Geki

01. Place To Start - A good opener. I wish Mike had cleaned up the intro a little bit more and had it start with the instrumental kicking in instead of the static and noise before it does kick in. But that's a very minor complaint. As far as the song goes, it's a good song. It's a good opener. The voicemails at the end are also a nice touch because it shows the darkness that Mike was going through right off the bat. Those voicemails must have been from right around when it happened, or at least within the first month. 02. Over Again - One of my favorite songs on the album. I've loved it since day one. Great lyrics, great melodies, great instrumental. No complaints. Mike spills his guts out for us and it's heartbreaking but also it works well for this song. It's cool how Mike recorded it, too. Doing the first verse the day of the Hollywood Bowl show and the second verse the day after. It's a hard song to listen to emotionally but it also kicks ass at the same time. 03. Watching As I Fall - Another good song. One of the ''heavier'' songs on the album, like Running From My Shadow. Mike comes in hard and the lyrics are really cool. The instrumental is maybe my favorite part of the song, actually. The beat comes in hard with the second verse and the synth shit throughout the song is awesome. Overall, it's just a solid song. It's dark lyrically as well, but in a different way than Over Again. 04. Nothing Makes Sense Anymore - One of the slower songs of the album, but it's a good song. I've never quite heard Mike sing this way before. It has great lyrics, once again. I wouldn't say it's one of my favorites but it's a good song. It's pretty damn dark and it's kind of sad, too. It's not something I'd thrown on to jam to. It's more of a song that I have to be in the mood for and when I am, it's an excellent song. 05. About You - I like this song a lot. I know a lot of fans don't love it. But I think it's pretty good. It's not the best song by any means, but it's good. I like Mike's verses a lot here. The chorus is cool. I like the effect and the melody of it. Blackbear's verse is meh. I like Blackbear but I think his verse here is kind of boring, I wish he did a better one. But it's still cool. I always wanted to hear a song where him and Mike and or Chester did vocals on it, so here it is. The outro is crazy and definitely is awesome when playing it through some great speakers or whatever. It's a little bit long for an outro and I hate how it abruptly ends, it doesn't go into Brooding that well, but that's ok, the rest of the song is good. 06. Brooding - I love this track. One of my favorites, actually. I don't normally even really like instrumentals from LP or Mike or whatever except for a few, but this one is just epic. It's very dark sounding, IMO. The beat reminds me of Space Station or Burberry or whatever you want to say. LOL. Overall, a solid song and it's definitely awesome when listening to the album in full, it adds a nice context to the part of the album that it's in. 07. Promises I Can't Keep - I love Mike's singing here. It proves that he can continue Linkin Park if he really wanted to, fronting the band. I haven't heard him sing this way, either, just like Nothing Makes Sense Anymore. It's a really emotional song. It was one of the only songs on the album that put some tears in my eyes. The lyrics are great and the emotion from Mike is great. I'm glad this song exists. Again, it's not really a jam out song, this is an emotional song, very meaningful, like Nothing Makes Sense Anymore, but this song is a little better. 08. Crossing A Line - I always thought that this song was kind of boring and long. It has good lyrics. Recently, I've started to appreciate the song more. It's probably my least favorite song on the album next to Make It Up As I Go. But it's not a bad song, it's just boring to me. 09. Hold It Together - I love this song so much. It's probably my third favorite next to Can't Hear You Now and Over Again. The melody in this song is what does it for me. God damn it's catchy and Mike sounds awesome. I love the attitude of the song. I love the lyrics. This is just a solid song to me, it's one I can see myself playing for years. 