01) Breaking The Habit 02) Lying From You 03) Papercut 04) A Place For My Head 05) Faint 06) New Divide 07) Lost In The Echo 08) Points of Authority 09) Burn It Down 10) Crawling 11) Iridescent 12) Bleed It Out 13) In The End 14) My December 15) What I've Done
1. Waiting for the End: I fell in love with this song right away and it continues to be one of my all-time favorite songs. If you break it down, it's a simple pop ballad with rapping around it. The experimentation with the structure and instrumentation really helps and Mike and Chester nail the vocals to bring this song to the next level. 2. Until it Breaks: Mike delivers some of his finest rapping on this track flexing lyrical muscles most probably didn't realize he had. Chester's mini-verse/chorus thing sounds amazing and puts a nice little breather between Mike's monstrous raps. Brad's singing at the end really ties everything together sonically and reminds me of Hands Held High in a way. The crazy structure alone made this a standout track on Living Things but it's the execution that puts it here among my favorite Linkin Park songs. 3. One Step Closer: This song will always hold a special place in my heart as my first favorite song. It got me into the band, into music, and I will always love it because of that. The song itself isn't anything special really and is simple, angsty nu-metal. It's fun to rock out to though. 4. Roads Untraveled: Mike's voice is just perfect for this song. He sounds so wonderfully vulnerable on this track as he sings the first two verses. "The love that you lost wasn't worth what it cost/and in time you'll be glad it's gone" is probably my favorite set of lines from any Linkin Park song and then dropping all lyrics for the next minute or so really lets that one sink in. The vibe, the build, and the lyrics are just amazing. Having Chester sing after everything drops our was also a nice choice as his voice definitely gives a different feel and is perfect for his compassionate verse before everything explodes once more in a dramatic flourish to finish the song. 4. In Between: Tied with Roads Untraveled is our first experience with Mike singing a whole song. His vulnerable voice once again shines on this one and fits the mood of the song perfectly. This song made me love Mike as a musician even more than I already did. After Rising Tied opened the world of hip-hop to me, this song opened the world of soft music to me. Without it, I wouldn't have given Minutes to Midnight another chance and I'd probably be stuck in the "if it doesn't have heavy distorted guitars, it ain't worth listening to" mindset that I was in pre-2007. 6. And One: Speaking of heavy distorted guitars, this is probably the BEST song out LP's nu-metal days. Chester sounds angry on this one and growls out some of my favorite pre-MTM Linkin Park lyrics. The catchy, heavy chorus and some experimentation with the structure that was mostly absent from other Hybrid Theory and Meteora era tracks are also big reasons why this is among my favorites. Mike's rap at the end is also pretty great. 7. Blackout: Linkin Park is really at their best when they experiment. Chester's angry vocals sound crazy against the poppy synthesized background but somehow manage to work wonderfully. After the second chorus, we have one of my personal favorite moments from any LP song in that crazy glitched-out bridge before settling down into that amazing outro. 8. Part of Me: Some of my favorite verses from Mike in a farily standard rap-rock tune. Combine those raps with some of my favorite riffs in any Linkin Park songs and you have a winner. Also, I love the way Chester sounds on all these HTEP tunes. He sounds so angry and has that nice grunge tone to his voice. I wish he'd sing like that more. 9. Victimized: Linkin Park being heavy AND experimenting a bit? Yes, please! Having one verse sung and the other rapped definitely caught me by surprise on the first listen. Hyped up as LP's heaviest song to date, it didn't disappoint as Chester screams over distorted guitars to intersperse Mike's verses. If it had been a little longer (maybe a guitar solo?) it would have been even higher on this list. 10. Figure.09: I don't know what it is about this song, but I can't get enough of it. 11. Jornada del Muerto 12. When They Come For Me 13. Skin to Bone 14. A Place For My Head 15. Castle of Glass
1. The Catalyst 2. LOST IN THE ECHO 3. In The End 4. Faint 5. Burning In The Skies 6. Pushing Me Away 7. UNTIL IT BREAKS 8. ROADS UNTRAVELED 9. Forgotten 10. Wretches and Kings 11. Numb 12. CASTLE OF GLASS 13. Bleed It Out 14. A Place For My Head 15. Waiting For The End
1. Waiting for the End 2. Breaking the Habit 3. Forgotten 4. UNTIL IT BREAKS 5. The Catalyst 6. Bleed It Out 7. Iridescent 8. In The End 9. Shadow of the Day 10. ROADS UNTRAVELED 11. Blackout 12. Issho Ni 13. LOST IN THE ECHO 14. Papercut 15. Valentine's Day
