I really DO need to break the chain of NoGoD singles, and what better way to do that then to get some Linkin Park thrown into the mix. I first heard of Linkin Park back when I was an impressionable twelve year old. Separated from Dir en grey long enough to forget what they sounded like, listening to Linkin Park and not the same old R&B and rap that I was surrounded by suddenly made them seem "cool" and "mature". Part of the reason why I started this project was to trace my progression of musical taste from my adolescence into my adulthood and as such I need to review some of the music I listened to before I got on the Japanese Rock train. This is why Linkin Park is here.
01. Foreword
02. Don't Stay
03. Somewhere I Belong
04. Lying From You
05. Hit the Floor
06. Faint
07. Figure.09
08. Breaking the Habit
09. From The Inside
10. Nobody's Listening
11. Session
12. Numb
I'm going to tackle this in no specific order...
Fuck the Foreward. It's only 13 seconds long and it's a lame beat that is supposed to "speed up" into Don't Stay. The transition is clunky and Don't Stay works better as the opening track to this album. Now that I revisit my troubled 12 year old existence, when hormones ruled our minds and I saw things I shouldn't have, I realize how good Linkin Park is at attracting their core demographic. The song is about moving on from someone that's holding you down, and about how you should have realized it earlier, and how much you need to look out for yourself. It's the same shit that I read on my Facebook every day and the fact that these lyrics are in the same category makes most people want to vomit because it reeks of adolescence, inner turmoil, and how "we don't know what it is we want to be but we don't know what being IS yet". I am no exception but I have to admit that they did this pretty well. I could live without the lyrics and the guitar and bass portions are solid. There isn't anything complex here but simple can be effective. There's some hip-hop elements thrown in throughout and the switching from the mechanical drums to the actual ones are smooth. The rapping portions are bearable in this song but Bennington's screaming gets on my nerves hardcore. A listen and see.
Another song with vocals that annoy me to no end much like Don't Stay is Nobody's Listening. Unlike Don't Stay, this track isn't one of my favorites on the album. Rather, I tend to skip it totally because I find it repugnant First off, it tries to emulate this Asian, "temple of forbidden jutsu" vibe for approximately two seconds before the hip-hop elements jump in and Shinoda tries to sound like someone out of the Mi-Wang-Wai-Long Clan. Asian and rap elements don't go well together, and when you opt to take the stripped-down, hardcore route with your rapping I am immediately uninterested. Bennington's vocals also sound pretty dumb here. The lyrics go even farther to piss me the hell off, with it being another one of those "no one listened to me so I'm going to explode in anger" messes and unlike the last track I can't ignore these lyrics mostly because they start off so dumb. The guitars aren't even omnipresent in this one, just having that very nasty beat playing in the background over and over again. Guess what? No one is listening.
Session is a would-be-very-dumb-instrumental that discovers that running for a long period of time does not make you good. It switches up enough over it's 2:25 runtime to keep the listener interested until it decides to finish but it's not something I recommend to listen to over and over again. It's rather bland in some respects but I would have preferred this to be the opening or ending track instead of something shoved near the end of the album.
Faint is one the songs I'll actually concede and say "still sounds cool" even after my extended stay away from American rock in general. It passes where Nobody's Listening fails, and that's having a beat that isn't completely at odds with the guitars and vocals. Guitars and bass are solid and unnecessary rap elements are not sampled. The lyrics toe the line of "Beat me with the Emo Stick" but it has one clear focus and both rappers dive right into what they want to say instead of filling up a half a verse with random, unnecessary crap that rhymes badly. Even Bennington's vocals aren't ear-bleedingly bad and instead of coming off as a whiny boy who dropped his lollipop he actually sounds angry. Definitely some good shit to sample.
I have to do this one eventually. Breaking the Habit is one of the signature Linkin Park songs and for good reason: it actually sounds different than most of the droll I've heard this far. Mechanical drums, plucked guitars, no rapped portions, no downtuned, melancholic riffs and a mainly sung song that ends off on the right foot force me to recommend this song no matter how much I think it's overrated.
Figure.09 is another one of those songs I'll find myself listening to long after I drop this album somewhere, mostly because it mixes a cold, futuristic, techno vibe with guitar successfully. There's also a good deal of vocal experimentation going on, and there's a modicum of passion in Bennington's vocals until he explodes in anger later on in the song. A few of the screams are a little sloppy but it's nothing that ruins the song. Of course, the lyrics are about pain and turmoil and how the two of these vocalists can't separate themselves from what it is they hate. Spoken like true teenagers that are angry at everything around them, it's good at getting across it's point even if it gets cheesy near the end. Check this one out as well.
