Linkin Park - One More Light (May 19, 2017) Album • Page 12

I didn't have very high expectations after the singles, but I don't like this very much. Heavy is still probably my favorite track on here. Chester and Mike sound great, but not much else that excites me on here.

 

I think that comparison is pretty specific to the last song. (Although, I agree I don't hear Mumford that much in it, it sounds more like the pop folk songs that have been popular lately).

 

Heavy, Sorry for Now, and Halfway Right are my three favorite songs on here. That's a good stretch.

 

Maybe I just stopped paying attention towards the end of the album but I don't even remember the last song sounding folk-y at all. May relisten to that track.

 

I have listened to the first half of the record and the two best songs were the first and third (the two that weren't released before). I'll listen to the other half later.

Also what's up with that high-pitch vocal effect lately? I've heard it in Good-Goodbye, Thunder by Imagine Dragons, Young and Menace, all in like one month.

 

From what I've heard (the singles, and skimming through the rest of the album), just seems pretty boring and generic to me. Sounds like a bunch of safe, mainstream, pop attempts, which would be fine, but it just isn't fresh or exciting at all.

 

I have yet to hear any of these songs on the radio.

 

After finishing the album, I can say the best songs are the ones that weren't released before.

 

AllMusic once again falls in line with my own opinions:

One More Light - Linkin Park | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic

"From their inception, Linkin Park connected through catharsis. However, many of the emotions presented here are fleeting. The issue isn't that it's a pop effort; indeed, they get points for a brave attempt so outside of their wheelhouse. The problem is that much of One More Light is devoid of that visceral charge that previously defined much of their catalog. It's a provocative challenge that ultimately fails to satisfy."

 

Just started OML and I'm really digging this first track.

 

so uhhhhhh this album is the weirdest thing i've heard in a long time. not in terms of sounds and styles, but when you look at the big picture, their entire discography, their presence in the whole music realm. it's very out there. i think it's the first time i truly don't get a Linkin Park album. i don't get its purpose, what it is trying to accomplish. i'm just lost, and i think the band is as well.

 

no way. FOB does pop way better than Linkin Park and I will defend Young And Menace to death lol, tho it sounds like a generic brostep remix from soundcloud from like 2012

 

How's this weirder in the context of their discography than something like A Thousand Suns?

 

I don't even know where to start. To keep it simple, it is the extreme opposite of The Hunting Party in one particular way : it doesn't showcase all the talents AT ALL.


My main gripe about THP was Chester's vocals. Not only did he sound strained and was pushing his voice way too hard in order to fit the alt metal sound they were going for, but he was also out of ideas. Seriously, he was literally using the same vocal melodies over and over again, which made for an one-dimensional album. Not surprising that Until It's Gone became one of my favorite songs recently, despite its genericness, because it's a well written one vocally. There's a hook, and a good one, something that can't be said for half of that record.

My second main gripe is easy to find, as it is Joe Hahn's absence. Well, of course he shows up in it but there isn't a single part where he is doing something memorable.


What about One More Light then ? Finally, it is such a vocal driven album, both for Chester and Mike, tho I still miss his rap parts. Plenty of hooks, like some of their best ones ever. The electronics are back, and this time on the forefront. Mike is adding lots of keys, even more than ever from what I remember.


Then... that's it.


Before I continue, I'll clarify that I don't think it's an awful album front to back. There's some good stuff in it, especially the title track, which is already a top tier song out of their entire discography.


However, and I want someone to prove me wrong, Linkin Park's best songs are the ones where the 6 members all make use of their skills.


And this album fails in that crucial aspect. On each song, there's something missing, something that could make it more than a weird attempt at sounding current.


Because the latter is the thing that bothers me the most about OML : it sounds like a band aping sounds and styles played to death in the last decade. For fuck's sake, there are literally songs that feel like they were written 8 years too late (you know, that Mumford & Songs one), not because they sound dated in 2017, but even for a band like Linkin Park, it feels like they took no effort to create. Lyrics have never been their strongest point, yet this time they are strangely juvenile. Melodies and chord progressions are recycled from all of the most popular mainstream songs of the past years.


I don't care that this is a 100 % pop album. I'm a big fan of pop music. This is the genre I listen the most to. There is so much brillant stuff being released every single day in it, be it from mainstream artists or from the most underground ones. I'm pretty sure I'm able to differentiate good pop from bad pop. I'm always ready to defend the most hated bands, artists, even subgenres. Over the years, I took so much shit for liking Maroon 5, Kesha, Kpop, Jpop, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Icona Pop, because people love to hate on them.