Before I list my top 15, I'm going to describe my process: It's 2-3 from each album wherever possible. I'm including Reanimation in it, and I'm restricting it to 2-3 because I'd include every damn ATS track if I could. Top 15 Linkin Park Tracks (1) Roads Untraveled: I don't know if it's because it's still early in the Living Things era, but Roads Untraveled easily takes my top spot due to the great instrumental, the emotional lyrics and the refusal to word the chorus (opting instead for the wails of "oohs" and "aahs"). Easily a top 3 mainstay for me. (2) The Little Things Give You Away: Some love the consumable, chew-then-spit, disposable singles of the 3 minute variety, others the 6-7 minute epics. This song is the latter, and gets 2nd place for the incredible build-up, the relevant lyrics and Brad's explosive guitar solo. His solo alone elevates the track high in my list. Epic stuff indeed. (3) P5hng Me A*wy: An extremely solid remix to an already solid album closer, this track was reworked, given more emotion and had an excellent vocal appearance by Stephen Richards. Easily the winner from Reanimation. (4) The Catalyst: We know the story - on its release this track was ripped apart by critics and LP's hardcore fans alike. It didn't make sense as a single but with the release of the album everything just made sense; the crescendo of layered electronica, the despair in the lyrics, and finally the emotional, piano-backed cries of the last act made The Catalyst evolve from a much-maligned piece to one of the most epic penultimate tracks ever. (5) In the End: Legend goes that the band originally wanted this track out of Hybrid Theory due to their belief that it wasn't any good. In the end, it didn't even matter as they included it anyway and it went on to become a runaway success. Excellent instrumentals and catchy lyrics made In the End an instahit. (6) Breaking the Habit: As a whole, Meteora didn't do much for me. Only Breaking the Habit stood out as the soul beacon of the album, with its depressing theme, its integrity and its unique instrumental. One of the critics even referred to the track as "daring art". (7) When They Come for Me: For fairness' sake (towards the other albums), WTCFM should've been higher. Don't let the number order fool you though: WTCFM is one hell of a track which (surprisingly for me) is disliked by quite a lot of fans. What is there to hate? It's got Mike's incredible verses, bass-breaking tribal drums, more swagger than Mick Jagger and a Middle-Eastern sounding chorus which not only succeeds in breaking radio-song tradition, but also succeeds in keeping consistent with the apocalyptic, war themes of the whole album. (8) Lost in the Echo: A solid track from their most recent album, LITE combines all of the best elements from their previous work which results in a track that not only plucks the strings of nostalgia, but also rouses the crowd and draws the tears out of fans (upon hearing Chester rage-screaming). (9) Papercut: The place where it all started for some, Papercut is a heavy classic that showcased the talents of the band to the world. No one (if anyone) really found success with the rap/rock combination until* Mike and Chester spat out the lines of paranoia to get beneath the skin of newly infected fans and casual listeners alike. (10) Leave Out All the Rest: Claimed to have been finished in the first few recordings, LOATR proved that the band not only had great compositional skill, but really knew how to evoke emotion from the listener. At least, they managed to extract a lot from me personally during a time where everything went wrong. (11) Iridescent: Another from the ATS highlights reel, Iridescent gets praise for its hauntingly beautiful instrumental, its emotional build-up and the crowd-rousing ending that provides hope for a journey so bleak at times. Also contains one of my all-favourite lines from the band, "Remember all the sadness and frustration, and let it go." (12) In Pieces: An exciting, exhilarating race to the album finisher, In Pieces strategically builds up a whole heap of layers before letting Brad loose with a killer guitar solo that leaves another ear-gasmed fan biting the dust (or in this case, in pieces). (13) Castle of Glass: I'm standing on a crack in this castle of opinions, especially with its placing, but upon repeated listenings Castle of Glass fell sharply for me. That said, it's still a killer track - the unique percussion, the industrial feel and some great lyrics make it one of the better Linkin Park songs. (14) Krwlng: The original mix was an emotional piece that had potential, and this remix unleashed that potential. Beautiful instrumentals (that violin!), a slow-paced charge and strong guitars really helped make Krwlng the song Crawling wanted to be. (15) Numb: Initially I preferred Easier to Run over this, but repeated listenings confirmed this to be the better track. The representation of LP's entire nu-metal era, Numb was supported by wailing guitars, great percussion and Chester's always incredible voice. Its nu-metal perfection managed to help it sneak into my Top 15 list. Honourable Mentions (HM1) A Place for My Head: Almost got in with Chester's all-out bonkers screaming ("You try to take the best from me, go away!"). (HM2) 1stp Klosr: Just missed out due to the unnecessary lengthening of a tight and compact track. (HM3) Session: Gets a mention for being the best instrumental-only track compared to the others. (Guilty Mention) Lies Greed Misery: Yeeeeeah! F*** you!!!!
