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These aren't for normal people, lol. You need a real rig with high-end equipment to appreciate the process on these, because the nuances won't come through otherwise. The audience for these has to be vanishingly small, though - I know I personally would probably not be able to pick up the exact upgrades in sound quality over a well-maintained standard vinyl copy of any of these on high-end hardware, and I'm sure that's the case for most people. Makes me wonder who the driver for this release was - Mike? Brad? Someone at Warner? Someone at BSM?

I mean, it was probably picked at least partially for the 10th anniversary, for marketing synergy. The other two albums are LP's two highest-selling albums and the two that probably have the biggest casual audience attention, so they make sense for shitting out otherwise-pointless variants. THP, by contrast, doesn't have any of those hooks, so the anniversary makes the most sense for why they picked it for this drop, and that it's been out of print on vinyl for years and years. The vinyl ecosystem has been a mess for a while now, lol. It makes me wonder when the bubble will burst, if it bursts at all - as someone who buys records primarily to listen to them, I would definitely appreciate a bit of a market collapse, at least for these big-name reissues that don't really need to exist and don't make a difference for the artists selling them.

You cannot look at that color and tell me it looks good dude. It's bad, and piss yellow is the best descriptor for it.

Piss yellow AGAIN, someone in LP's camp has a sickness and they need to be weeded out. THP getting a re-press, though, is exciting - it's the first time it's ever had an alternate vinyl color, and having another pressing circulating could potentially bring the resale price of the original down a little bit. These really do kind of feel like they're just being shit out at random, though.

This feels like real smoke. Even if nothing comes of it, the fact that there's enough talk to make it to Billboard and for them to run with it seems pretty serious. If Joe and Rob are out for whatever reason, my only hope is that it's with their agreement that Mike, Brad, and Phoenix are exploring this. I know that comes off like "I hope everyone gets along :(", but it just seems like common courtesy, you know? Rob has basically vanished since the hiatus started, it's easy to think that maybe he just doesn't have the desire to go out there and tour any more. Maybe Joe similarly wants to focus on other things. It does feel a little conspicuous that the driving forces behind this initiative are the two guys who "run the band" by public perception (plus Phoenix lol) rather than a fully united front, but there are literally no details about that, so it's premature to even assume they ARE out. Maybe they'll officially hop on if/when this gets off the ground, who knows. I would need to hear the product before making any judgment on this, personally. Taking this out on the road as Linkin Park would be a big statement, and they'd need to back it up with a good, solid sound, not a cheap imitation or anything like that. I guess we'll see if anything comes of this.

I always just do one variant when there's a bunch of them, usually the one direct from the artist (not that that really matters for LP...) - I did the zoetrope version of the Rising Tied and wasn't super impressed by it so I just went with the blue and orange splatter here. Doesn't cohere with the art direction very much but mine did come out looking pretty nice.

Snatched up. Haven't been super fond of the art direction for the greatest hits-related stuff, but this one is pretty nice - same for the QWERTY digital single.

Got my copy without much issue - my local store had 6 when I got there in the late morning. Missed out on the Paramore/David Byrne 7'', though - no chance of getting that without lining up, I'd imagine. Overall, another successful RSD.

My mistake. The box doesn't have a separate credit for the digital masters as far as I can tell, just Gardner for the vinyl specifically. Are you saying the hi-res files are mastered differently from Kraus's 2001 remaster, or just different from Gardner's vinyl master? If it's a third, distinct master from the 2001 remaster and the vinyl (discarding the 1999 original master that doesn't seem to be a factor here), then he could maybe be credited as a legacy thing, and you'd have to ask, I don't know, LP's publicist or the legal team at Warner why his credit is still in there and why the person who did the new master for digital isn't credited. No one here is going to have the answer, in that case.

I think it's best practice to do a separate master for vinyl to account for the difference in dynamics that pressing to a vinyl record has compared to digital sources. If they have access to the original master recordings for HTEP, Gardner must have worked with those for the vinyl pressing, while Kraus's original master was left intact for the digital release, which would be why they're credited separately.

That’s just as goofy IMO. Like, sure, you don’t need to put too much work into a singles compilation, but what is the idea behind using the album versions when they won’t be cohesive? Compilations like this used to at least be cohesive to themselves, whether by using the single versions or new mixes that cut out the transitions. Is this some sort of Spotify backend thing where they need to be the album versions for tracking streams or something like that?

Warner is not beating the cash grab allegations by having the album versions with phantom transitions all over this compilation, lol.

In a sense, I feel for Jay getting his ass beat over this because if it IS true, then he leaked enormous news about a band he's ostensibly close with and that feels bad, and if it ISN'T true then he either got too loose with speculation or heard something that he believed that was either misconstrued or not true at all. Tough spot to be in when nothing will get past people in interviews like this. That said, the way he's backpedaled by being like "I NEVER said that" despite there being VIDEO EVIDENCE of him saying precisely what he said, and then attempting to blame everyone under the sun for "blowing it up" when he offered this information with no prompting whatsoever is ridiculous. Take the L and shut the fuck up, dude. If LP's lawyers have a gun to your head it's your own fault for being a loose-lipped moron. I have no feelings either way about the actual rumor and I won't unless/until it it officially announced. I DO think it will go over extremely poorly literally no matter who the singer is among a significant portion of the fanbase, 1. because anyone who's not Chester is not Chester and therefore worthless in their eyes and 2. because woman. I think it would be a bold, fascinating move. It could also be extremely bad. Or this could all have been a waste of time. We'll see!

