Meteora is exactly what Meteora was supposed to be. After hearing "Pretty Birdy" it's pretty evident that the band never had this abstract Hybrid Theory gone apeshit type record in mind. I honestly believe they wanted to continue their sound and keep establishing their band before they ventured off into new territory. You can play me all of these 2002 demos and go "oh this sounds so different but Warner forced them to make a profitable record" but i'll just laugh at you. Listen to "Pretty Birdy". Sounds the same as all of those demos. A crazy unique electronic loop and rough guitar work. They just wanted to clean everything up and make it sound better. Songs like "Cumulus" and "Program" sound very Linkin Park, but so does "Lying From You". That's why they are demos. They are rough sketches of songs that never were. They probably have rough sketches of "Lying From You" and "Don't Stay" that we may never hear, but if we heard those songs in demo form first you all would say "oh this Lying From You 2002 demo sounds crazy and different". Half of the fans on this boards are too blind to see that the band simply didn't want to do something different without standing their ground and establishing themselves first. If you cleaned up Halo, and through some vocals on there and sent it to Campbell there's a 95% chance it would blend right into Meteora and not be a stand out track. I'm denouncing all of this bullshit. Oh he made them rewrite "Somewhere I Belong" and handful of times? I guess he did the same for "Bleed It Out" too right? Yeah..thought so.
I don't think anyone is going to seriously imply Meteora was ever going to be drastically different, but I really think they didn't go in intending to polish it up as much as Gilmore eventually had them do and that probably would have made a noticeable difference in the finished product. They've never not been a very pop-friendly, formula centric band, you're right, but I'll still insist the ol Gilmore polish did a substantial difference on those first two albums.
The music isn't really the problem with Meteora. A third of the album isn't nu-metal and half of the songs that are nu-metal at least have interesting loops. That already puts it above Hybrid Theory as a listening experience. The problem is with the lyrics. The lyrics on Hybrid Theory weren't good, but they weren't extremely pandering to suburban kids who have a shitty day once in a while.
I don't care what people think Meteora should have been, what people think it is. I like it – that's what matters.
This probably has little to do with the actual topic but to me the final version of Faint is better than the demo. The main riff sounds so dull with that lower tone it had.
It's not a black and white issue. Linkin Park felt pressure from a lot of angles to make Meteora the way it was: themselves, fans, and the label. Chester has talked about how Don Gilmore behaved while they were in the studio. Don's a label guy, not an artist guy. They played a role. But yeah, it's not like they were going to take it in a completely different direction.
I can't say I disagree with this. Every Meteora demo that's been released sounds like...a Meteora demo.
Of course that the final version sounds better, but the lyrics and the flow are the big difference...
So...that settles it. Linkin Park pretty much did not intent to start breaking new ground with this record from the very beggining anyway. Most, if not all the demos so far, prove that. So whether someone enjoys the album or not is a matter of personal taste. I don't think there's a reason to keep talking about how the label put pressure upon them. It's funny 'cause such topics had started to appear for Living Things too, like...a year ago due to the fact that it was not as ground-breaking as ATS in terms of experimentation. I mean, it cannot be due to label's pressure everytime LP decide to play it safe or not. Meteora was in the beggining of their carrier so it can be considered logical for them to not think about going bonkers in their musical progress from the get-go. And Living Things was not about creating a brand new sound but blending all the ingredients that have been created so far through the years of their music career.
The grammar in my original post was awful. Sorry about that, I was falling asleep. I seemed a little upset in the first post but i'm just so used to seeing people claim the Meteora we never heard was supposed to be this dark, different album and we just got Hybrid Theory II. The point that was proved to me through their music, and the point I wanted to bring up was simply the fact that no demo really indicates that they had a different goal in mind. Those demos with some vocals and polishing would blend right into Meteora. And people say the band was pressured to re-write Somewhere I Belong a handful of times, but they also did it to themselves (hah) with Bleed It Out.
This is a subject that doesn't have an entirely clear explanation. I personally love most of the released demos from the Meteora Era and think that the majority of them still have so much potential to become memorable songs. While these demos aren't drastically different from the final product, they did have a more ambient, atmospheric sound and feel to them thanks to the unique sampling and electronic effects. I would go as far to say that the demos are more atmospheric than several of the songs that made the cut due to the placement of the aforementioned sampling and effects. To me, Meteora is a fantastic addition to LP's discography but could have been even more unique if it had the techniques from the demos instead of a heavy emphasis on guitars in almost every song.