OKCrew

what about LPU 14?

I appreciate you unpacking everything there cuz there was a lot and I didn’t know where to start lol I think we’re all on the same page. We know instrumentals aren’t all Joe. We know Brad loves to produce (at some points even more than guitar). We know different contributions can look and sound different than what a bandmate’s conventional role is. But all of that doesn’t mean that it’s wrong to have wanted more Joe on THP, and that his presence wasn’t extremely limited in terms of actual sounds made on the album lol

Lmao 😂

💯 yeah in another thread someone reminded us Mike’s weird out-of-character messaging around the promo time which most definitely rubbed some folks the wrong way. One thing I also always thought was a mistake was the Radio Edit of GATS excluding Rakim. I love the song in it’s entirety, but 6 minutes is obv too long for radio, and if you were to cut anything for KROQ, I would have started with the extended intro/outro, not one of the greatest rap verses in rock history. 💯💯 i think Joe did some very minimal drum machine samples like at the end of KTTK and end of UIG, and i think the Summoning, but yeah his minimal presence was the one thing i coulda used more of, but was also used to it at that point

^ 💯 ^

💯 💯 I thought Page’s voice was similar to Mike’s too lol AFN only makes total sense if you see it as LP’s nod to the New York Alt Metal scene of the 90s. Just like Tom, Rakim, & Daron, it sort of speaks to a “bucket list” of inspirations/collaborations they’ve probably always wanted to do, and it just like everything else in their catalogue, it’s def not for everyone which is okay

I’m a nerd and need closure lol

I only dug it up cuz I thought it would be poor form to create a new thread about a topic that already had a thread about it. I definitely respect where you’re both coming from though, and discussing it is a super fun distraction for me. Either way I understand how much or how little you wanna talk about it. I agree that Rob, Brad, & Dave (particularly Brad) seemed to be resistant to learn half the songs live, which was def a disappointment to me too. I can also see where Chester’s vocals can come off as “forced,” but the songs you mentioned were some of the only opportunities for him to let loose on that particular playing field in a long time, which was honestly just exciting for me. I think Chester was the one who even wrote the bulk of War but I could be wrong. I can also see where Mike’s raps may come off as “generic” too, but it legitimately excited me to hear him spit some flavor you might hear on a Black Hippy mixtape over guitar-driven rock. I think the lyrics piece is where we just simply disagree, which is fine. I was on board for the lines that were just braggadocios and fun on KTTK, and then was legitimately spoken to when it came to both the sociopolitical commentary of GATS, Rebellion, Wastelands etc., and the personal lyrics of FM, etc. Also the collabs were extremely exciting for me as well. The only one I was underwhelmed by was Tom. Finally I’m well aware of the taste diversity of the fanbase, but the one consistent criticism you would see since Meteora was a call for what THP ultimately was. That’s not to say even the majority of all groups from casual listeners to diehard fans hadn’t moved on from that, it just never went away, and that’s where I saw the irony

I couldn’t find the official THP discussion (if there even is one), and what I wanted to say is too long for the chat lol: I hear this (THP was boring, etc.) from diehard, casual, and non-fans alike and i just don’t understand it. I thought THP was near perfect (I actually only wished they included turntables), but beyond that the album was what everyone claimed they wanted—a return to form with another 10 years of technical, musical, and lyrical prowess to elevate the sound. To me it’s some of Mike’s best rapping, some of Chester’s best screaming, and easily Brad’s best guitar playing, Rob’s besr drumming, and Dave's best bass playing. The lyrical content was a powerful blend of personal and political, and spoke to me on virtually every track. The only “disappointment” was Drawbar because of my really high expectations, and get where ppl would find that “boring”

Yes sir

Good find with that press article! I just wanna add that the more I listen to it the more i like it. First of all, it’s incredibly bittersweet that that theme seems to be an exploration of cognitive processing during a time of so much turmoil at the macro level, and the conclusion of that processing is to simply just imagine that you’re saving the day because every other tangible option is out of your control. “If I’m pretending, why not write happy endings?” That’s super deep for pop, which is consistently Mike. Second, having Iann Dior do Mike’s doubles and ad-libs during Mike’s verses is a really fun stylistic choice and just speaks to how he continues to be one of our generations best collaborators. I can go on and on. There’s so many choices made in the music that sound to me like they were made simply out of love for the song itself, and it’s also cool to make out the Samantha Ronson influence in there as well. I give it 10/10 but I’m biased

i 100% agree with all of this. I loved the whole thing

💯 💯 💯 exactly it’s so powerful. That’s so cool you got to go. I had tickets for the original Bowl show with Snoop myself, and i just feel lucky we got 3 pro-shot concerts from the tour in Europe. I bought a DVD of the Werchter show from one of those concert DVD sites and remember I got chills during the Wastelands bridge, just watching on tv so I can only imagine