Easier to Run has a very annoying chorus that actually fits for this song, and the guitars don't run off ahead and ruin the tone. Bennington takes center stage and the rapping portions are delegated to accentuate and not steer the direction of the song. Finally, some fucking innovation. It's better than many of the other songs on this album because it doesn't cycle the same format of rap verse-screamed chorus-rapped verse-screamed chorus-apeshit aria-screamed chorus-emotional ending. Lyrics are still on the depressing, "I'm so helpless look at me wither and die" side of things but it's written from a different mindset so I can stomach it rather well. Something is starting to gnaw at me at this point, and my friend said it perfectly:
That makes perfect sense, and it's going to reflect in every song after this:
Numb is one of those songs we've all heard on the radio at some time or another and I really fucking hate these lyrics. I think it stems from the perspective he wrote it in but I hate it when people try to validate themselves in the eyes of others instead of carving their own path and taking an actual risk in life. It's all about fitting in and trying to be accepted (when I actually found that being the polar opposite of everything and then accepting that is the way to be accepted even if it's not how you want it to be). The guitars are droning and give off the sense of loneliness that they want to envelop you in with this song. The beat in the background that leads into this song....hold up I have to say something that I find very annoying. I intentionally set this album on shuffle and the last four songs including this one have all followed the same exact format. It sounds nice but by this point I'm done with this recycled format.
Bennington and Shinoda finally learned how to share =D. Somewhere I Belong features them both in the verses with Bennington actually singing a chorus with some rough passion. However, it follows the same format and sounds too much like everything else on this album but lighter in tone. Lying From You features the stereotypical LP opening and verses and reminds me a fuckton of Faint in structure. The lyrics of this song also are reminiscent of Don't Stay whilst being contradictory to everything that came before. When they have to start recycling lyrics, you begin to realize that Linkin Park has one trick and they keep pulling it out over and over again. Both of these songs sound enjoyable but since I've essentially heard both of them already I'm not too pleased.
And last we have Hit The Floor. It manages to deviate from the usual format for a little bit before they fall back into the pattern they've carved for this album. Think Nobody's Listening for the lyrics. The entire delivery is the same but done better here (I'm especially fond of the background screaming in the chorus) so I like it a little. Recommended? Maybe.
One MAJOR flaw with this album is that it's the same. Everything's the same. The lyrics, the delivery, everything is the same right down to how they put all of the songs together. For one or two songs it's barely noticeable but when it's only one or two songs that deviate enough from the formula to make the song different it's not that good of an album. I got sick of this album halfway through because it didn't seem like it was going to save itself in the other half. Meteora is underwhelming at best and I don't see how so many Linkin Park fans can lament their change in Minutes to Midnight.
Meteora is listening to the same song 12 times in a row.
Recommended:
Faint
Figure.09
Hit the Floor
Breaking the Habit
Score: 53%
Fuck the Foreward. It's only 13 seconds long and it's a lame beat that is supposed to "speed up" into Don't Stay. The transition is clunky and Don't Stay works better as the opening track to this album. Now that I revisit my troubled 12 year old existence, when hormones ruled our minds and I saw things I shouldn't have, I realize how good Linkin Park is at attracting their core demographic. The song is about moving on from someone that's holding you down, and about how you should have realized it earlier, and how much you need to look out for yourself. It's the same shit that I read on my Facebook every day and the fact that these lyrics are in the same category makes most people want to vomit because it reeks of adolescence, inner turmoil, and how "we don't know what it is we want to be but we don't know what being IS yet". I am no exception but I have to admit that they did this pretty well. I could live without the lyrics and the guitar and bass portions are solid. There isn't anything complex here but simple can be effective. There's some hip-hop elements thrown in throughout and the switching from the mechanical drums to the actual ones are smooth. The rapping portions are bearable in this song but Bennington's screaming gets on my nerves hardcore. A listen and see.
Another song with vocals that annoy me to no end much like Don't Stay is Nobody's Listening. Unlike Don't Stay, this track isn't one of my favorites on the album. Rather, I tend to skip it totally because I find it repugnant First off, it tries to emulate this Asian, "temple of forbidden jutsu" vibe for approximately two seconds before the hip-hop elements jump in and Shinoda tries to sound like someone out of the Mi-Wang-Wai-Long Clan. Asian and rap elements don't go well together, and when you opt to take the stripped-down, hardcore route with your rapping I am immediately uninterested. Bennington's vocals also sound pretty dumb here. The lyrics go even farther to piss me the hell off, with it being another one of those "no one listened to me so I'm going to explode in anger" messes and unlike the last track I can't ignore these lyrics mostly because they start off so dumb. The guitars aren't even omnipresent in this one, just having that very nasty beat playing in the background over and over again. Guess what? No one is listening.
Session is a would-be-very-dumb-instrumental that discovers that running for a long period of time does not make you good. It switches up enough over it's 2:25 runtime to keep the listener interested until it decides to finish but it's not something I recommend to listen to over and over again. It's rather bland in some respects but I would have preferred this to be the opening or ending track instead of something shoved near the end of the album.
