OML (For Kids)

[sublimeric]

I think that we are over analyzing things. Easy to do when you care as much as we all do here. When LP release something, we listen, hard. I felt the same way as GEKI for the first couple of months that I owned this album.

 

Until my 9 year old found my "One More Light" playlist on Spotify, and started singing "Sharp Edges", "Halfway Right", and "Invincible" all day, every day. With that, my opinion of the album did a 180, and it became my favorite Linkin Park release. At around the same time I remember watching interviews with Chester, where he talked about people coming up to him, asking how he wrote lyrics that described what they are going through, word for word. Like it was magic. And Chester felt the same way when he worked with the many collaborators on this album, connecting with words he didn't write but could connect to.

 

My interpretation of "One More Light" is the band became as open as they ever have been, bringing in songwriters not named Mike, Brad, or Chester, to get the perspective of not just people outside Linkin Park, but people in general. It's an album created by a community of creative people, meant for an entire world going through different situations, but ultimately experiencing the same feeling. A song like "Heavy" doesn't need screams, rapping or live instruments to connect with listeners and convey a feeling. It still sounds like Linkin Park, because Chester is singing it, but in a different way. These songs are easy to understand, and if anything, pull you in closer by not yelling in your face or building a defiant wall of sound.

 

Listening to "One More Light" after Chester passed away crushed me, and still does. Songs like "Nobody Can Save Me" and "One More Light" are too real, and too personal. My mind was blown when I found out Chester didn't write either song, but was able to connect to and put his heart into the lyrical performance to paint such an authentic picture of hurt. This album is so calm compared to previous releases that to me, it feels like the most mature Linkin Park record. I can see why the band called it a personal CD. Everyone on earth can relate to these songs, and interpret the words or mood of the music to speak to what you're going through as a person. I never wanted to lose Chester, and miss him every day, but if there was going to ever be a final Linkin Park album, I'm glad it's this one.

[Somebodyangry]

Someone here is kidding, I hope. No seroiusly, how the hell OML is inferior to THP lyrically? Except for GG the whole album is one of their better records in terms of lyricism, inferior to ATS and mayyyybe MTM. About the sound in general, you can t put out a record with lyrics like these yelling the lyrics and shredding guitars, come on, do you seriously imagine Heavy being a screamy guitar driven song ? Or Halfway Right being aggressive ? Quoting Chester " Come on, HT was 17 years ago move the fuck on" (even tho I love HT and M clearly )

[Geki]

Someone here is kidding, I hope. No seroiusly, how the hell OML is inferior to THP lyrically? Except for GG the whole album is one of their better records in terms of lyricism, inferior to ATS and mayyyybe MTM. About the sound in general, you can t put out a record with lyrics like these yelling the lyrics and shredding guitars, come on, do you seriously imagine Heavy being a screamy guitar driven song ? Or Halfway Right being aggressive ? Quoting Chester " Come on, HT was 17 years ago move the fuck on" (even tho I love HT and M clearly )

 

I don't think ALL of OML is that shitty. I think the sound of songs like Good Goodbye, Battle Symphony, Invisible, Heavy and possibly Talking To Myself are extremely mainstream driven and could fit in with the sound of the songs on Disney Music, etc. So that's about half of the album.

 

The other half has great lyrics, and doesn't sound like that, it's more mature sounding. NCSM, SFN, Halfway Right, OML, Sharp Edges, that stuff is great, I love those tracks. I don't even hate the other tracks that much, I just think they're very mainstream driven and something that I thought the band was purposely trying to avoid making, since Mike talked about it in every single interview for the album before this one.

 

If I've learned one thing from this thread, it's that nobody likes THP. I admit, I wasn't HUGE on the album, but I've come to love it over this last year and I think it's fucking amazing. The lyrics are actually very mature. You have to decipher what some of them are saying, sure. It's not something obvious as fuck like ''Why's everything soooooo heavyyyy''. THP has super intricate and awesome guitar and drum sound, something the band had never done up until THP and obviously hasn't done since. Maybe it's just that newer fans of the band don't really like that heavy rock and metal sound of the band. Although, it was different than the nu-metal sound of the first few records. Maybe it's because I listen to tons of metalcore, rock, metal, alternative rock, etc. I don't really ever listen to hip-hop, R&B, pop, electronic shit, etc. Maybe I just think it's awesome because I like that style of music more. But THP is actually quite good. A song like ALITS completely and utterly rips OML apart, in every way possible. Rebellion? That does too. GATS, KTTK, War, so much good songs there. War is so good, one of my top songs of all time.

