"Session" - Song by Song, Let's Talk Linkin Park

Discussion in 'Linkin Park Chat' started by hawk, Jul 2, 2014.

  1. minuteforce

    minuteforce Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance. LPA Team

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    "By Myself" was one of the songs on the album which really captured my attention on first listen because of its arresting intro. I love the pads in the verses and Shinoda's relatively calm rapping delivery, and how they contrast so much with the aggressive guitars and Chester's screaming in the pre-choruses. It was one of my top favourites from "Hybrid Theory" as a kid, and, despite the ... dated-ness of it all, I still enjoy listening to the song every now and again (along with the rest of the album, I guess). It's one of those songs which properly encapsulate the so-called "one-two punch" of Linkin Park's two lead vocalists.

    The "Reanimation" rmx is alright. :) I like that virtually everything in the beat is new and that there are new vocals to match. That's something which is, I guess, a running theme of sorts throughout "Reanimation". I like the re-written chorus - it really stood out to me when I heard the album for the first time - but I don't like it as much as the original chorus. Just the same, the sheer amount of effort that went into switching up the songs from "Hybrid Theory" is just amazing, even to this day. Anyway, I'm a big Deftones fan, so my favourite thing about "By_Myslf" now is Stef's guitar in the ending section. :p

    I dig Manson's rmx quite a bit as well, especially the way they manipulated various samples from the original song and made everything a little more sinister. Even with new halftime rhythms, new gtr parts and so on, to me, it still feels too much like a "traditional" remix somehow, rather than a reinterpretation which "breathes new life" into the song or whatever. So I personally feel like I understand why they opted for the rmx which was more strikingly different from the original song, but Manson's version still definitely has its merits.
     
  2. Bennington_Hahn

    Bennington_Hahn This goes out to everybody still hatin' LPA VIP

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    When I first got into LP way back in 2004/2005 "By Myself" was easily my favourite song. Over time this as changed quite a bit and I don't consider it in my top 10 anymore but i still hold a soft spot for it.
    Both remixes for this song in particular I still love, although I have over played both quite a bit. Stefs guitar work in Shinoda's remix is excellent and I love the altered chorus. And Mansons version is so dark and ominous. Especially after downloading this version by accident in 2005.

    To this day I still cannot decide which version is the favourite
     
  3. Filip

    Filip god break down the door LPA Contributor

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    Ahhh. I LOVE the guitar in the intro, the screeching just gets me every time. I just hope it transitioned into the verses a bit more... nicely. But it's alright. I like the verses, maybe it would have worked even better sung, but whatev. And then dat chorus! :awesome: I loved it since the first time I've heard it. Chester's voice just explodes, and it's really one of the highlights on the album. The breakdown is awesome aswell, for the same reason. Funny, the first time I heard ''Figure .09'', I thought ''oh awesome, this sounds so much like By Myself!''. Right now I'm just like... ''why does this sound so much like By Myself?''.

    I like the Reanimation remix of this song, I enjoy how different it is from the original. The Manson remix of this track I haven't heard in ages, but I don't remember being very fond of it. Maybe something's changed. Will listen to it laterz.
     
  4. Atticus

    Atticus Bullets lance the bravest lungs

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    Obviously that was sarcastic... I was just trying to explain how childish the chorus felt.

    By Myself is an awesome example of Linkin Park's classic "wall of noise" description they've been known for. Mike's rapping is spot-on and Chester's performance is superb. I've always imagined a locomotive steam whistle whenever that whooshing sample is used. It may sound silly but that's always the picture that pops in my head. The only problem with the song is that it feels incredibly dated, and it doesn't really take any risks. I find Crawling, Runaway, and By Myself to be the weakest section in Hybrid Theory because none of them are that special to me and so they just kind of get washed up by the more memorable bookends of the album.
     
  5. BTorio

    BTorio Well-Known Member

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    By Myself was one of the last songs I got into. I honestly found the screeching guitar to be kind of annoying. Eventually I liked it for whatever reason, and the bridge gets me super pumped. Also the reanimation version is one of the best tracks on reanimation. I love when Chester growls "buried in the silence of the answer" live.
     
  6. SeLDfC

    SeLDfC Well-Known Member

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    By Myself is like one of my all time favorite Linkin Park songs
    It shows that LP can go pretty aggressive and I just love the backround music on the rap parts :D
     
  7. The Joesen One

    The Joesen One Fun-employed LPA Super Member

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    Never really made an impact on me. I like the the bridge though.

    By_Myslf is superior to the original. I like the electronica element to me and the bridge was structured better.
     