10. Ghosts - Middle ground for me. I don't love the song, but it's not like I don't like it. It's a good song. It's pretty radio friendly. It has some cool lyrics and the music video served a purpose since it allowed Mike to have some fun amongst the darkness. But it's just not one of my favorite. It's still a good song. I like it more than Make It Up As I Go and Crossing A Line, for sure. 11. Make It Up As I Go - I don't like this song, I'm going to be honest. It's really the only song on the album that I don't like. I don't like K.Flay's voice and I'll be honest about that. Mike's parts are also kind of mediocre to me. This was originally a OML demo, right? I can see why it didn't make the cut for that album, no offense to anyone that likes it. This song just doesn't do it for me. I can't get into it. I just don't like it. I won't say that it's a shitty song since a lot of people do like it and Mike obviously likes it. Just for me personally, I'm not a fan. 12. Lift Off - A great song. Mike's verse is epic. Machine Gun Kelly's verse is my favorite part of the song, he just straight up kills it here, I'll give that to him. Chino's chorus is good, too. Super chilled out song but at the same time, kind of dark in parts. It's definitely different from the rest of the album, IMO. It's a great song. I can see it being a huge fan favorite as the years go by. 13. I.O.U. - This is some gangster shit and I love it. Well, it's gangster for Mike, at least. I love the beat. I love Mike's verses. The chorus is also epic, if you can call it a chorus or whatever. His verses are truly awesome. Some of the lyrics are kind of corny but he makes it work. Most of the lyrics aren't corny, though, only a few lines are IMO, but it sounds awesome, so fuck it. One of the cooler songs on the album. It sounds like maybe it could fit with Fort Minor stuff back in 2005 and shit. 14. Running From My Shadow - A pretty big single and definitely a fan favorite. It's a great song. It's not in my top 3, but it might be top 4. Mike sounds badass and the chorus is by far my favorite part of the song. Sounds dope. I love when Mike sings the ''oh-oh-oh-ohhh'' part. Grandson's feature isn't that awesome but it's still good, I like it more than Blackbear's feature, actually. The ending of the song is awesome as hell. 15. World's On Fire - A very chilled out song. Kind of like Lift Off being chilled out, I guess. This song does have the sound of the album though, strangely, IMO. It's just a chill out song. Some pretty personal lyrics from Mike I guess, but I guess the whole album has that. Seems like he is talking about his family or his wife, needing them to help him through all the darkness and chaos of his everyday life of the past year. It's not a favorite for me but I like listening to it. It might grow on me more as times goes on. It's a good song. 16. Can't Hear You Now - This is my favorite song off of the entire album, it beats Over Again for me. God damn I love this song. Someone said before the album dropped that it sounded like Until It Breaks....wtf? Doesn't sound anything like it, IMO. There are many songs that I would say it sounded like over Until It Breaks. I love the lyrics so much here. The melody is fucking amazing to me, that's what gripped me immediately. I love Mike's pre-chorus and chorus. Overall this song is A+++++++. One of my favorites from any album that Mike has ever associated with. Damn. It's a super emotional song IMO. I feel like it's a song that directly talks to Chester in some parts where as the other songs more so talk about the situation and Mike dealing with his life for the past year. I just really love this song a lot.