Someone here is kidding, I hope. No seroiusly, how the hell OML is inferior to THP lyrically? Except for GG the whole album is one of their better records in terms of lyricism, inferior to ATS and mayyyybe MTM. About the sound in general, you can t put out a record with lyrics like these yelling the lyrics and shredding guitars, come on, do you seriously imagine Heavy being a screamy guitar driven song ? Or Halfway Right being aggressive ? Quoting Chester " Come on, HT was 17 years ago move the fuck on" (even tho I love HT and M clearly )

 

If the album had a mature pop sound, like I hear with songs like Nobody Can Save Me and One More Light, I would have appreciated it much more. I just think about half of the album is fucking trash. Heavy is horrible, it's probably one of the worst songs that I've ever heard, and I think Kiiara is shitty. My opinion, though, so don't get your panties in a bunch over it. Good Goodbye is just corny as all hell. The concept behind the song is even corny as hell, and when you get to the sound of the song, just no for me. Invisible, it has a good message, I think Mike had a good idea with the lyrics, I just don't care much for the song. It's the least offending out of the ones I'm talking about. Battle Symphony, it sounds like a song that would be used in a G rated Disney movie. That's my issue.

 

Not every fan has to like OML. Fans were douchey as fuck about it before Chester died but now that Chester has died, people act like you're the worst person in the entire world for not liking the album. It's no disrespect to Chester at all. Everyone can like whatever they like. No one person is more right. Do I think THP is a better album overall? Yes I do. Sorry. And like I've said, there are a few tracks that I do love on OML. Just overall it doesn't do it for me.

Edited November 19, 2017 by Geki

[Jen]

Personally, I focus on the lyrics more than the music itself. OML is like a suicide note of sorts, but I also hear my daughter's voice in the lyrics, having been dealing with her attempted suicide, self harm and mental issues for the last couple of years. Some of the songs are extremely similar to things she has told me over the past several months. I find things that relate to my life or the lives of those around me in most of LP's songs though. The focus on music is going to be different for everyone, and no one is right or wrong in their focus. It is something that is personal and specific to that one person. It isn't any different than the preference between liking horror movies or comedies.

[Geki]

Personally, I focus on the lyrics more than the music itself. OML is like a suicide note of sorts, but I also hear my daughter's voice in the lyrics, having been dealing with her attempted suicide, self harm and mental issues for the last couple of years. Some of the songs are extremely similar to things she has told me over the past several months. I find things that relate to my life or the lives of those around me in most of LP's songs though. The focus on music is going to be different for everyone, and no one is right or wrong in their focus. It is something that is personal and specific to that one person. It isn't any different than the preference between liking horror movies or comedies.

That's great if the lyrics of the album connected with you and terrible things you have had to go through. I'm sorry to hear that, I really am. That's the reason why I love HT, Meteora and MTM so much, I very much connected with the lyrics on all of those albums and they really spoke to me. When I first got into the band and I listened to Meteora and Hybrid Theory, I was about 13. My parents had just got divorced a year before or so and it was just a hard time for me. Middle School was really hard for me, being bullied to an extent and my home life was just really hard, my Dad was really hard to deal with back then. The whole shut up part of OSC reminded me of when my Dad got pissed, cuz he was drunk and abusive to my Mom in verbal and physical form. I often found myself listening to songs like Papercut, Crawling, Somewhere I Belong, Numb, etc. at night with my headphones and crying and just feeling better because I felt like someone was there for me. I didn't have any friends growing up at that age. So I really felt like those albums were my friend. And not just those songs, I related to all the songs pretty much from HT and Meteora during that time. I remember in my Moms old house that I literally wrote ''I'll paint it on the walls, cause I'm the one at fault, I'll never fight again, and this is how it ends'' on the wall in huge lettering. Haha so much emo angst. Once MTM came out, I was 16, turning 17 3 months after the album dropped. A lot had changed, I had started driving, I made some friends, I got my first job, I ran away from my Dads and moved in with my Mom. But I still had very dark times during it all and I found the songs on the album to help me a lot. Then my Grandpa died right before PR08 and he was very close to me, and songs like LOATR, SOTD, VD, those really helped me a lot through it. I then got dumped by my first love a little while later and songs like Given Up helped me because I was suicidal and hated myself. In Pieces did too. Eventually I used songs like WID to help me overcome it all and try to be a better person, etc. So I get where you are coming from.

