Blackbird

Gosh, you don't read what I'm writing, do you? Seriously... I never said those songs were the worst I've ever listened to, like Lucid said. And where did I only criticize them? I also praised them for their work. You just aren't capable to lead a discussion, 'cause you put the words you want in my mouth... Anyway... this is not the right place to continue with senseless spam. I'm thankful that most people here seem to be sensible and don't misunderstand everything one writes. With this in mind, enjoy listening to this great album (:

Thanks, SomedudeRemix. Unfortunately it seems like there are a lot of people in the LP fanbase who just idolize them too much and react absolutely immoderate on criticism. One more word to Living Things... I love it more and more (: Powerless...... Ooooooooh.... <3

he probably wanted to say that I am "so far away from lp" - but I'm not sure ^^

That's not what I'm thinking about these tracks. I absolutely love Hybrid Theory and Meteora, in the end this was the reason why I was so disappointed by A Thousand Suns. I was not happy with their new style, I just wanted them to continue making their good old music. But as I said, I disagree with your words calling Victimize and Until It Breaks old-school LP style tracks. Victimize is absolutely unmelodious, completely different from their old music which was hard but still harmonious. And Until It Breaks is just freakin' gangsta rap, they NEVER did that. Even Step Up and Dedicated are (and I'm not talking about the lyrics) not comparable to UIB. I would climb on my rooftop and scream out the lyrics of Papercut if they'd decide to make a new HT-style album. In 2007, when they finally came back to Germany, I went to their concert in Hamburg with my shin broken one day ago without even visiting a doctor before! I did not hear anything else but Linkin Park for years, and this was before they released M2M. So don't call me not a real LP fan.

Give me one good reason why I'm not.

First of all, I didn't write anything like this about Skin To Bone. And yeah, it is harsh, but why should I use other words when this is my honest opinion? Victimize IS disgusting to me, and this is no disrespect for LP or their work, it's a simple, yet clear statement about a few of their songs. You could just accept that, just as I accept that many people like Victimize, Until It Breaks or Burn It Down, although I feel different.

I don't think that I've bashed the band Oo I just wrote down my opinion, and I also said that I'm pretty happy with Living Things. That doesn't mean that I've got no right to criticize them. I just wonder if you really read my review, as I said in no uncertain manner that I totally loved Minutes to Midnight. TLTGYA, No Roads Left and Bleed It Out definitely belong to my favourite LP tracks of all time. I just didn't like A Thousand Suns and I don't know why it should be wrong to mention that. "Do you like all your songs poppy and full of friendly radio structure?" - could you explain me this sentence? Just because I absolutely dislike Victimize? That's not forbidden, as far as I know. Yes, I don't call it a song because I think it's a stringing together of a few parts who simply don't match. It sounds weird in my ears. And finally, that doesn't mean that I don't have some respect for the band. Again, read my post and you'll see I wrote that I'm thankful for Living Things, that I appreciate their new work and that I call it a progress in comparison to ATS. As someone who really doesn't like electronic music at all, imho I respect them as much as possible right now.

I unhappily have to say that I'm one of those guys who were really disappointed by ATS. In fact the only song I like out of that album is The Catalyst, 'cause it's good enough to ignore those two hard electronic parts. After ATS I kinda lost my belief in Linkin Park. When I first heard them in around 2004/2005, they instantly became my favourite band and until the end of 2007 I did not hear any other music. And although I loved the sound of Hybrid Theory and Meteora, I also loved Minutes To Midnight as much as their previous work, 'cause in terms of melody and harmony it probably was their best work ever. Whatever, like I mentioned before, I was and I am very disappointed by ATS, so I did not really have expectations on Living Things (and if I did, they were really low). And probably that's the reason why I'm pleasantly surprised. I now listened to it several times and it's definitely not as good as HT, Meteora or M2M were, but in fact it is WAY better than ATS was and although I'm really not a friend of electronic music, I kinda like most parts of Living Things, and that's a big advance, isn't it? I'm thankful that Linkin Park made it possible for me to make something like a restart with their new style of music, as it's more powerful than ATS and kind of a symbiosis between their old heavy music and their new eletronic stuff. I'll probably never love them as much as I did in the past, but maybe Living Things can help me to become more familiar with what they're doing right now. If anybody read through this block of text, here's my song-by-song-review, although I'm pretty sure my opinion about a couple of songs may change a bit after I heard them more often. 01 - LOST IN THE ECHO - 9/10 I'm totally in love with this song. Although it has got some heavy electronics on it, they don't annoy me (which is remarkable), as this song is so energetic and melodious and probably got one of the greatest choruses they've ever written. The only reason why I don't give it 10 points out of 10 is that I know songs which are still definitely better, musically and emotionally, but Lost In The Echo nevertheless is a great track (although I didn't like it that much when I listened to it the first time). 02 - IN MY REMAINS - 6-7/10 Depends on if it's able to grow on me after some time. Solid, but not very special song. I like it, though. 03 - BURN IT DOWN - 1/10 Most of you will disagree with this opinion, but I personally kinda hate Burn It Down. It's way too electronic for me and I REALLY don't like the harmony, especially in the chorus. Everytime I hear it, it makes me wanna disappear immediately. Horrible. 04 - LIES GREED MISERY - 4/10 This could've been a great song, but like Burn It Down it's too electronic for me. I heard it live at the Telekom StreetGig in Berlin and it was way better than the studio version, which simply doesn't sound good for me, although the chorus is, theoretically, very powerful (would be with better drums and better singing). 05 - I'LL BE GONE - 7-8/10 Cannot say much about this song. I like it. 06 - CASTLE OF GLASS - 6-7/10 Something like a better version of In Between to me, "better" being the operative word. I like the breakdown between chorus and verse, and I like the verse more than the chorus. Nice song. 07 - VICTIMIZE - 0/10 Crap. Worst "song" they've ever written, and I'm not pretty sure why I'm calling it a "song". 08 - ROADS UNTRAVELED - 5-6/10 Lyrically the sequel of No Roads Left, but to be honest, NRL is definitely better. Has got an interesting harmony, but it's a little too boring. 09 - SKIN TO BONE - 4/10 Same harmony like Roads Untraveled... but it's the worse than it's predecessor. I don't really like it, although I could imagine that it will grow a little on me. Not much, though. 10 - UNTIL IT BREAKS - 0/10 One of the big questions of Living Things: What's worse? Victimize or Until It Breaks? I don't know, but both songs are simply disgusting. 11 - TINFOIL - / Won't rate this song as it's more an intro to Powerless for me. Nice short piece of music. 12 - POWERLESS - 9/10 Second best track on Living Things in my opinion, because of it's epic ending. Reminds me of The Little Things Give You Away, although it's not that superb (TLTGYA is a nearly 10). Verse and Chorus are good, but not great, which is why I actually wasn't sure about giving it an 8 or 9. But, like I said, the ending is wonderful, and it definitely calls up those big emotions inside of me that are the reason why I'm loving music that much. Living Things has it's positive and negative sides, but in conclusion, I find it a lot better than A Thousand Suns and I really fell in love with Lost In The Echo and Powerless. <3 I wanna thank Linkin Park for giving me this possibility to come back to them. And I hope they'll continue at this point, 'cause although I'll always be a little sad because they changed their style so rapidly, I really don't want to lose my connection with this amazing band.