Thread pointlessly derailed in record time, impressive. I can understand having reservations about using a Chester skin in battle royale, but if it's in the rhythm mode or other social modes (I don't know much about Fortnite's other features either) it doesn't seem all that bad to me. Using his likeness would mean sign-off/buy-in from his estate, and they wouldn't just hand that over for something they thought was tasteless.

GATS is an incredible song. It has so much momentum and dynamism to it that it doesn't really feel like it's six and a half minutes - this probably comes off as hyperbole but I feel like it and The Little Things Give You Away are the two songs in LP's catalogue that most feel like you're being taken on a journey through the song, with distinct movements to them. A Line in the Sand has this same structure but it doesn't hit quite the same as those two.

I am a little surprised that Warner didn't just hand him a couple thousand to close this out quick. Someone on their side must have been really annoyed about this suit, lol. That, or they're wary of setting a precedent of minor payouts for bogus claims, which would also be understandable. You hand one guy an unearned 2k to shut the fuck up and all of a sudden every band on the roster's got guys coming up to Warner like "I totally played on this demo and if you don't give me some money I'll go public and sue!!" or some shit.

I don't know that it was completely deliberate - since the marketing has been so fixated on Spotify and YouTube, it's only natural that they couldn't highlight the track that isn't listed on either platform. Though I suppose the marketing team should know that this fanbase is deranged and will latch onto anything like that... I'm not really pressed about this collection, I think Warner clearly feels it'll sell to at least casual fans and if it works, hey, it works, hooking in new fans is always appreciated. I do think, though, that the art direction we've seen so far is pretty bad, and the omission of any THP tracks feels crazy to me. You're marketing a singles collection that omits an entire album, lol. I know that you've got a hard limit on the runtime to keep it to one CD, but it feels kind of like an egregious exclusion. If it were me, I would dump Castle of Glass in a second for Guilty All the Same. Like others have said, though, this one isn't for the freaks, so it's not worth getting twisted up over, y'know? Most of us are gonna snatch up the CD or the vinyl like the marks we are anyway.

Man you guys are beating this dude's ass in this thread lol. None of that has anything to do with this Greatest Hits or whatever this is gonna be. I thought the missing track 14 was just a mistake by the marketing team once Friendly Fire was announced as track 20, but it's been long enough now that it must be deliberate, right? The lack of THP tracks is weird and the secrecy is weird, and honestly, the placement is weird, too. Putting something new in the middle of the track list feels like an odd sequencing move, even considering that this is very clearly sequenced in a particular way. I guess we'll probably know soon enough, but I have to admit the marketing has been strange. Plus, that bright-ass green is an awful color, sorry! Hopefully it's not as dominant on the actual art as it is so far.

Another banger RSD release? Super here for that. I wonder if we'll get a digital release of this expanded edition, too.

I wouldn't call it milking to release a standard black vinyl version of a limited record so that people who didn't rush to get it on RSD can pick it up easily now. LP clearly has confidence in this demo set as a standalone item compared to how the HT demos were handled. Post-Traumatic getting another reissue, though, that feels kind of unnecessary. Wonder if these will have the bonus tracks included.

I don't really like Mike's NFT fixation either, and I also am not super fond of sniping at people just because they express disappointment in how Mike chooses to do things. If you think it doesn't matter, great, just don't swipe at people who do. Be a little bigger than that, yeah? At least he doesn't do this with all of his music. If it's restricted to just this second-tier stuff, it's easy to just skip over and wait for singles and EPs to come out elsewhere.

God damn, what exciting news! Viscera was a great remix record (I know that one was done by LPA) and I'm sure this one will kill it too. Can't wait!

Yeah, I don't see any way We Major can see release through official channels without an ungodly amount of legal work. The Jimi sample, the GnR sample, wrangling all the features and making sure everyone gets an appropriate cut...whoever would catch that assignment would probably quit. Interesting thing about that, though - Celph Titled has had it on his Bandcamp for years. I bought it from him in 2020, and it's almost certainly the highest-quality version of it you'll find because it seems to be a direct source. I'm kind of surprised he's been able to just keep it up there this long (maybe linking to it here is unwise, lol), and I can't help but wonder if Mike knows it's there and if he or anyone else is getting any of that $5 per sale...

Got mine today, very little hassle at my local store. The record's darker than expected in person but it's a very, very nice color - I'll spin it tonight to see how the pressing came out.

I don't think we're going to get any more LPU CDs, not with demos, at least. They're gonna hold onto those to make the subsequent box sets more valuable, and there's a finite amount - clearly Warner was fine with it when the band was actively making music, but now that that's not happening, they're probably much more discerning about it. Could be wrong, though, I suppose we'll see with time. I feel like, in the place of demos, getting consistent (good) remixes through LPU would be cool. You can always make more, after all, and they could be album-themed each year, or have a bunch from one person, things like that. Maybe it wouldn't go over super well with fans, but right now we've gotten nothing for six years, so I think complaints would be a little much...