 

I'll admit, sometimes when I listen to music, I listen to the actual music more than the lyrics or message of the lyrics, etc. I find myself doing that a lot. I'll get hooked on the instrumental and not even pay attention to the words. But sometimes I will just connect with the lyrics. I don't experience it much, but I truly did with the first three LP albums. Like pretty much every song on those albums, it's crazy.

 

But yeah, you bring up perhaps one of the best points so far in the thread. Everyone experiences music differently, just like genres in stuff like movies. Everyone has what they like.

Edited November 19, 2017 by Geki

[rd1994]

Oh come on. THP was only made because Mike was in a rock mode. in fact he said in interviews that he had made "OML-esque" demos after Living Things was done. He only started to crave rock music later and thus THP was born. OML might be mainstream friendly, but you still miss the point if you claim the band was forced to make the album. Remember how in 2000 everybody said an album like HT would never fly with the public? No..looks like it has diamond status for no reason then. Not standing behind a decision your favorite band makes, but claiming shit, where you should know it isn't true, is just being a fucking dense motherfucker. if LP was really in it for the money they would've done record after record after record in the style of HT and Meteora.And yes I do think that OML was more simplistic in sound thanks to the fact that they focused more on the lyrics. If you think they made this album for the money then you have clearly not understood the album.

[Geki]

Oh come on. THP was only made because Mike was in a rock mode. in fact he said in interviews that he had made "OML-esque" demos after Living Things was done. He only started to crave rock music later and thus THP was born. OML might be mainstream friendly, but you still miss the point if you claim the band was forced to make the album. Remember how in 2000 everybody said an album like HT would never fly with the public? No..looks like it has diamond status for no reason then. Not standing behind a decision your favorite band makes, but claiming shit, where you should know it isn't true, is just being a fucking dense motherfucker. if LP was really in it for the money they would've done record after record after record in the style of HT and Meteora.And yes I do think that OML was more simplistic in sound thanks to the fact that they focused more on the lyrics. If you think they made this album for the money then you have clearly not understood the album.

 

Who the fuck are you bro? I guarantee I'm more of a fan than you are. LP fans have become so fucking annoying in this decade. I miss the 2000's LP fans. The 2010's LP fans are so fucking annoying. I can question WHATEVER I want and I can say whatever I want as long as it isn't hate speech. Because I made a thread about OML? Who cares? I almost don't even want to be a Linkin Park fan anymore if this is what kind of people will be around. I should have jump shipped when 2008 ended and MTM was done, it was the last good thing the band did anyways.

[Somebodyangry]

 

I don't think ALL of OML is that shitty. I think the sound of songs like Good Goodbye, Battle Symphony, Invisible, Heavy and possibly Talking To Myself are extremely mainstream driven and could fit in with the sound of the songs on Disney Music, etc. So that's about half of the album.

 

The other half has great lyrics, and doesn't sound like that, it's more mature sounding. NCSM, SFN, Halfway Right, OML, Sharp Edges, that stuff is great, I love those tracks. I don't even hate the other tracks that much, I just think they're very mainstream driven and something that I thought the band was purposely trying to avoid making, since Mike talked about it in every single interview for the album before this one.