  8. BIBBLE

    BIBBLE Well-Known Member

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    By Myself, dope ass song. I love the Lyrics when Mike raps "If I let them go i'll be out done, but if i try to catch them i'll be out run, if i'm killed by the questions like a cancer, then I'll be buried in the silence till the answer", those are some of LP's best lyrics IMO. The reanimation version is pretty good too, not the best on the album but good. I prefer the original.
     
    Last edited: Jul 21, 2014
  9. hawk

    hawk because the internet LPA Super VIP

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    In The End / Enth E Nd

    this song right here started it all for me. it was actually the song i was listening to at work that
    brought this thread idea to my head. if my memory serves me correctly, this is the first song from
    Linkin Park that i actually straight jammed out to. every other track seems like something i've just
    heard but i will always remember "In The End".

    it takes me back to old desktop pc we had that was as slow as hell, and i would spend ages creating
    PowerPoint animations about wrestling. some of them better than others, i always remember this one
    specific one that i liked to much the others paled in comparison. :lol:

    also: floppy discs. man, shit, good times. i appreciate what this song holds, nostalgically, for me and
    because of that it will always remain one of my favorite Linkin Park songs, alongside "The Catalyst" and
    "Jornada del Muerto".



    and then there is this ...

    it's not bad but doesn't do much for me, probably due to my love for the original.

     
  10. Filip

    Filip god break down the door LPA Contributor

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    In The End. The first song I've ever heard from LP. But not in 2001 like the rest of you, it was about 2007/2008. Prior to this, I knew a bunch of Fort Minor songs, but it wasn't until 2009 that I would know there's a connection between the two acts. One of Croatia's main TV Channels used to have a program called ''Music Hour'' which was from 7-8 p.m. They basically switched between 10 or 15 tracks. Which meant In The End was played every day, or at least every other day. This is how fucking late we are here. I still admit to being a pussy afraid of everything, imagine what it was like when I was 9. So, for the first few times, I didn't watch the video. I closed my eyes and listened to the song. And it was fucking heaven. It was possibly the first song I ever truly loved. When we got the internet, about a year later (this is how fucking late we were!), it was just days and days of playing In The End video, as I realized there wasn't anything scary in it. Nowadays I still like the track, but I don't go and listen to it very often. I don't change the channel when the video comes on MTV Rocks, which is something I do with Numb/Somewhere I Belong. I enjoy the piano loop, the verses, the chorus, the breakdown... everything. About a year or two ago, my dad started playing it on the guitar, and I realized how fucking awesome the harmonics in this song are. Right now, it's without a doubt my favorite element of the track. Some of Mike's best written verses every right here aswell.

    The Reanimation mix, Enth E Nd, I also love. It's got some old school hip hop vibe that I love. The beat sounds almost Dre-esque. It's probably because of the piano loop. I love Mike's rewritten verses, I love the guest verse. And possibly my favorite thing about the track is how they altered Chester's chorus, and how at the very end he's just repeating e-e-e-e-e-e. I love that. And I love how this track was mashed up with IZZO. I don't know if we'll be doing Collision Course, so there's that.
     
  11. lime treacle

    lime treacle You are not alone Über Member

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    in the eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeend

    This was the first song ever I learned by heart.

    Except I didn't know English all that much, so a lot of it was just mumbling what I was hearing.
     
    Last edited: Jul 21, 2014
  12. BIBBLE

    BIBBLE Well-Known Member

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    In The End, it's a classic. I was singing the song when I was 2, I knew the song way before I knew who Linkin Park was. It's an amazing song, great lyrics, catchy, meaningful. Everyone loves this song. And when played live it's still amazing. One of LP's best songs.

    The reanimation version is good as well, not as good as the original but good. Mike verse in it is very great.
     
  13. Alexrednex

    Alexrednex Well-Known Member

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    Same with me.
    This song was what got me into music. Period.
    And that is probably why I still love the song - while not liking the reanimation version at all.
     
    Last edited: Jul 21, 2014
  14. Atticus

    Atticus Bullets lance the bravest lungs

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    In The End will ALWAYS be a classic. It may not do anything spectacular sonically, but the fact that I've never EVER heard of someone outright disliking this song speaks volumes for its universal appeal. Not to mention the piano riff is just so masterful in subtlety.
     
  15. Michele

    Michele Praise Brad Delson, our Lord and Savior. LPA Addict

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    In The End.

    I didnt listened that much to music until a friend show me some Linkin Park songs. THis was the first one.
    It was ... fantastic. I love all about this classic song. The piano, the rap the chorus the bridge. Its a ,asterpiece of a song. There is NOONE i know who dislike this song. Also people who rent that much into the rock genre and more into the mainstream one. This song is amazing. It took me through some (hard) times.

    I dont always listen to In The End, but when i do , i FUCKING enjoy it.
    Not only a Linkin Park classic, but also a classic in the rock genre.

