorite song from OML. Love the intimate start to the track (acoustic Linkin Park songs always have a soft spot in my heart (Final Masquerade acoustic my beloved )). I really appreciate the hopeful end to the album, even if the “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” lyric is a bit corny. But also there are ton of huge pop hits that play on overused sayings, so I’m really not that bothered by the lyrics on the bridge. And if I had one more critique of the song, the kick drums do kinda date the song a bit, I could really live without them on this song. Despite my complaints, still love this song, never skip it when it comes on. 87/100 And I fucking love the live version of this song. Legitimately makes me emotional sometimes. Bonus thought: Oh my god I just had a good laugh re-reading through the Sharp Edges drama in the Heal/Hurt game. Completely forgot about all that. I have no regrets!
I've been completely freaking out over the HT EP in the last few days (which some may have noticed ) So much so that I'm wondering if it'd be an idea to include it in the session thread in the far away future. After all, it's technically the very first studio project from the band in its old line-up. I don't think a lot of composition details are known about the songs, but the good side is that it'd possibly make it slightly less time consuming to write the posts. But then again, I don't know how much interest people would have in discussing it. @Christøffer a while ago, you mentioned that the High Voltage EP version was the better one. I though it was a hot take but... after re-listening to both, I agree. The EP version is more intricate overall. The short instrumental bridge and the tone of the scratches towards the end are pretty cool too, gives dark autumn/winter vibes.
I actually was thinking of including this as part of the HT20 posts. Hybrid Theory, the two B-sides, HTEP, and then Pictureboard, She Couldn't, and Could Have Been. I thought that would be a good way to incorporate it. Still undecided at the moment. I try to keep technical composition stuff from getting too overblown already, so I could hopefully write at least a decent post for each. We know at least a little about each, even if it isn't as detailed as the studio album songs.