Derek said AFN is a crowd pleaser so I'm still hyped for that song! I'm hyped for all the songs left! KTTK, FM, and ALITS got my most attention
yeah, since living things that i'm not enjoying his rap, its becoming more and more hollow, his lyrics are a bit redundant. i like his HT/meteora rap much more than the recent ones. i much rather hear mike sing.
Same! I'm excited to hear it all. I think a lot of people fall victim to the "groupthink" phenomenon where they'll love a certain song until they see it's received negative feedback. Then they hate it. That's why you're cool Blake, you don't let other opinions affect your excitement. No ones opinions should have power over anyone elses.
Errr.. have you heard of those two songs? [youtube]C2khAbHqDbg[/youtube] [youtube]T3220U8CnGY[/youtube]
Even those aren't to everyone's taste. IMO, Shinoda only outshines Pusha T on "I'll Be Gone" because Push wasn't even trying. At all. My opinion on Shinoda's raps in general is positive, just the same.
I remember hearing Until It Breaks the first time and feeling like there was nothing to it, a weirdly structured mash of demos with hollow lyrics. However, overtime it grew on me, I found that the lyrics flow really well and and are quite applicable to situations in real life, now I think it's some of his best rap in recent years. The band has matured overall, songs from their first two albums having lyrics to do with anger, guilt, breakups, emotional turmoil and what not are not so much the kind they write now. If you notice the lyrics in recent LP songs have matured and appeal to a larger range of people with different ages. For example Wastelands, depending on interpretation, seems to explore themes like being strong in situations where you have little control and not caring about how people judge you when you know your potential. Contrast that with most of the songs from HT and Meteora where they focus more on emotions from breakups or lacking confidence in oneself, which can apply to a lot more teenagers than other age groups.
Mike's "tough guy rap" is really fun and you can bop your head to it. However, what happened to things like Kenji, Slip Out The Back, etc? I'm not talking about angst rap. I'm talking about the times when Mike's verses would make you re-evaluate yourself and the world around you, make you consider what it's like to be in somebody else's shoes. I miss that. I don't dislike his current rap verses though. Like I said, they're really fun.
I don't get what people were expecting? It was never likely that this album was going to be the best metal album ever known to man, or something that changed the face of rock music for years to come. What it is likely to be is an energetic, fun album where most fans of LP will find something they like and the energy brought to the live shows by these new songs will also be great to see. Imo none of LP's albums have been full of earth shatteringly amazing, ground breaking tracks, but they're all enjoyable with one or two real stand outs and from what i've heard so far this album will be the same.
Yeah, those verses on Recharged were good, same as Fort Minor's stuff. But his rap verses on LT are just...I don't know, redundant,clunky,... I just don't quite like them. (except Victimized)
I like his verses on "Living Things" more than those on "Recharged", which are unfortunately contextualised by the presence of other rappers. And I don't like the Fort Minor stuff, where the same thing happens.
Tbh, when I was kind of hoping that what Mike said about this album almost being like a precursor to Hybrid Theory it might mean a return to a similar style and lyrical content from stuff like Step Up, Dedicated, or even quick fire stuff like Reading my Eyes. It seems that isn't the case though.
The whole "prequel" thing has been misinterpreted from day one. It wasn't ever meant to sound anything like that, the whole point was that they wanted to feel inspired in the same way they did before making HT. It was more of a mentality and approach style than anything else.
IMO Mike's rapping skill is fully shown in The Rising Tied. Man, I always have goosebumps whenever I listen to those songs. But I don't really that feeling when I listen to Lost in the Echo, Lies Greed Misery, or even Until It Breaks. Unfortunately, Mike continues that rapping style in Wastelands (except the 'John Lennon reference'). But I still looking forward to hearing those tracks though.