Linkin Park - One More Light (May 19, 2017) Album • Page 14

it's an experience (ats)

 

which sounds pretentious but idk, the 10 or so actual songs are all strong and are meant to be presented in a seamless way, which is why all those small, actually pretty cool interstitials exist? never got everyone's beef with them

 

It definitely is meant to be consumed as a single entity. Like most, the interludes did bother me when it first came out but I eventually understood why they were all there as time went on. Waiting for the End and Iridescent are great examples of what I think they tried to do with this album, except those were done much better without sounding derivative. Though, I do enjoy Talking to Myself and actually like Sorry for Now, Halfway Right, and One More Light.

 

I hated ATS with a passion when it came out, but now I actually like it a lot.

 

The interstitials are what sold it for me. Throwing in Oppenheimer, MLK Jr. and Savio tied the album's themes together in a way I don't think many bands could pull off. There are definitely cornball moments (Chester's accent in "Wretches and Kings," that screams closer) but everything else is golden.

 

I think at the very least, releasing that album when they did, when they were still riding quite a bit of momentum, is commendable. The radical sound change in the form of a more difficult to digest concept album was ballsy and earned them respect from me. Yeah it was pretentious and overblown, but I got the sense that the shift was genuine and that the band had well-off intentions, they were just over their heads. In that sense I don't feel like this album and ATS are comparable. So little in this comes across as actual inspiration, it sounds like the band jumping onto soon-to-be outdated trends.

I'm bittersweet towards LP's constant sound shifting. On one hand, it's neat to go into one if their albums knowing it will be a different experience from the last, but ever since ATS it seems like their style changes are a response to outside influence. In retrospect it seems like Hunting Party was an album they made for the fans and this was the sound they were working towards. Honestly I'm pretty sure this album would have been easier to digest if it hadn't of come on the heels of such a left-turn and instead felt like the end result of a progression in their sound. Instead, it doesn't seem authentic and comes across as a response to the poor commercial reception their previous style shift resulted in.

 

Honestly, I've never had a problem with LP switching up styles with their albums and really, never even thought twice about it. Just figured it was a natural evolution. I loved HT, Meteora, Reanimation, MTM and ATS. Never did I listen to those and go 'man, they're really trying to be different' I just figured it was a natural change with their sound.

I just started to eventually lose interest in them. I thought Living Things had a few great songs on there. Never event tried with The Hunting Party. This one, I was interested in just because I heard everyone's strong reactions (in a bad way) so I gave it a listen and like I said earlier, I didn't have a problem with them going the pop route, it's just a really boring attempt.

 

Watched the album release party stream on iHeartRadio, all the new songs sounded really cool live and a lot better than the all electronic mix on the actual album IMO.

I may be off on this since I've only heard a few singles from them, but Sorry for Now reminds me of an Owl City song.

 

Listened to this album again this morning. It just doesn't do much for me at all.

 

Linkin Park has always been a "hit or miss" band with me. Every single one of their albums I only like a few of the songs, but the thing is I love those songs I do like, so it's weird. I've noticed I tend to dislike the Chester-focused songs while liking the Mike-focused ones. For example I think Invisible is great but I don't like Heavy at all.

 

I think Heavy is probably the best track on here.

 

At the show last night, they did their updated version of Leave Out All the Rest where Mike sings the first chorus and it makes you realize how fantastic of a vocalist Chester is. I do like how Mike is singing more though, they go well together.

 

Finally listened to OML. Sadly, I got almost nothing from it. I'm still glad this band is alive and kicking, so hopefully they'll bring me back with the next one.

 

Hate to have to eat crow here, but after letting this one sink in and playing it in the car a bunch, it's not actually very good. Maybe I had fan blinders on or maybe it just doesn't have much lasting value, but there are probably only a few songs here that I'll return to regularly. I still love Heavy, while Good Goodbye, Invisible, Sorry for Now, and Halfway Right are decent songs I may come back to. Other than that, meh.

 

I want to try to listen to this album, being an old school fan of theirs and enjoying a few songs from each album after Meteora but like, coming off listening to Paramore's amazing pop turn to.....this seems like it would make it even worse for me.

 

After listening to it for a few weeks, I still really like it. No One Can Save Me, Good Goodbye, Talking to Myself, Battle Symphony, Invisiible, Heavy and One More Light have me coming back.

I don't think they can do another album in this style though. I feel like they did all that they could with it.

 

I'm gonna spin the whole discography soon, but generally I agree with the comments that have been saying their songwriting really dropped off starting with THP.

 

The press they did leading up to the release of THP made me so excited for that album but when it dropped i felt so underwhelmed!

And this new album doesn't do it for me at all, not because it's super poppy but because it's not well executed and i can't connect with the songs

 

Yep I think they can pull every style they want. This time, they simply didn't execute that well at all. All this talk of challenging themselves during the writing process then in the studio... and this is what they put out ? Meh.

One positive thing : I've been listening to A Thousand Suns a lot these past few weeks for the first time since its release date. And I love it for the most part, which surprises me because at the time I dismissed it as a bad attempt at sounding like Radiohead or just them trying to be all weird and experimental. I was wrong, this album has some of their best songwriting in their entire career. That said, some songs don't work at all. For example, I still can't stand the closer and idk how I feel about Blackout.

 

One of my favorite music periods was the build up for that album, that I associate with me starting high school and other albums like the ones released by Anberlin, Kanye West, Shad, Minus The Bear, etc., in 2010. I remember when The Catalyst was about to be released, they did a remix contest and I listened to every single one. Fun fact was that nobody had heard the real song yet, I hadn't seen something like that before. I invested myself so much that I got disappointed by the official version then lol. Some of the remixes were that good. I think I still have them on an old external hard drive...

 

I agree with most of this but I think with One More Light, the difference this time is it feels weak and kind of like a blind grab for commercial success. Which is a shame because when their success starts to fade the only way they can keep up their fanbase is to cater exclusively to one sound, which would be bad for the band.

 

My dislike for this record on my first couple listens has nothing to do with the pop direction. It just sounds so uninspired to me, which even on their weaker records(Living Things, The Hunting Party) I could still hear the emotion and inspiration in the songs, even if I didn't think they were great. The record sounds phoned in, and the word uninspired keeps coming to mind every time I hear it.

 

I thought that really made the record flow nicely. I usually listen to that record as a whole, instead of individual songs.

 

some songs are catchy on here but most of it is krap

 

Just threw this on while working and didn't think it was nearly as bad as most of the comments here led me to expect. I'll have to give it another spin when I can focus on it a bit more. Maybe "perfectly inoffensive background noise" is not the highest of praise.