Blackbirds feels like it definitely belongs on Minutes To Midnight. It's incredibly intimate, but almost aggressive at the same time. Not heavy mind you, but there's always a rising tension that builds and builds. You can hear it in Chester's voice as it gradually becomes raspier overtime. In a way it reminds me of the best parts of Valentine's Day and In Pieces meshed together. It's angsty and full of regret, but this time that's part of the charm. I've always thought the demo intro was pretty pointless though.
Blackbirds doesn't really phase me. I don't see much to it, but Chester sounds pretty good on it. Mike's rap in the bridge probably shouldn't have been there, but the last few lines of it are good. Live drums throughout would have been a bit better on it.
Blackbirds is like New Divide for me. It's just a song. There's not much to it really. It doesn't stir up anything in me or leave me awe-struck. The only thing I really like is the intro.
Does this mean if Filip didn't take over, we would be on ATS by now? I'm not as indifferent to Blackbirds as most people here, in fact, I really enjoy this song. Chester's performance is chilling, definitely one of the songs that induces a heavy shiver in my spine right from the get go. The instrumentation is simple, and I really enjoy the basslines during the first verses, it might be simple, but its deep and fitting. The strings in the song are a very nice addition, as well. The instrumentation starts to shine even more in the second verses, with some electronic drums and some very eery guitar picking. The "Rap" verses are well written, and the little stings in the instrumentation during the rap verses sound very neat. While the rap may seem out of place in the song, at least the lyrics follow the subject matter of the rest of the song (I'm looking at you, THP...), and it's an enjoyable section for me. Really a song that I wish made it's way onto Minutes to Midnight, honestly.
Oh, fuck, yes, very true If Filip hadn't volunteered to run this thread, I think that I'd still be writing about "Leave Out All The Rest" now
I love the atmosphere of Blackbirds, it has this dark, moody vibe which is also present in Across The Line and What We Don't Know. In a way, it reminds me a lot of the HT days, even though the instrumentation and production certainly belong to the MTM era. I'm also a fan of Chester performance and voice tone here. Overall a great song, certainly one which I wish would have been on MTM.
I think that the drum programming in "Blackbirds" is kind of reminiscent of the Hybrid Theory and/or Xero demos. There's an old-school almost trip-hop vibe, especially with the room-y vocals at the start. Reminds me of the 8-track recordings that make up the Xero tape and such
Blackbirds can't get more epic than this. Filthy, great song, No Roads Left, Across the Line and Blackbirds are on a whole new level above MTM.
Oh, yeah. I'm surprised that no-one's mentioned it -- that massive dubstep drop in the middle always surprises me! /s
No we are not. I don't know if you guys noticed but I'm the one who spends 2 hours writing these posts. From the beginning of the thread, tracks were done chronologically. Between MTM and ATS, there are four songs released that weren't part of LPU CDs. No Roads Left, New Divide, Not Alone and Blackbirds. In the third or fourth post I ever made I set a new schedule for the thread - Fridays, Sundays, Tuesdays. And I have not gotten off that schedule once. Yesterday afternoon I posted Blackbirds, marking the start of the discussion. You have until Tuesday afternoon to discuss Blackbirds, and then I'll post The Requiem/The Radiance together. That marks thr beginning of A Thousand Suns, which will, of course, be done in order. I'm tired of the thread getting off-topic with this. Anyone who wants to discuss this, PM me, please.
I'll be waiting for 'A Thousand Suns' session anyway... Unless Filip let this thread die (which I don't think he'll do) I'm not in hurry. I like 'Blackbirds'. It sounds like a slower version of 'Valentine's Day' with a vibe of the old Hybrid Theory days. It's simple and profound and has the good and old verses of Mike. This is one of the songs that I wish that could make 'Minutes to Midnight'.
I think Blackbirds has the best lyrics LP has ever written. Nice slow song that I come back to every now and then along with most LPU songs, Not Alone, and New Divide.
I really liked the song when I first found it, but I can't even remember the last time I've had the desire to listen to it. I like the way Mike's rap comes in, and the way Chester sounds slightly more aggressive throughout the song. Maybe I would think otherwise if it had actually been included on MTM, but it sounds like it's missing something to me.