zuben7o7 Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 (edited) I discussed this with Mark the other day and since I am a fool for ratings and such, I thought we mine as well see where some of you place some of Linkin Park's songs - for better or for worse. I'm just curious to see what everyone has to say. Most people will always pop up with the "Whats your favorite/least favorite" song or "Top 5" lists. I'd like to go a little deeper. Check it out, should be interesting, let me know yours. Hybrid Theory Most Signature Guitar Riff One Step Closer - Obviously, being the band's first single, they wanted to come out with a boom. This is a very interesting riff from Brad that works really well in all parts of the song and the intro riff is probably one of the most recognizable in this decade's rock music. Honorable Mention - Points of Authority Most Signature Drum Track A Place For My Head - Rob's drumming has never been mind-blowing complex and its mostly evident on HT. However, his track on APFMH is great material. The intro is eerie and his drumming right after the bridge and into the outro of the song is one of the album's highlights. Honorable Mention - Papercut Most Signature Bass Line A Place For My Head - Going back to Head again, this is one of LP's most original bass lines - and naturally it wasn't done by the great Phoenix. While Brad and Don Gilmore are mostly credited for recording the bass on HT, Ian Hornbeck actually played bass for the recording of this track. The bass in the intro and through out the song really give this song some needed texture and tones that accompany nicely with a stringy guitar riff from Brad. Honorable Mention - Forgotten Most Signature Hahn Track In The End - I had to figure out how to label this category - this is where Mr. Hahn underrated ability comes out in the band. He uses his pads, turntable, and plugs all through out this album (I don't consider CFTI because, c'mon, that would be too obvious). However, In The End wouldn't be the band's most signature tune without Mr. Hahn's intro and outro pad beats. Same goes for Crawling. Unlike MTM, this album is full of great moments by Hahn including the pre-bridge of Papercut, his solo on With You, and his great scratching techniques in the high-energy outro of Points of Authority. Honorable Mention - With You Most Signature Rap Track In The End - I think most people here at LPLive will admit that Mike's verses in In The End or some of the band's best lyrical work. The second verse is insanely good material. Mike has some real original highlights in this album, but ITE is definitley uniquely to the point with passion and force. Honorable Mention - Papercut Most Signature Singing Track One Step Closer - While this may not be the greatest medium to hear Chester, this is without doubt the band's most singature track singing-wise. The monstrous chorus and (obvious!) arena-rock ready bridge, everyone knows who Chester B. and LP is because of this track. Least Signature Guitar Riff Runaway - One of the worst things Brad Delson has done as LP's guitarist. Terrible riff, terrible song. Least Signature Drum Track Pushing Me Away - Nothing special here from Rob, just some pretty standard drum loop action. I think he could have done a ton more with this track. Least Signature Bass Line In The End - While this song has so many accoloades, there is no denying they could have really stepped up a more energetic bass line in the verses. With the simple strumming during the choruses from Brad, there isn't much of a bass line to this song. Least Signature Hahn Track Pushing Me Away - One of the few track's from HT that Hahn doesn't have a clearly signature role in. Funny how hard that is to say when MTM comes around. Least Signature Rap Track One Step Closer - This is a cheater choice because Mike doesn't rap in this song although he does sing part of the chorus live, but most of Mike's raps are good, unique material on this album, it was hard to choose. Least Signature Singing Track Runaway - I know I'm in a small minority here, but this track all around does not do it for me. One of their most whiniest, middle-schoolish tracks and the melodies in this song are horrendous. Best Overall Track In The End - While this is not my favorite song from the album, I will agree that is their best overall track. From the raps to the soaring choruses and the athem mania that is known as the bridge, this is their best overall track on HT. While the guitar and bass are simplier than an Arabian camel, their is enough going on from every member of the band to make this song start off slow, rise up, rise further, and end with a signature beat outro. Edited October 15, 2009 by Preston Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MONDREUS240 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 (edited) Wow, what an intresting topic. You should make one for Meteora and MtM too. Anyway, I'll just post one for me. Least Signature Guitar Riff: In The End It feels like Brad made up this part within five minutes, I mean honetstly, he could've at least make up some intresting strumming patterns for the chrorus, and a more complex harmonic riff in the verse, like one in With You or PMA. Edited October 15, 2009 by MONDREUS240 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zuben7o7 Posted October 15, 2009 Author Share Posted October 15, 2009 Yeah - I'll be making one for Meteora and MTM and probably one of just some random things I always think about when I'm out, but never bring up in a forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsw2010 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Runaway was one of the best songs on the album. so, ya. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astat Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Most Signature Guitar Riff One Step Closer - Have to agree here, the intro guitar riff is one of those things that just jumps out at you. There are more technical guitar tracks on the album (A Place for My Head, Forgotten), but this is the most memorable riff. Most Signature Drum Track A Place For My Head - Again, I agree. Rob covers pretty much his entire kit on this song, which isn't something he does a whole lot. This is also one of those songs that doesn't have a lot of those snare ghost notes/drags that Rob likes to do, which just make his drumming sound too busy and overly thought-out most of the time. Lots of cool fills, the verses have a cool stuttering pattern, lots of stuff that really isn't found in most of his other work. Most Signature Bass Line Forgotten - Not played by Phoenix on this recording, but probably originally written by him in the Xero days, this song is one of the rare cases of the guitar and bass playing two completely independent parts in an LP song, the verses in particular stand out. Most Signature Hahn Track With You - While the Dust Brothers may have programmed some of the beats on this song, Joe's input makes this song...well, a song. A lot of the samples that Joe plays live can actually be attributed to Mike on the studio recordings (see: In the End, most of Cure for the Itch other than the scratching), but Joe puts his signature touch on this one. Most Signature Rap Track A Place for My Head - One thing that's been missing from a lot of Mike's verses since Hybrid Theory is the use of metaphors. This song is a great example of a lyrical approach that he needs to use more often. The relatively fast pace of his delivery on this one is noteworthy as well. Most Signature Singing Track Crawling - The fact that Chester has pretty much never been able to replicate the tone on the album version of this song live speaks volumes about what a vocal workout it is. Least Signature Guitar Riff By Myself - Look at me, I can play 4 powerchords for 3 and a half minutes! This song has always been the weakest link on this album, and I think the horribly unimaginative guitar part is part of why. I can't believe, with how many different demo versions this song went through, that Brad never came up with anything better. Least Signature Drum Track Pushing Me Away - Agreed on all counts here, Rob pretty much sticks to one pattern through the whole song. Open up the hi-hats and hit the crash cymbal on the downbeats for the chorus, and there's your verse/chorus "variation," pretty much. Least Signature Bass Line With You - I almost gave this one to By Myself, but the bass really carries the second verse in that song, even though it just plays one note. However, on this song, the bass literally just doubles the guitars the entire time and never strays away for even the most basic fill. Least Signature Hahn Track Pushing Me Away - Very little sample-based stuff in this song whatsoever. Least Signature Rap Track Crawling - I decided not to count One Step Closer and actually use something that has some rapping from Mike in it. Obviously different songs call for different amounts of rapping, but Mike's one line on this song doesn't really add much (the song would honestly sound just as good without it), and the bridge section that was removed from the demo version was actually fairly interesting compared to the pre-chorus line that was kept. Least Signature Singing Track Runaway - Very, very uninspired melodies on this song, and not a particularly good delivery from Chester either. Best Overall Track A Place for My Head - I think in terms of lyrics, vocal delivery from both Mike and Chester, and instrumental input from the entire band, this is the most well-rounded track on the album. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deafandblind Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 thanks that was cool reading that even tho i dont agree on some of the things could we have one for FM and DBS? thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1996_LP Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 Yeah, awesome topic! we should try & do this for all the albums. Agree with what most of you guys have said hear! Though In my humble opinion, APFMH should also be mention under most signiture riffs. Its so interesting & iconic, its a shame Brad hasn't come up with anything just as good since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zuben7o7 Posted October 15, 2009 Author Share Posted October 15, 2009 Yeah, awesome topic! we should try & do this for all the albums. Agree with what most of you guys have said hear! Though In my humble opinion, APFMH should also be mention under most signiture riffs. Its