I can picture Mike rapping on that already, but I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. But it does sound comfy, after THP, I'd definitely like something more reserved. It doesn't have to be a crazy experimental/concept rock album to be good or interesting.
This record, right now, is feeling so "un-especial". "We didn't planned anything for today. We just came here and Rob is playing some drums". - Mike said at the last livestream. This made me feel so... i don't know... empty. "Let's play and see what we can put here on this song" is so 'whatever, man'. I know a lot amazing songs started just as some improvised jams, but i can't see LP doing this.
Couldn't disagree more. If there's any LP record that this applies to, it's LT, and that's not a bad album by me. They were always like "we went into the studio and wrote short, "firecracker" songs for the crowds live". It was an album of carefully crafted pop songs for festival crowds, as are most LP albums. With THP, the band jammed a lot, which is how you should write a hard rock record. That felt special to me. But this record seems even more special. You can't base this off "we don't really have a plan for this particular day". That's probably the reason they live streamed in the first place. 'Cause they didn't have anything particular planned for the day. The band has spent a significant amount of time just writing the lyrics and melodies, as they say "pouring our hearts into these stories" and that makes the record seem like it will be special. But only time will tell.
I like the spontaneity we're seeing, particularly the way the band just goes ahead and gives us unplanned, casual Facebook streams to show us what's going on. There's something special about how freely they're interacting with fans and giving us content in a straightforward, no-frills manner. Personally, I feel more interested in a new LP album now than I did before. I feel more engaged, which I guess the goal. What I see now is that they've largely finished the writing and they're beginning to experiment to craft sonic elements (like drum loops) to use in arrangements. We're only getting tiny glimpses here, even when it comes to the process of putting together drum parts for one song, and even just that process could go in any direction from here. Shinoda might use the recordings he and Bourdon have made to create a complete arrangement which he then might have Bourdon record a final version of ... or he might re-create all the patterns digitally, or re-sample the reference tracks or whatever. All we saw were a couple of minutes of them messing around and getting started on developing rhythm ideas.
And this is what I like so much. It feels like they're just being creative. Not manufacturing anything. But really writing heartfelt music. And I've had that feeling for a while now, and I love it.
Totally agreeing with Filip and minute here. There's definitely a creative flow that I'm enjoying seeing — the band experimenting. My only disappointment (if it can even be called so) is the lack of enthusiasm (that we have seen) from the band about the music. With ATS and LT, the band were constantly blowing up on social media about how awesome something sounded or how excited about a certain element of a song. Of course, LT was ultimately a bit disappointing but it's always great seeing the band being just as enthusiastic as the fans are.
I don't really know what you're talking about here, can you name an example of this? It's for the better though. Why would they hype you up now for something that might not make it on to the album later?
My point is that during the ATS cycle, I really enjoyed hearing the LPTVs and blog posts from the band mentioning how they were so enthused and excited about details from the album such as the new sounds, changing up song structure, and the weirdness. Like little details that don't give away much but clearly shows the band is really, really excited about it. Now, I'm not saying they don't feel the same way now, but we just are not getting that personal aspect of how the band feels right now. More of just random snippets the band is revealing without any information on the picture. And I'm not sure what you mean by hyping something not showing up on the album, because I don't ever expect song titles or song snippets
I still feel like most of what you're talking about was revealed in the album promotion process, which hasn't begun for this record yet.
Definitely not. I remember waiting what felt like ages for ATS and that was even before New Divide came out. We have become spoiled in recent years as albums have come out so much faster.
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