Fantastic quote.

I won't be there. I don't think Hahninator will be there, either, but maybe he will be. I think Soul is going. I'm going to the NYC show, though. Hahninator and Soul will be at the show too.

Wow, pretty damn awesome for Chinese fans! Mike is really reaching a lot of places for this tour.

This is a great album...

Yeah dude, that's pretty epic of Mike. Mike has always loved the fans, just like Chester, and Mike has always done everything to give the fans more. It's awesome he played over double it. NYC is going to be so awesome. It'll definitely be a night that I'll remember for the rest of my life, I can tell, and even though I can't speak for you or anyone else, I think the same goes for you. It will be awesome.

Couldn't agree more. Really cool that he played a 14 song set and debuted a few new songs live. NYC will be epic, no doubt. I also agree about that merch. Lol. Pretty badass.

I don't even understand how in any way it sounds like UIB at all. It sounds absolutely nothing like UIB. That's why I'm over believing reviews from people who review the album in the future for LP and LP related shit. I would get banned if I said what I really think about the person who said it sounded like UIB. Idk. MGK and Mike have been friends for a while now, as far back as Warped Tour in June 2014, probably even before. Mike has always kept up with rap and whoever is hot in the game at the time, and just rappers that he likes. He has mentioned years back that he loved Action Bronson and Tyler, The Creator who I think are both extremely talented and awesome. He just knows good hip-hop and rap, he's always been from that world, ever since he was growing up in the 90's. MGK was gonna also open for LP on the OML Tour in 2017, too. I don't think he's necessarily a replacement for Ryu. I could see what you mean that him and Ryu have a similar swagger but idk. I do respect your opinion, trust me, I am the king of opinions. Ryu was really awesome back in the day, I loved his shit on 2000 Fold, Megadef and the Fort Minor stuff. Some of Razor Tag was good, too. I also liked his solo shit he put out a few years back. I just thought Reseda Beach was wack. It was like SOB trying to go commercial and SOB wasn't commercial at all prior to that. But the songs were also just realllllllly cheesy. You know what I mean? And I shouldn't have brought up that SOB beef with Mike, you're right. But still that wasn't Mike's fault at all, anyone with ears can tell that album was garbage aside from like 1 or 2 tracks, maybe, 1 of them being Second To None. Overall I just think MGK is far superior to Ryu and I'm glad he is featured here. I've noticed a lot of LP fans don't like MGK over the years, I don't get why, he's good. I always love when an album drops and fans talk about the songs and it's always cool to see people like certain songs more than others, etc. It's cool you like the K.Flay track, no disrespect at all. I have heard Blood In The Cut once back in like late 2016 I feel like and that was it, so I wasn't familiar with her. I don't not like her as a person, just not too into her voice.. I will admit that I like the song more than Heavy, though, and I like her feature more than Kiiara. I have always thought that Heavy should have been sang by fully Chester but that's besides the point. K.Flay delivers a good melody, it gets stuck in your head. The song was just a little boring to me, I didn't like it that much.

LOL I'm not gonna lie, I thought about Right Now when I first heard that Mike was gonna play The Tonight Show, but c'mon, he's not gonna play that. It would be cool but there's like a 99% chance he won't. He's obviously going to play a song off of Post Traumatic since that's the entire reason he is going on the show, to promote it. I agree with JZE too, Black Thought probably doesn't even remember that song, although it was a really good song, one of my favorite off of TRT.

Nah, fuck that. No disrespect to you for your opinion. Kells is sick. I like a lot of his music and he's a huge artist. He's been friends with Mike since 2014 easily, when he first collaborated with LP at Warped Tour. Ryu had some sick shit back in the day, but he's extremely irrelevant now. And MGK would destroy him. Plus, SOB was pissed at Mike because their shitty Reseda Beach album didn't go super commercial, like it was his fault even remotely. That album was so extremely bad. I actually listened to it a few months ago after not hearing it since like 2012 literally and I couldn't even finish it, it was so cringey. But I don't want to get into all that. I actually really liked MGK's verse in Lift Off, it was my favorite part of the entire song. Mike's verse was sick too, it reminded me of Xero and Hybrid Theory era rapping and also lyrically. But MGK's verse was the best part. Chino also sang a great chorus but you can't compare that. Brooding, that really is an awesome track. I enjoyed it a lot and I find myself replaying that one every couple tracks. Lol. It's also funny too because I really still love About You. Solid track, IMO. World's On Fire was a little bland but I did like it a lot, it's really kind of a different sound than the rest of the album, IMO. 100% agree on Can't Hear You Now, that's a fantastic song, I love it. I'm currently having a few drinks and just playing this album and it's awesome. Still not into the K.Flay track but that's ok, I can live with not liking only 1 track off of the entire thing.

Just listened through for the first time. The only track that I didn't like was Make It Up As I Go, I really hated K.Flay's voice a lot and I thought the instrumental and even Mike's parts were just kind of boring, it didn't capture me. Everything else was pretty damn epic. A really solid album, it's very rare that I hear an album and there is only 1 song out of 16 that I don't like! Respect to you Mike for making this and making a great album while you were at it. I'll post a song by song review once I listen a few more times, because I always love doing that. Out of the non pre-release songs, I absolutely loved Hold It Together, I.O.U. and Can't Hear You Now (wow that song is awesome), but like I said, I loved everything literally, just not Make It Up As You Go.

I listened to the leak (half of it so far). I was dying to hear the album badly, I would have listened to the full album if it had dropped yesterday since I was free all day, but I'm busy today. So I only listened to half of the album during lunch time (first 8 songs) and am gonna listen to the rest later on tonight. I think the album will probably be on Apple Music and stuff by midnight too, since Ghosts was the day it came out, etc. If not I still have the leak.