 

If I've learned one thing from this thread, it's that nobody likes THP. I admit, I wasn't HUGE on the album, but I've come to love it over this last year and I think it's fucking amazing. The lyrics are actually very mature. You have to decipher what some of them are saying, sure. It's not something obvious as fuck like ''Why's everything soooooo heavyyyy''. THP has super intricate and awesome guitar and drum sound, something the band had never done up until THP and obviously hasn't done since. Maybe it's just that newer fans of the band don't really like that heavy rock and metal sound of the band. Although, it was different than the nu-metal sound of the first few records. Maybe it's because I listen to tons of metalcore, rock, metal, alternative rock, etc. I don't really ever listen to hip-hop, R&B, pop, electronic shit, etc. Maybe I just think it's awesome because I like that style of music more. But THP is actually quite good. A song like ALITS completely and utterly rips OML apart, in every way possible. Rebellion? That does too. GATS, KTTK, War, so much good songs there. War is so good, one of my top songs of all time.

 

If the album had a mature pop sound, like I hear with songs like Nobody Can Save Me and One More Light, I would have appreciated it much more. I just think about half of the album is fucking trash. Heavy is horrible, it's probably one of the worst songs that I've ever heard, and I think Kiiara is shitty. My opinion, though, so don't get your panties in a bunch over it. Good Goodbye is just corny as all hell. The concept behind the song is even corny as hell, and when you get to the sound of the song, just no for me. Invisible, it has a good message, I think Mike had a good idea with the lyrics, I just don't care much for the song. It's the least offending out of the ones I'm talking about. Battle Symphony, it sounds like a song that would be used in a G rated Disney movie. That's my issue.

 

Not every fan has to like OML. Fans were douchey as fuck about it before Chester died but now that Chester has died, people act like you're the worst person in the entire world for not liking the album. It's no disrespect to Chester at all. Everyone can like whatever they like. No one person is more right. Do I think THP is a better album overall? Yes I do. Sorry. And like I've said, there are a few tracks that I do love on OML. Just overall it doesn't do it for me.

Don't get me wrong, I like THP a lot, I m not saying that Heavy is superior to every THP song or stuff like that or that OML is a masterpiece, just that in terms of lyrical content OML overall is more mature and deep than THP generally speaking. Obviously, I m not saying that EVERY THP song is lyrically worse than any OML song (i think Rebellion, MTG,FM shit on GG lyrically speaking, for example). In terms of sound yeah, THP is more complex and skillfull but as a whole I do like OML more because it s more in the mood I ve been in the last year or so. If u think THP thrashes OML I m completely fine with that, no need to argue, everyone has his favourites

Oh, just to clarify, I loved OML since it came out, way before Chester s death, you can check my pre-july 20th posts about the album, and I m not a THP hater, I literally loved the album back in 2014/15 and now I still appreciate it a lot, it s just that some songs kinda bored me now, I don t feel the connection with them anymore

[Geki]

Don't get me wrong, I like THP a lot, I m not saying that Heavy is superior to every THP song or stuff like that or that OML is a masterpiece, just that in terms of lyrical content OML overall is more mature and deep than THP generally speaking. Obviously, I m not saying that EVERY THP song is lyrically worse than any OML song (i think Rebellion, MTG,FM shit on GG lyrically speaking, for example). In terms of sound yeah, THP is more complex and skillfull but as a whole I do like OML more because it s more in the mood I ve been in the last year or so. If u think THP thrashes OML I m completely fine with that, no need to argue, everyone has his favourites

Oh, just to clarify, I loved OML since it came out, way before Chester s death, you can check my pre-july 20th posts about the album, and I m not a THP hater, I literally loved the album back in 2014/15 and now I still appreciate it a lot, it s just that some songs kinda bored me now, I don t feel the connection with them anymore

 