1. Waiting For The End 2. P5hng Me A*Wy 3. New Divide 4. Blackout 5. Figure.09 6. Easier To Run 7. Given Up 8. By_Myslf 9. Wth>You 10. Lies Green Misery 11. When They Come For Me 12. Iridescent 14. Lost In The Echo 15. In My Remains I don't know if this is the EXACT order but it's close.
1.-The Catalyst 2.-The Little Things Give You Away 3.-Krwlng/Crawling 4.-TINFOIL/POWERLESS 5.-The Requiem/The Radiance/Burning In The Skies (I just can't listen to these songs separately) 6.-IN MY REMAINS 7.-Pushing Me Away 8.-Blackout 9.-Shadow Of The Day 10.-CASTLE OF GLASS 11.-Papercut 12.-In The End 13.-Forgotten 14.-Lying From You 15.-Hands Held High 6.-
After listening to every album the last week and giving each track an honest review, here's my finalized list as of now. 01. The Little Things Give You Away 02. Blackout 03. Lost In The Echo 04. Tinfoil/Powerless 05. The Catalyst 06. Victimized 07. In Pieces 08. Roads Untraveled 09. Iridescent 10. Waiting For The End ____________________________________ 11. Faint 12. A Place For My Head 13. No More Sorrow 14. In My Remains 15. When They Come For Me
1. When They Come For Me 2. Nobody's Listening 3. Castle of Glass 4. Faint 5. In Pieces 6. Waiting for the End 7. Pushing Me Away 8. High Voltage 9. Bleed It Out 10. Lying From You 11. Until It Breaks 12. Lost in the Echo 13. Wretches and Kings (Beat is dope) 14. Breaking the Habit 15. TLTGYA
My TOP 15 is: 1)Blackout 2)Breaking The Habit 3)Waiting For The End 4)Roads Untraveled 5)Pushing Me Away 6)Faint 7)Drag 8)Faint 9)The Catalyst 10)Lying From You 11)Iridescent 12)In The End 13)When They Come For Me 14)With You 15)Points Pf Authority But actually EVERY song is awesome !
1. The Catalyst 2. In Pieces 3. Papercut 4. Esaúl 5. Bleed It Out 6. In My Remains 7. Rhinestone 8. With You 9. Leave Out All The Rest 10. Roads Untraveled 11. No Roads Left 12. Jornada Del Muerto/Waiting For The End 13. Until It Breaks 14. When They Come From Me 15. Skin to Bone
1. My December 2. Faint 3. A Place For My Head 4. In the End 5. Breaking the Habit 6. And One 7. She Couldn´t 8. Across the Line 9. Pretend To Be 10. Castle of Glass 11. Lost in the Echo 12. Roads Untraveled 13. Blue 14. Don´t Stay 15. Papercut
Top 5 (no order) 1. Waiting for the End 2. Leave Out All the Rest 3. Points of Authority 4. Papercut 5. New Divide 6. In the End 7. Breaking the Habit 8. Iridescent 9. The Catalyst 10. In Pieces 11. Numb 12. Powerless 13. Shadow of the Day 14. Valentine's Day 15. Given Up Living Things tracks are still growing on me, but so far: HT: 3 Meteora: 2 MTM: 5 ATS: 3 LT: 1 Other single: 1 I never noticed, but I actually liked MTM the most?
1. My<Dsmbr 2. Wth>You 3. P5hng Me A*wy 4. Krwlng 5. Ppr:Kut 6. When They Come for Me 7. Robot Boy 8. Lost in the Echo 9. Victimized 10. Roads Untraveled 11. High Voltage 12. By Myself 13. Leave Out All the Rest 14. The Little Things Give You Away 15. Shadow of the Day
1. Iridescent 2. Roads Untraveled 3. Waiting For The End 4. Burning in the Skies 5. The Little Things Give You Away 6. Castle of Glass 7. Robot Boy 8. The Catalyst 9. Powerless 10. Blackout 11. When They Come for Me 12. The Messenger 13. Shadow of the Day 14. Skin to Bone 15. Wretches and Kings
1. Numb 2. In The End 3. Breaking The Habit 4. Lost In The Echo 5. Crawling 6. Papercut 7. The Catalyst 8. Faint 9. From The Inside 10. Somewhere I Belong 11. Blackout 12. One Step Closer 13. Pushing Me Away 14. Powerless 15. Castle Of Glass Sorry Points Of Authority, New Divide, When They Come for Me, A Place For My Head... and many others