    Some Non LP Fan Quoted it as a "Song of a whole generation"
     
    Last edited: Jul 21, 2014
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  16. Tyler

    Tyler Well-Known Member

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    I don't know where to start with this song, so instead I'll just spitball things about it.

    -I fucking love it

    -It's a great song to use to introduce new fans

    -The performance at Sonisphere 2009 is the best live version of the song (and possibly for the band) ever.

    -This past year, I had a powerpoint that I presented in Statistics and I used Linkin Park as an example for a test that I performed. After rambling for a minute about the connection, I said "But in the end, it doesn't even matter." It took a second for the class to get the joke, but they were laughing a lot, even though my teacher didn't get it and thought I had just disregarded my entire project. One of my only good memories from high school.
     
  17. BTorio

    BTorio Well-Known Member

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    The song that never gets old, no matter how many times I hear it, no matter the situation, I get into it. Incredibly universal lyrics, the perfect balance of soft, ballady sounds with aggression. Catchiest hook of all time, instantly recognizable to anyone. My favorite thing to karoke. I could go on forever about this one, but I'll leave it at being my fav LP track and my go to when someone asks me my favorite song of all time.
     
  18. The Joesen One

    The Joesen One Fun-employed LPA Super Member

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    In the End is the poppiest metal song ever. It's so catchy. I never really got addicted to it, but it has aged gracefully for me.
     
  19. minuteforce

    minuteforce Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance. LPA Team

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    In 2001 (and 2002), "In The End" was a massive hit in my country. I could tune into pop or rock radio at any single time during the day and reliably expect to hear it. It was on "Video Hits" every weekend. It was constant and everywhere. I loved it. This was the song which properly introduced Mike Shinoda as the guy in Linkin Park who performed the rapping. On "One Step Closer", he had no vocals at all; then, on "Crawling", he has the two bars. Coming after those, "In The End" showed him going all-out.

    Eventually, in late 2001, someone that I knew bought "Hybrid Theory" and, then, I came to love all the songs on that album as much as "In The End".

    The first thing that I like about "In The End" is the combination of strings and piano in the intro. These sounds are laced throughout the track and give it a cinematic quality which I think sets it apart sonically from the other songs on "Hybrid Theory". I think that that lead to a video which was appropriately larger in scope compared to the ones the band had made for "Crawling" and "One Step Closer".

    After that, there's Shinoda's rapping (and accompanying vox effects). Sure, the rhyme schemes on those earlier albums are laughable now but, just the same, I really feel what he says in that song. Chester's singing is great too but, in the context of the rest of the album, the sung parts are average. In more recent years, the Auto-Tune on the singing in the bridge has become more noticeable to me.

    Basically, this is the song that made me (and countless others) a fan of the band so it holds a special place in my heart for that. I think it's my third-favourite track on the album, after "With You" and "Cure".

    I like the "Reanimation" remix too, partly because KutMasta Kurt's production is pretty distinctive and "Enth E ND" sounds like one of his tracks - in the same way, the "H! Vltg3" beat sounds like something off a Dilated Peoples album, and there are one or two other instances of distinctive production styles throughout "Reanimation" as well. :) I respect that. Shinoda's new verses are just as good as the ones on "Hybrid Theory" - on a technical level, I think that they're actually better, but whether or not they deliver on emotion is the thing that's debated. Motion Man's verse is one of my least-favourite guest verses on the album, though, alongside Phoenix Orion's verse on the "Runaway" remix.

    The video for "Enth E ND" is the only one of those "Reanimation" Playback videos which I actually like. I wish that it had seen more circulation on video channels at the time, rather than being confined to that one broadcast event.

    On a side-note, I actually got to see Fort Minor perform "Enth E ND" live when I caught them on tour in 2006. That was a nice treat for the Linkin Park fans.

    The demo version of "In The End" is quite interesting as well. First and foremost, those rap verses are something else. Technically, they're on a whole other level compared to the verses the band decided on for the final "Hybrid Theory" track but, again, whether or not they're more style than substance is where I think fans might be divided. Secondly, there's the extended bridge, which features the one stanza being sung through three times rather than two, with more dynamic changes than the final song had - I love that. The harmonies on the second and third instances of that bridge stanza should have been kept for the final song, in my opinion, but I guess that the way they decided to arrange the vocals for the final version has its merits. The anguish in Chester's singing comes through clearer with just the single vocal melody.
     
  20. Vic

    Vic No game no life

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    This song has just so many stories behind it, when I heard this song I was shocked of how awesome it was. Probably the most catchy chorus on a Linkin Park song and that's what makes it so special. I love this song, my favorite track from Hybrid Theory and one of LP's bests.
     

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