HT, Meteora and MTM all completely blow OML out of the water. They also blow ATS, LT and THP out of the water, too. I'm an old school fan. MTM had some change but it wasn't nearly as drastic as ATS was, even Mike Shinoda himself has said that. MTM still had a lot of rocker songs like GU, LOATR, BIO, SOTD, WID, NMS, In Pieces, and I genuinely loved the rest of the experimentation on MTM, there isn't a single song or demo that I have heard from MTM that I didn't absolutely love. But I wasn't a fan of ATS at all originally when it came out, I just read a post that I made around the time that it came out and I was saying I was done being a fan, etc. LT, it had some decent music, I tried to get into it, I used to say it was my favorite album, but that's a lie. In reality, I think it's just washed down versions of ATS material. It was so commercially friendly, it basically took the sound of ATS and made it commercially friendly. THP was lackluster to me. I hated GATS when I first heard it, I just saw a post I made in 2014 when it dropped and I said I hated it. I didn't like how THP had guests on a main album and it wasn't nearly as heavy as I expected, even MTM had heavier songs with GU and NMS. OML... I just never liked. I hated Heavy upon first listen and still hate it. Don't like the guest features once again on a main album, and I think it's commercially appealing as all fuck and I think it's kind of cheesy at times. It's very ''2017'' sounding, and I don't really like music of this decade.

 

My main point here was why did the band make this kind of album after bashing it so much throughout 2014 when THP dropped? This was literally the EXACT music Mike was talking about not wanting to make. So I was questioning why it happened. That's all. I am allowed to hate OML, people act like it's the end of the world if you say you hate the album. Almost like a ''how dare you'' kind of way. And it's stupid as fuck. I am allowed to dislike music that was released to the mainstream by a mainstream artist, it's fine. Does that mean I can't hate Nirvana, because Kurt committed suicide? Do I have to love everything Chris Cornell ever did with every release he was ever on just because he committed suicide? I mean really, get real people. I have been a hardcore fan of Linkin Park since 2003 and have met the band many times, have seen them live many times, have spent a lot of money on merch and everything else, etc. I am a fan, trust me. I just am an old school fan, I don't really like stuff from after MTM, and that's ok. Remember when Mike said that all fans of the band, from every era, are welcome?

[Somebodyangry]

 

HT, Meteora and MTM all completely blow OML out of the water. They also blow ATS, LT and THP out of the water, too. I'm an old school fan. MTM had some change but it wasn't nearly as drastic as ATS was, even Mike Shinoda himself has said that. MTM still had a lot of rocker songs like GU, LOATR, BIO, SOTD, WID, NMS, In Pieces, and I genuinely loved the rest of the experimentation on MTM, there isn't a single song or demo that I have heard from MTM that I didn't absolutely love. But I wasn't a fan of ATS at all originally when it came out, I just read a post that I made around the time that it came out and I was saying I was done being a fan, etc. LT, it had some decent music, I tried to get into it, I used to say it was my favorite album, but that's a lie. In reality, I think it's just washed down versions of ATS material. It was so commercially friendly, it basically took the sound of ATS and made it commercially friendly. THP was lackluster to me. I hated GATS when I first heard it, I just saw a post I made in 2014 when it dropped and I said I hated it. I didn't like how THP had guests on a main album and it wasn't nearly as heavy as I expected, even MTM had heavier songs with GU and NMS. OML... I just never liked. I hated Heavy upon first listen and still hate it. Don't like the guest features once again on a main album, and I think it's commercially appealing as all fuck and I think it's kind of cheesy at times. It's very ''2017'' sounding, and I don't really like music of this decade.

 

My main point here was why did the band make this kind of album after bashing it so much throughout 2014 when THP dropped? This was literally the EXACT music Mike was talking about not wanting to make. So I was questioning why it happened. That's all. I am allowed to hate OML, people act like it's the end of the world if you say you hate the album. Almost like a ''how dare you'' kind of way. And it's stupid as fuck. I am allowed to dislike music that was released to the mainstream by a mainstream artist, it's fine. Does that mean I can't hate Nirvana, because Kurt committed suicide? Do I have to love everything Chris Cornell ever did with every release he was ever on just because he committed suicide? I mean really, get real people. I have been a hardcore fan of Linkin Park since 2003 and have met the band many times, have seen them live many times, have spent a lot of money on merch and everything else, etc. I am a fan, trust me. I just am an old school fan, I don't really like stuff from after MTM, and that's ok. Remember when Mike said that all fans of the band, from every era, are welcome?

Ih fact I m super fine with your taste Geki, you can like whatever you want as I do the fact that I think OML is a really good record and absolutely not their worst one doesn't make me clever and "better" than you in terms of musical taste, we are just different but we both have the right to call ourselves LP fans