Faint is one the songs I'll actually concede and say "still sounds cool" even after my extended stay away from American rock in general. It passes where Nobody's Listening fails, and that's having a beat that isn't completely at odds with the guitars and vocals. Guitars and bass are solid and unnecessary rap elements are not sampled. The lyrics toe the line of "Beat me with the Emo Stick" but it has one clear focus and both rappers dive right into what they want to say instead of filling up a half a verse with random, unnecessary crap that rhymes badly. Even Bennington's vocals aren't ear-bleedingly bad and instead of coming off as a whiny boy who dropped his lollipop he actually sounds angry. Definitely some good shit to sample.
I have to do this one eventually. Breaking the Habit is one of the signature Linkin Park songs and for good reason: it actually sounds different than most of the droll I've heard this far. Mechanical drums, plucked guitars, no rapped portions, no downtuned, melancholic riffs and a mainly sung song that ends off on the right foot force me to recommend this song no matter how much I think it's overrated.
Figure.09 is another one of those songs I'll find myself listening to long after I drop this album somewhere, mostly because it mixes a cold, futuristic, techno vibe with guitar successfully. There's also a good deal of vocal experimentation going on, and there's a modicum of passion in Bennington's vocals until he explodes in anger later on in the song. A few of the screams are a little sloppy but it's nothing that ruins the song. Of course, the lyrics are about pain and turmoil and how the two of these vocalists can't separate themselves from what it is they hate. Spoken like true teenagers that are angry at everything around them, it's good at getting across it's point even if it gets cheesy near the end. Check this one out as well.
Easier to Run has a very annoying chorus that actually fits for this song, and the guitars don't run off ahead and ruin the tone. Bennington takes center stage and the rapping portions are delegated to accentuate and not steer the direction of the song. Finally, some fucking innovation. It's better than many of the other songs on this album because it doesn't cycle the same format of rap verse-screamed chorus-rapped verse-screamed chorus-apeshit aria-screamed chorus-emotional ending. Lyrics are still on the depressing, "I'm so helpless look at me wither and die" side of things but it's written from a different mindset so I can stomach it rather well. Something is starting to gnaw at me at this point, and my friend said it perfectly:
Jillie (7:23:49 PM) : true, it's a lot more different than their other songs.
Jillie (7:24:10 PM) : but then again
Jillie (7:24:31 PM) : almost all of their songs sound the same, even the ones that are very different from the others...
Jillie (7:24:37 PM) : if that made sense
That makes perfect sense, and it's going to reflect in every song after this:
Numb is one of those songs we've all heard on the radio at some time or another and I really fucking hate these lyrics. I think it stems from the perspective he wrote it in but I hate it when people try to validate themselves in the eyes of others instead of carving their own path and taking an actual risk in life. It's all about fitting in and trying to be accepted (when I actually found that being the polar opposite of everything and then accepting that is the way to be accepted even if it's not how you want it to be). The guitars are droning and give off the sense of loneliness that they want to envelop you in with this song. The beat in the background that leads into this song....hold up I have to say something that I find very annoying. I intentionally set this album on shuffle and the last four songs including this one have all followed the same exact format. It sounds nice but by this point I'm done with this recycled format.
Bennington and Shinoda finally learned how to share =D. Somewhere I Belong features them both in the verses with Bennington actually singing a chorus with some rough passion. However, it follows the same format and sounds too much like everything else on this album but lighter in tone. Lying From You features the stereotypical LP opening and verses and reminds me a fuckton of Faint in structure. The lyrics of this song also are reminiscent of Don't Stay whilst being contradictory to everything that came before. When they have to start recycling lyrics, you begin to realize that Linkin Park has one trick and they keep pulling it out over and over again. Both of these songs sound enjoyable but since I've essentially heard both of them already I'm not too pleased.
And last we have Hit The Floor. It manages to deviate from the usual format for a little bit before they fall back into the pattern they've carved for this album. Think Nobody's Listening for the lyrics. The entire delivery is the same but done better here (I'm especially fond of the background screaming in the chorus) so I like it a little. Recommended? Maybe.
One MAJOR flaw with this album is that it's the same. Everything's the same. The lyrics, the delivery, everything is the same right down to how they put all of the songs together. For one or two songs it's barely noticeable but when it's only one or two songs that deviate enough from the formula to make the song different it's not that good of an album. I got sick of this album halfway through because it didn't seem like it was going to save itself in the other half. Meteora is underwhelming at best and I don't see how so many Linkin Park fans can lament their change in Minutes to Midnight.
Meteora is listening to the same song 12 times in a row.
Recommended:
Faint
Figure.09
Hit the Floor
Breaking the Habit
Score: 53%
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