so interesting & iconic, its a shame Brad hasn't come up with anything just as good since. Yeah Ill probably do the other albums tonight. I thought it was an interesting topic - but let us know what your favorites are. When I put "signature" in there, I'm not really asking for your favorite but what you think stands out most individually. Astat - I think a few years ago on LPU I made a thread how I thought APFMH was the best overall track from LP, and I probably still agree. But I guess I went a bit more mainstream and went with ITE for this thread, haha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsw2010 Posted October 15, 2009 Share Posted October 15, 2009 I think APFMH deserves a Most Memerable Scream award. It's one of the songs with the best screams, especially at the end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiman Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 I don't feel like answering all of the categories so I'll do just one: Least Signature Rap Track Pushing Me Away - I can not stand the rapping on this song. It takes away from the melody and in my opinion ruins the song. It's just in the way if you understand what I mean. The best part about the piano version is that they dropped the rapping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yannickwilliam Posted October 17, 2009 Share Posted October 17, 2009 The problem in this topic is that nearly everyone has an own opinion. I can't agree with you on Runaway And i think when you imagine OSC with a rapline,this song wouldnt be that what it is now,believe me. @Astat: You are right,APFMH is the best song on the album imo,i was flipping out when they started to play it in Hannover <3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zuben7o7 Posted October 18, 2009 Author Share Posted October 18, 2009 The problem in this topic is that nearly everyone has an own opinion. I can't agree with you on Runaway And i think when you imagine OSC with a rapline,this song wouldnt be that what it is now,believe me. @Astat: You are right,APFMH is the best song on the album imo,i was flipping out when they started to play it in Hannover <3 Um, how in the world is it a problem? Its the absolute point of the thread. However, I knew only some of the more well-known would even attempt at it. Please don't think my list is fact - because its only my opinion and thought it would be fun. And I said I cheated on OSC. When I went to this for HT, to be honest, I thought more about how their live show is done than the actual CD a la the reason for ITE for Hahn and OSC for "worst rap" even though he doesn't rap - its just technically I like all his raps on the album so I couldn't choose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jdot Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Nice post but I don't agree with your opinions on Runaway. Lyrically, I think the verse's are well-written. I love Chester's vocals, especially on the bridge when he screams. Back in the Hybrid Theory days, Chester use to go crazy during the bridge. Yeah, the guitar kinda sucks and the chorus is cheesy, but overall I think it's a great song. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zuben7o7 Posted October 21, 2009 Author Share Posted October 21, 2009 Nice post but I don't agree with your opinions on Runaway. Lyrically, I think the verse's are well-written. I love Chester's vocals, especially on the bridge when he screams. Back in the Hybrid Theory days, Chester use to go crazy during the bridge. Yeah, the guitar kinda sucks and the chorus is cheesy, but overall I think it's a great song. For some reason when I got into LP a few years ago, all their studio material from HT and Meteora clicked with me except for.... Runaway. There are parts of Runaway that are alright. I'd much rather listen to Runaway than, say, any of Green Day's best work (I absolutely hate GD FYI). I just really don't like the riff, and it is a whiny song... of course, a ton of LP and rock songs can be placed under "whiny" but Runaway seems to hit the max for me. I just flat-out don't prefer the song. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsw2010 Posted October 25, 2009 Share Posted October 25, 2009 Most Signature Singing Track Pushing Me Away- Since this is the song with the least amount of screaming, it's the best opprotunity to hear Chester sing. And the lyrics are not to shabby. I find myself singing this song all the time. They need to play the album version more. Least Signature Guitar Riff In The End- It's basicly the same notes all throughout, even in the bridge. Least Signature Rap Track Crawling-Mike has only 1 verse in this song, and it's repeted. Not much else to say about it. It's a disapointment, considering the demo of this song, with the "raindrops" rap. Least Signature Singing Track By Myself- This is more of Chester screaming than singing. Best Arena-Rock Track Points Of Authority- Screaming chorus vocals, some great samples, energetic guitar, and industrial style drums. Yep, this is a stadium-ready song. Get a couple thousand fans together for this song, and they'll go nuts. Honnorable Mention-A Place for My Head Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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