I'm not counting LT era yet, and I know Inky agrees with me. Here is why I really believe While it may have been the longest wait between albums, it was a worthwhile wait. - Minutes to Midnight was an amazing album - It was their best lyrically (IMO) - It was the first album where the band changed sounds - It had awesome song structures like Hands Held High, In Pieces, and TLGYA - The Given Up Scream - The Bleed It Out Raps - The epic mix of soft and heavy but it wasn't just the album itself it was other things - Best B-sides/demos/other songs (IMO) (5 of my 6 favorite B-sides/demos/songs came from MTM. Across the Line, Blackbirds, QWERTY, What We Don't Know, New Divide) - New Divide. While it was released after MTM it was still MTM era and MTM type feel of song. And it was a masterpiece - Form me, RTR had the best performance of BTH (IMO) - The beautiful style of music and shows around this time - No Roads Left and these are just some of the reasons why i think MTM era was the best, does anyone else agree?
MTM was a disorganized, chaotic album with very little overall direction. Given Up is cliche. Valentine's Day's ending defeats the song. Shadow of the Day is boring, Hands Held High is all lyrics and no music, New Divide is What I've Done part II, and in general the songs' instrumentation were very raw and didn't give much to listen for, and lacks the emotion I expect for more simplistic instrumentations. ATS is better lyrically, though i'll give MTM points for improving them, except where the album turns into toothless political complaining that doesn't bother to point fingers and name names. It also took forever to come out, though fortunately we had Fort Minor in between. The era was one of the biggest disconnects between the band and the fans. This was when the LPU was at it's very worst and dysfunctional, and the band communicated less with the fans than they did during ATS and Meteora times. The quality of their live shows fell from Meteora times, though I did like a number of their opening acts.
New Divide was not a MTM b-side/demo/song. Neither was QWERTY. QWERTY was just them doing a new song in a couple of days for the new shows in Japan using their formulaic structure for heavy songs. That's why Chester's lyrics suck fucking balls. New Divide was more of an ATS kind of song. Electronic, punchy. Just like The Catalyst. The band stated it was meant to bridge the gap between MTM and ATS. A Thousand Suns was definitely better than MTM. Lyric-wise, structure-wise, stylistically too. Although I do crave more of the organic sound (We still haven't heard the last b-side, Across The Line, No Roads Left, Blackbirds and What We Don't Know were the other ones), ATS's sound was much better.
damn, brutal much? MTM was a great album. At least I enjoy it. I'm sick of defending why I like Lp's albums on an Lp fan site
I like MTM, but it's way inferior to ATS imo. I much prefer the lyrics on ATS. Not to mention the fact that What I've Done, No More Sorrow, and Given Up were on MTM. I can't stand any of those songs. While I do love the other songs a lot, I feel that they didn't experiment as much as they could have. Imagine a 5-minute long In Pieces. That would make me jizz my pants right now Edit: I also hate New Divide too. Really generic and, as stated, is WID II. Even though it was written while they had already started writing for ATS, so it doesn't really count as being in the MTM era.
QWERTY was made during the cycle, it was never meant to be a Minutes To Midnight track. New Divide sounds nothing like MTM. As I said before, MTM is extremely organic. New Divide is the polar opposite of organic. You could argue that Pretend To Be and Lockjaw were MTM-sounding, but not New Divide.
MTM is my least favorite LP album to listen to. Yes, even more than Meteora which I can jam to mindlessly because it "sounds" good despite the weak lyrics and structures lifted off of HT. There is little flow to it and it's clear that LP wanted to be different but didn't know how to do it in a way that suits them.
Yeah I'm just sad at all the people bagging on Meteora here so I rained on MTM's parade XD Seriously though, why do you care about defending things, or other people's opinion for that matter? Opinions about LP albums are not srs business. There's no evidence for that claim. They decided it was not going to be a MTM song, but that does not exclude the possibility that it was written for it in the first place. Qwerty was trumpeted as the new song. There was no indication that Qwerty was not a MTM song until the LPU6 album was announced several months afterwards. Pretty much the lyrics were written at the last minute, just for Japan, but the song was one of the seeds from that session. LP were not trumpeting their change in sound until very close to MTM's release. They never said when they actually decided that internally, and whether or not it was before or after Qwerty was made.
I enjoyed MTM, but I will say that during this era I've always felt that the quality of the bands live shows dropped, especially Chester's vocals.
MTM was, in my opinion, tied with Hybrid Theory. Which is to say, pretty damn good. But doesn't hold a candle to A Thousand Suns or Reanimation.
There was actually an LPTV interview with Mike before Meteora came out with Mike saying that the 3rd LP album will be more experimental. 3 years later we got the generic QWERTY and it sucked balls and they were making things like LOATR and Not Alone at the time. It's pretty safe to say that it wasn't written or intended for the album. Especially since they weren't nearly done with the album. It's okay though, because it sucked balls. I do like MtM though.
I absolutely love QWERTY (guess why the pseudo). Despite the fact I'm a Metal fan and listen to Metallica, Machine Head, Pantera, and ton of other riff-based bands, Qwerty guitar riff is still one of my favorite ever. Also, MTM era on its whole was really good, and did deliver beast songs : In Pieces, TLTGYA, Across The Line, What We Don't Know, In Between, NMS,.. . The only thing that bothers me about this era is called :" Leave Out All The Rest". It's not that I hate the song, I just find it kinda weak. No. This can't be an opinion. This is evilness. Qwerty kick ass. LOATR sucks balls. Period. No, seriously though, how can you say Qwerty is generic and then LOATR is not? LOATR is verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus with a boysband vibe to it
It's not a great album, but given the circumstances (a band trying to chart a new path after years of rigidly composing formulaic music) I wouldn't expect it to be. Good or bad, the album needed to be made.
I've thought the same even though MTM is my least favorite LP album. They needed to get away from what they were comfortable with and throw shit at the wall so they could make the great album that ATS was and what the critics have said LT is in their reviews.
Well, unlike lots of you I love the album. and it is my 2nd favorite or tied for my 2nd favorite. LOATR is one of my favorite songs ever. and QWERTY is not generic, and i love it and think its better than half the album itself
QWERTY is LP rapping and screaming about lies and vague problems with someone over a simple beat. That was pretty much Meteora. LOATR sounds like they went back in time and asked Savage Garden how to make a hit song, then added guitars and made the song about dying. Chester also repeats the bridge at the end. It's not generic if it's not something that's been done to death.
You love it because it's heavy, not because it's better than half the album. It's extremely generic. QWERTY is stuff I'd expect a LP copycat that doesn't have a DJ make. He spits out fucking "Lies" 5 times in between the chorus and the pre-chorus. You think that is better than half the album?