Tracks the band finished later on

[Plear]

With people discussing how Friendly Fire was originally from the One More Light sessions but reworked or tweaked up in 2023 for release in 2024, I decided to make this thread discussing similar songs the band has done this with. 
 

The first time we really got any news of the band doing this was with Across The Line on LPU9. The band said they ‘’finished it up’’ for us and that it was from the Minutes To Midnight sessions which we obviously already knew. Thanks to the acetate disc for LPU9 or whatever it was called, we know they chopped off the instrumental intro of the bridge that was at the start of the song. IMO, if this is all they did, was it really finishing it up? I mean I guess it is but it’s not like the song was really ‘’changed’’’. To me, ‘’finishing it up’’ indicates maybe a change in lyrics or melody or something integral to the song. IMO what we got with Across The Line is what was completed with Minutes To Midnight. 
 

Next up we heard of Not Alone having this same treatment. The band said it hailed from the Minutes To Midnight sessions and was close to finished but never fully completed. We know they did rework the lyrics for this track in 2010 for the Haiti compilation. So the Minutes To Midnight version of Not Alone is probably much different than what we got. They could have redone music and stuff too but I feel like that part was probably largely kept the same, they probably had the structure of the song and the music and everything fully done but lyrics weren’t fully done. I’d like to hear the original someday. Hopefully with MTM20.

 

We then got Blackbirds with 8-Bit Rebellion! in early 2010. The band once again said the track hailed from the Minutes To Midnight sessions, which we knew anyways because it was shown on the Making Of DVD, but was finished up for us as a prize for completing 8-Bit Rebellion! This one I feel like is similar to Across The Line in that not much was really changed at all for release except maybe a few minor little cuts or something. I highly doubt the lyrics or music were re-worked on. The intro is interesting, maybe that was added for the release? I can’t see the Minutes To Midnight original version that was fully completed having that part at the beginning if they added it to the album. But who knows. Either way, I hope we get either this version of the song or the original version on MTM20. It’s a must. Blackbirds was never released physically anywhere, ever. It was tacked on to ATS later in 2010 but it was never an ATS track at all, in fact, when it was originally included as a bonus track it even said it was from the 8-Bit Rebellion! app in the title. Casuals sometimes refer to it as an ATS song because of it being included as a bonus track which is extremely annoying as it it’s 100% a MTM song. I hope the band remembers this for MTM20. I sometimes wish they would remove the track from all streaming platforms to clear up this confusion, but that would be nice to have happen once MTM20 is released. I understand why the band chucked it on ATS as a bonus track but casuals for some reason can never figure out that it’s not an ATS track.

 

Next is Pretend To Be. Supposedly worked on in 2008 but hailed from the Minutes To Midnight sessions. Astat once said judging by the guitars it was even an earlier Minutes To Midnight song. It definitely has that Minutes To Midnight feel 100%, IMO, lyrically and musically. I feel like they re-did the vocals in 2008, though, because it has Chester’s MTM tour voice which is slightly different than his MTM studio voice. Maybe the vocals weren’t fully done back then and that’s what they worked on in 2008. I feel like the 2008 date also refers to maybe the break the band had from March to late May in 2008, as we saw photos of the band in the studio during that time once thanks to Mike’s old blog. I don’t think they were working on the song for ATS though, I think they just liked the song and wanted to finish it up and shelve it for a later release. 
 

Lastly is The Last Line which we know was from the Minutes To Midnight sessions 100%. Mike even said in 2020 that it was a song that should have been released with Minutes To Midnight looking back at it. We know the band revisited it for ATS but really they didn’t change all that much. We have both versions. But we don’t know which is from which 100%. Likely the Mall soundtrack version is from ATS and the one from YouTube was the MTM version. What’s interesting is that Neal Avron has mixing credits on it. But once again it’s a mystery since he mixed both MTM and ATS, just like how Rick Rubin produced both MTM and ATS. On MTM20 I hope we get the original version since we already have the other available on CD. But really this song wasn’t changed much at all. What’s also interesting though is that it still called Ammosick until the ATS sessions where we can see on the demo board that it had the title The Last Line next to it in small print which means it wasn’t renamed just for Mall like Devil’s Drop and It Goes Through were. Even though Joe used Ammosick in the credits, and the movie version was the MTM version, so that makes sense. 
 

Only other track I know from the MTM sessions that I know they revisited during ATS was Debris thanks to the Making Of ATS DVD but I doubt they changed really much of anything on it, was probably quickly abandoned. 

I know they revisited Primo and Tinfoil for ATS too as well as a few others like Piledriver, Castle Of Glass and I think one more right? And also the intro to ALITS off of THP was from ATS too originally. 
 

As far as Friendly Fire goes, what do you think they changed from the original?