I don't have time today to immerse myself in the entire album, so I only have listened to the first half of the album so far (first 8 songs). Brooding is pretty cool and Promises I Can't Keep is a good song. I'm not sure what people were saying when they said Promises I Can't Keep was an upbeat song - the lyrical content is super depressing and I personally think it's a pretty dark song in terms of sound too, it's similar to Place to Start through About You. About You is also pretty depressing and dark to me, and all the other tracks on the first half of the album are too. The second half is supposed to be more upbeat and where the change is according to people. Crossing A Line is half way though the album as track 8 and that's where the shift in tone starts to happen, IMO. Pretty cool. I'm gonna listen to second half later tonight.. Brooding is also a pretty dark song in terms of sound. The definition of Brooding means ''showing deep unhappiness of thought.'' I also opted to use the EP cover over the album cover in my iTunes. I just think it looks cooler, and fits the tone more. The mixes also sound slightly better, maybe that's just me thinking that, then the pre release mixes did for the first 5 songs and CAL. Haven't listened to the mix for Ghosts or RFMS yet though. I'm gonna listen to the second half (9-16) tonight when I can properly dedicate enough time today to immerse myself in the album. I love listening to music late at night too so it should be cool. When I hear the entire album in full a few times, I'll post a track by track of my thoughts like I usually do.

Brooding reminds me of a mix of Space Station and Drawbar, with under random instrumental demos from ATS, LT and OML mixed in. I've now learned that I should never ever judge songs based off of what people say in reviews, because I always have totally different experiences with the songs. Still only listening to the first 8 songs for now.

Thanks for clearing it up.

Did Mike say once that Promises I Can't Keep was originally a demo for One More Light, like how Place To Start was? Or was that the song with K.Flay? I knew it was one of those. Anyone wanna help me out?

So far I've listened to half of the album (the first 8 tracks). Brooding is pretty cool and Promises I Can't Keep is a good song. I'm gonna listen to second half later tonight.

Mike SHITnoda.

Is anybody looking for 2 tickets to the NYC show on June 20th for Mike Shinoda? Don't want to go anymore and want to make the money back.

Good bet, why did I not think of that? Lol. It is the big single for the album. I guess because so many songs have been released that I forgot that somewhat.

Damn, that sucks about Conan. I think the only U.S. appearances he did for Fort Minor in 2015 were Conan and that show in L.A., that was it. But yeah, if you were already attending Fallon on that day or you lived in NYC and got a ticket or whatever, pretty cool. I still wouldn't travel just for a song or two, but that's just me. I wonder what Mike will play... Ghosts? Since it's the newest single off of the album? Although the album will be out worldwide for a few days by the time he plays Fallon so who knows. Probably Ghosts, though.

Wow, that might be an even cooler story about Dave Grohl. LOL. Dave is awesome. I've heard he is a really cool guy too. It's also pretty awesome that him and Taylor Hawkins stop in from time to time. I wonder if Mike or any of the members of Linkin Park do. But yeah, that Hollywood Bowl show was massive with so many people traveling for it. It's funny in a cool way that the store had no Linkin Park left after it. Shows how big of a fanbase the band has. I wish I could have made it for that show. Didn't know Deftones played Amoeba before, although, I think you may have mentioned it once, can't remember. But yeah, I think you're spot on with that set for Mike. It'll be that or something very similar, I'm willing to bet.

I went to Amoeba in Hollywood a few times. The first time I ever went to L.A. was in April of 2007 and I actually found a used Hybrid Theory EP (LPU 1 Re-Issue) in one of the used bins. I then got it signed a month later by the band at Bamboozle, which was also the first time that I ever met the band. I also visited Amoeba in Hollywood in August of 2013 when I visited L.A. for SSMF. Didn't find anything cool that time in terms of Linkin Park stuff but I picked up some other stuff. Amoeba is a really cool store. Anyways, it's cool Mike is doing a signing and small show. You can't get much more intimate.

It's the 14th in Australia right now. Wouldn't people who pre-ordered get the CD by now, only a day before it's available worldwide? I hate how I have 3 CD copies of the album coming in the mail and I'm going to see Mike in NYC and yet I still have to wait until Friday.

I'm gonna do a full review of each track like I usually do in the thread once it leaks.