Qwerty18

At the least, I am not fond of the "x with y" name's format. I don't know. It is very subjective I guess, but something about it makes it sound too much like this kind of thingy -> "Ladies and gentleman, let the Saturday night show begins, with X featuring our special guest of the night Y !!!". I'd much rather have the original name. Feels more artistic. Up to the remaining band members to decide what "Linkin Park" means.

Alright, looks like the rumors were at least partially true. About the female singer : IMO, that is the best strategy the band could possibly go for. It should minimize comparisons with Chester and accentuate the feeling of a fresh start. I just hope the vocalist they hire will be versatile enough to handle both the smooth, vulnerable parts as well as the screamy, shouted parts. Chester could seamlessly switch between both, and I think it contributed a lot to the DNA of he band. I'd try to be as open as can be to a new singer, but one who could only perform well on one side of the spectrum would right away loose points in my book (no pressure 😛 ) About Rob & Joe : the Rob thing is a bit the elephant in the room. Honestly: I think he is out for good. And if that's the case, that's a bummer, because he was probably the most skilled instrumentalist in the band. I am more surprised about Joe, but on the other end, I think his input on the band sound has been more "minimal" - no disrespect, of course I'd prefer him to be in. Anyway, if true, pretty curious to see how this will all unfold!

They're not my thing, but there is a reason they're getting so massive : like it or not, they do what they do extremely well.

Man, who thought QWERTY would get a 2nd youth in 2024 ... ?! 😃

Honestly, I'd have close to zero interest in a CC reissue. CC is basically a glorified mash-up thing. It was cool for what it was, even got a huge internal hit, but in essence, it's already "rehash" of older material. Which would make a reissue a "rehash of a rehash". That's going a bit too far I think, but that's only my opinion of course 😛

Thanks guys for the more technical details around the samples/drums. Love those kind of "deep dive" discussions. The part that's been distracting to me has indeed more to do with the light crash, and the ongoing thin "white noise" sound that follows it up. Those plays in frequencies a bit too high for my liking, and it disturb my focus from the other, nicer, parts of the soundscape. Like if you've got a cool picture, but then put a questionable filter on it. Of course, that's how I perceive it, might be different for others

Now I'll say that the reaction of Jay Gordon "No no, I know nothing, I said nothing!!" is a tiny bit suspicious indeed. He could well just be annoyed about a random confusion of his -for example induced by the "Already Over" sessions with female artists - making the headlines.... who knows. At the least, if the rumor spreads a lot in the coming days, it'd be healthy for someone off the band to disprove it - a simple tweet 'd be enough to avoid a lot of drama ^^'

The way I see it, the only thing that would remotely give more credit to this is the "Papercuts" thing. It is a semi-common thing for bands to publish a "Best of" compilation to wrap-up an era, before starting an entirely fresh chapter. That said, not buying it, I just don't see it happening.

About the instrumental: I really like the guitar work on the track. It's subtle, smooth, and full of finesse. On the other end, I don't get why the drop hit (of whatever you call it) was mixed or done to sound so..... thin? The best example I have of it is at the 1:27 mark. When the tension is released, there is that "splaaah" sound (drum/sample/both). And honestly, that sound, I find it unpleasant, to the point it slightly, and non-metaphorically, hurt my ears. Weird choices on the sound-design department have been my biggest complain about that era in general - this is another occurrence of it.

For real, that video must be in the top 5 worst decisions of LP's history 😅 This song was asking for some proper adrenaline-packed "band performance" shoots. Could have multiply the impact of the single by 10.

Man, I still remember hearing GATS for the first time, I was blown away. And then I got my roommate pissed off because of over-playing the shit out of it the next morning 😃 In the context of the time, after ATS and Living Things had been diving deeper and deeper into electronic elements, a 6 min long hard rock track was a huge curve-ball from the band. Such a banger as well, one of the best track from that record.

Yep, phrased like that, it's hard to disagree with this.

About Friendly Fire : after a couple more listens, I appreciate the track a bit more, but it is definitely nothing spectacular IMO. One thing that bugs me is how the instrumental gets no space to breath. From second 1, Chester is singing over a nice but forgettable sonic background. Everything feels compressed into the typical mid-tempo verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus structure. Take the same melodic idea, the same guitar layers, the same synths, but play a bit more with the dynamics, add some short but sweet instrumental parts, experiment a bit more, and I'd like the song a lot more. Nothing against the "verse/chorus" thing in itself. But if you go for it, I feel the song need to have other highlights to really shine, and I don't see those highlights here.

Nah, I didn't like FF so much on first listen. As a lot of other OML tracks back then, it felt me unimpressed, and with little desire to replay it. Part of it is tastes: I'm not super fond of that type of "empowering/sweet/bright" pop. The other part is I really think the songwriting is not that great. Man, I just don't get that era I guess 😅

I find the fact that QWERTY is on the collection hilarious 😃 Not in a bad way - I wasn't expecting anything specific for that 14th track. But this is just so unexpected, it becomes a bit funny. Especially considering it takes over the spot of tracks like SOTD or Heavy. If I'd have one small issue with this whole thing, it'd be the absence of THP tracks. It's not about the collection itself, I probably wouldn't listen to it either way. But I find it a bit "insulting" to that record, which definitely feels like the "black sheep" of the family now.