I missed this conversation while it was actually happening but I just wanna echo what others have said and that the one thing I wish they included was Wastelands. We know they killed it in Belgium so it’s more than likely the one of SBDs of it at the England shows they ended up using for the album also sounds great. Also I absolutely loved the RTN/WFTE they did on the tour but if I’m not being greedy and just picking one to also include it would be Wastelands

You guys bring up really good points. I totally forgot about all the weird messaging during THP promo, and that probably contributed to its lukewarm reception. LP still dealt w endless double standards, but they definitely played a role in the THP debacle which is unfortunate Edit: GATS deserved better dammit! Rakim’s verse over the bands breakdown is simply music at its peak!

This made me lol 😂 I def agree with you, but i also let the “rock absolutists” have it. It’s important to remember a lot of the unfair criticism LP gets is just because of just how big they are. I could be totally wrong but last I checked it was hard to even name a band that comes close in terms of straight numbers for the past 20 years. Foo might be up there, as Maroon 5, Coldplay, and Panic probably are. But yeah LP def catches that LeBron James cuz-they’re-great hate and i gotta remind myself of that

💯💯💯

Actually one more thing: there’s an irony in that in THP was LP returning to “their roots” likely in part because there had been so much pressure for 10+ years at that point from “fans” and the public to do so, and then it basically flopped, whereas OML was LP trying something that was actually a new approach for them because they wanted to, and got accused of “selling out.” I remember feeling so frustrated for the band in May/June 2017 because of this, and it’s actually immediately where my mind went when I got the news in July 😔

[rant] The thing that frustrated me most about his OML review was that he REFUSED to listen to THP 3 years earlier, and ALL he was saying LP should have been doing on OML (returning to roots but demonstrating lyrical/musical progress, etc) was EXACTLY what THP was. And he wasn’t the only one. THP was a criminally unnoticed album, and OML made sense as a response in that context. What was shitty, was that Fantano (among many, many others) chose to ignore THP, and then took OML as an opportunity to dump on how LP “lost their way” or “sold out.” The “poppy” sound of OML is actually a progression when you look at in its proper context. Ppl just attracted to negativity ig [/rant]

It was nice to have on in the background during paperwork lol

I love the new song. Catchy, genuine, and the artists compliment each other well

For real! The “Raaaaaa!!!” going right into what sounds almost like a lullaby music box is a trip! They pulled it off so well Lol me too! It was almost like The Hunting Party couldn’t wait its turn and had to crash the middle of Living Things for a sec before getting back to its nap

Okay I hear what you’re saying now. It reminds me of what they did on Blackout (which I’m realizing also has much clearer scratching in its live version). On both of those songs really hard to tell if there’s any actual “scratching” going on in the studio versions because the vocals are so clearly chopped and manipulated by an MPC with an occasional “scratch” sound thrown in, which still sounds more like an effect added to the vocals than anything done with a turntable, but I could be just getting too picky at this point lol 😂

In the live version? I think that was just messing around with synthesizers, but maybe. I’ll go back and watch. EDIT: Hahn is definitely doing some cool synth stuff but not actually scratching, at least in this rendition: Wow then it’s extremely subtle cuz it just sounds like pure MPC to me on the studio version. Did they show this in the Making of Living Things or say that’s what they did in an interview? EDIT: This reviewer also seems to hear scratching during the bridge of LITE. I’ll go back and listen again cuz it still just sounds like pure MPC to me. Either way he def does it live which is honestly cooler anyway http://www.immortalreviews.com/home/2017/2/16/how-linkin-parks-living-things-proved-they-are-the-most-versatile-band-ever

I mean that's almost what I'm doing. The thing is, before Minutes To Midnight it would be easier to compile a list of songs that don't have scratching. Almost all of Hybrid Theory, Meteora, and their remix/live counterparts include it. That's why I added the qualifier of "Post-Meteora" because that was a turning point for Joe and the rest of the band in terms of how they wanted to incorporate it into studio recordings (he still added scratches to live versions of LITE and other songs). Maybe that would be a fun list too. Like which songs after Meteora did they add scratches to for live versions that didn't have them on the album (besides LITE)?