That said, this album isn't good at all. Again, I love the title track and to me, they should have gone in that direction instead. I still like Good Goodbye and Heavy, my mind hasn't changed for these ones. Then, I appreciated few of the new songs. Sorry For Now should have had dual vocals, or at least harmonies between Chester and Mike. I like it, tho the bridge feels lifted from late 90's / early 00's boybands. Talking To Myself reminds me of their best post-Meteora stuff, which means all of the bsides and demos released on the annual LPU releases. I'm sure there's one of two more songs I will grow to appreciate on my subsequent listens. We'll see.


At this point, I think the rest is bad. Like, really really bad. Remember that One Direction album where they basically ripped off classic rock songs ? I didn't really care because they nailed it and made it their own. Linkin Park don't know how to emulate mainstream 2010's pop. Maybe they thought they knew, but they failed. I don't even imagine where they can go from there. What will the next album sound like ? My best guess is something akin to Living Things in the sense that they need to release something way more diverse than their 2012 - 2017 stuff. Or, who knows, perhaps they'll go extra experimental again and try to recreate some vibes explored on A Thousand Suns ? Either way, I'll keep listening to the LPU albums over and over again, and cry over the huge amount of bad decisions made by the band. It's not a good thing when their best stuff can't be found on the official albums anymore.

 

see my post above

 

Honestly I agree with @Petit nain des Îles overall. I don't have any problem with the band going in a pop direction, but I think very little of this album really stands out or manages to be memorable. And honestly, I don't think Chester's voice is that well suited to modern pop music. I think the band thinks his singing fits some of these songs better than it actually does, because often it really does sound to me like a rock singer trying to imitate Top 40 style vocals. With it being SUCH a vocal and lyric-centric sound, I don't think either of those things really manage to push the album to be anything other than mediocre and forgettable for the most part.

 

This album is a pile of generic boring trash.

 

Reading their interviews, there seems to be a huge disconnect between what the band thinks they accomplished, and what the final product consists of. For them, this entire record is risky. For me, this is mostly some of the most bland, unchallenging and unexciting stuff I've heard this year. Last time I felt this bored listening to a mainstream pop album was with Ellie Goulding's "Delirium", one of my biggest disappointments of the last few years. Pop music should at least be fun right ?

 

I mean, it's definitely risky for them to try to make an album like this. It's not exactly what they're good at, like you and others have pointed out, and it's not the sort of album they've made before. So in that respect I see what they're saying.

It definitely seems like the lyrics on this one are more personal than they've typically written, which makes sense since they've talked about the lyrics being a starting point for the songs on this album. I do understand the criticism, and while I don't think they knocked this experiment out of the park by any means, I appreciate their continued willingness to experiment with different things (different for them, obviously, they're not doing revolutionary things in music. That they can write an album like THP followed by one like OML earns a lot of respect from me, even if the result isn't my favorite album ever.

 

Yeah, even though I think this album was a miss I definitely respect that they continue to try new things.

 

Also, the good thing about this band is that if you don't like one album, there's almost no chance the next will sound anything like it, haha.

 

If anything, I think this album would've made a lot more sense after A Thousand Suns. But their trajectory after that album started heading back towards the heavier sound, so this is a major left turn by comparison.

 

I'm just surprised that a band who's been in the game for as long as they have was able to release this as their final product. I have no problem with mixing things up, but I mean this is bad.

 

Yes I agree ! Their willingness to change it up every two / three years is something that I wish more bands would do. What irks me more is that they choose to discard their best stuff, like the most creative, or the most experimental, or even the catchiest / poppiest demos, and instead made songs based on boring -already heard a thousand times before- ideas.

When you hear their LPU material, they break their own formulas multiples times. They challenge themselves constantly, and aren't afraid to put themselves outside their comfort zone. So, I don't get why they seem to be on autopilot mode on The Hunting Party and One More Light. On both albums, it's like they had enough ideas for two or three GOOD metal or pop songs, then they thought "well okay let's make the album that way so we have to make 7 more songs with the same approach" and it shows. It sounds forced, tho I'm sure they never stopped being sincere during their writing process. Unfortunately, when I hear this record, I hear a band trying too hard to be something it isn't able to be, to paraphrase what @beachdude42 said. I call it a failure. My respect for the band doesn't change. I think I'm a bit in the same position as I remember being once Refused released "Freedom".

 

Yep that's why I love Coldplay so much too. Paramore joined the unpredictable bands club as well with their new album lol.