Qwerty18

Honestly, I'd have close to zero interest in a CC reissue. CC is basically a glorified mash-up thing. It was cool for what it was, even got a huge internal hit, but in essence, it's already "rehash" of older material. Which would make a reissue a "rehash of a rehash". That's going a bit too far I think, but that's only my opinion of course 😛

Thanks guys for the more technical details around the samples/drums. Love those kind of "deep dive" discussions. The part that's been distracting to me has indeed more to do with the light crash, and the ongoing thin "white noise" sound that follows it up. Those plays in frequencies a bit too high for my liking, and it disturb my focus from the other, nicer, parts of the soundscape. Like if you've got a cool picture, but then put a questionable filter on it. Of course, that's how I perceive it, might be different for others

Now I'll say that the reaction of Jay Gordon "No no, I know nothing, I said nothing!!" is a tiny bit suspicious indeed. He could well just be annoyed about a random confusion of his -for example induced by the "Already Over" sessions with female artists - making the headlines.... who knows. At the least, if the rumor spreads a lot in the coming days, it'd be healthy for someone off the band to disprove it - a simple tweet 'd be enough to avoid a lot of drama ^^'

The way I see it, the only thing that would remotely give more credit to this is the "Papercuts" thing. It is a semi-common thing for bands to publish a "Best of" compilation to wrap-up an era, before starting an entirely fresh chapter. That said, not buying it, I just don't see it happening.

About the instrumental: I really like the guitar work on the track. It's subtle, smooth, and full of finesse. On the other end, I don't get why the drop hit (of whatever you call it) was mixed or done to sound so..... thin? The best example I have of it is at the 1:27 mark. When the tension is released, there is that "splaaah" sound (drum/sample/both). And honestly, that sound, I find it unpleasant, to the point it slightly, and non-metaphorically, hurt my ears. Weird choices on the sound-design department have been my biggest complain about that era in general - this is another occurrence of it.

For real, that video must be in the top 5 worst decisions of LP's history 😅 This song was asking for some proper adrenaline-packed "band performance" shoots. Could have multiply the impact of the single by 10.

Man, I still remember hearing GATS for the first time, I was blown away. And then I got my roommate pissed off because of over-playing the shit out of it the next morning 😃 In the context of the time, after ATS and Living Things had been diving deeper and deeper into electronic elements, a 6 min long hard rock track was a huge curve-ball from the band. Such a banger as well, one of the best track from that record.

Yep, phrased like that, it's hard to disagree with this.

About Friendly Fire : after a couple more listens, I appreciate the track a bit more, but it is definitely nothing spectacular IMO. One thing that bugs me is how the instrumental gets no space to breath. From second 1, Chester is singing over a nice but forgettable sonic background. Everything feels compressed into the typical mid-tempo verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus structure. Take the same melodic idea, the same guitar layers, the same synths, but play a bit more with the dynamics, add some short but sweet instrumental parts, experiment a bit more, and I'd like the song a lot more. Nothing against the "verse/chorus" thing in itself. But if you go for it, I feel the song need to have other highlights to really shine, and I don't see those highlights here.

Nah, I didn't like FF so much on first listen. As a lot of other OML tracks back then, it felt me unimpressed, and with little desire to replay it. Part of it is tastes: I'm not super fond of that type of "empowering/sweet/bright" pop. The other part is I really think the songwriting is not that great. Man, I just don't get that era I guess 😅

I find the fact that QWERTY is on the collection hilarious 😃 Not in a bad way - I wasn't expecting anything specific for that 14th track. But this is just so unexpected, it becomes a bit funny. Especially considering it takes over the spot of tracks like SOTD or Heavy. If I'd have one small issue with this whole thing, it'd be the absence of THP tracks. It's not about the collection itself, I probably wouldn't listen to it either way. But I find it a bit "insulting" to that record, which definitely feels like the "black sheep" of the family now.

To give my good old THP some more love, I'll add : KTTK and GATS are some of most interesting, exciting, adrenaline-packed tracks in LP catalog. If the entire album was of that caliber - not especially that heavy, but just that good - it'd easily be my favorite LP record.

There is no need to be this disrespectful towards an album. Or I guess you can be, but as a reminder: there are people out there who do enjoy the album, and have great memories linked with it - and that'd include me. Like, OML is a record that doesn't appeal to me as much as the rest of LP discography, but I know some other enjoy it, and I can respect that and simply say "well yeah, this specific record wasn't my thing".

It would be real nice to get a new LP track. Seems credible, we will see. That said, if it is from OML, it probably wouldn't be for me anyway 😛

Which leads me to say, personally, I am happy enough with Mike releasing more new music in the future. At this point, my interest for LP has kind of been transferred to Mike's stuff. It's more like a pragmatic thing : LP making new music again is very, very uncertain, and it would never feel the same anyway. The anniversary boxes are already a good way to keep the legacy alive. On the other side, I'm convinced Mike has the skills to release some absolutely great stuff in the future, maybe with the extra help of some instrument players (and there, why not some LP members?). I just wish he'll commit to big-scope project at some point.

I really liked the EP as well, quite moody and experimental in parts, far from most of the poppy stuff Mike has been producing the last couple of years. The tracklist made it look way worse than what it actually sounds like. The "Already Over" different takes have almost nothing to do with the original, and some like "Nothing is There" work as individual tracks in their own right.

I'm not really up-to-date with what's trendy/popular in the mainstream/on tik-tok, but I for one continue to look up to albums as my main source of music. And there has been plenty of great albums released this year, so there is always that. 😇 I just think albums represent a more cohesive, congruent artistic statement, in comparison to those kind of EPs that seem to gather more to the financial/marketing aspect of it. This might be a controversial opinion, but to me, the EP-singles thing seems a bit "lazy" - aka : less material (one could say : "less work"), more exposure (one could say : "more money"). Not a criticism of Mike pe se - I don't think he's chasing the money - but maybe one of that new industry model as a whole.

To be fair, the FM remix is rather nice.

Eeeeeeh..... Nope? ^^'''

This was great! Loved the energy and the good vibes.

Yeah, each time I come back to it after a break of couple hours, it sounds better 😃 I'm starting to feel this is the best stuff Mike has done in a long while. It has the kind of urgency/excitement that was one of LP prime weapons, and that I've been missing in his work.

The song definitely has "some" LP vibe. This is a bit reminiscent in style of songs like What I've Done/Pretend to Be, but much more upbeat.

Honestly, if Mike was going to pursue a career as a "Compose everything and hire touring musician", I'd stand behind it 100%. Sure, it would in all likelihood never come close to LP in term of popularity in the mainstream, but is that really important? He's not a nobody either, he has a solid fan base, and I'm sure he could easily sell out shows in a lot of medium-size venues. I mean, the guy is basically a multi-instrumentalist artist with a huge repertoire of styles and sounds. He's touched on tons of different musical styles : hip hop, pop, electronic, ambient, rock, metal, even movie soundtracks. He's been producing for a lot of people too. And he's been the main composer of one of the most successful rock bands of this century. In my opinion, he still has the potential to release fantastic albums/musical projects in the future. I'd sure like the band to return one day but... we all know how tricky this might get. And It'd be a pity if the "Linkin Park situation" was holding Mike from going all out for too long.

Bring it on.

I know. But the same snippet was already circulating over the internet via the Australia Q&A (12 days ago), which was to be expected when filming the Q&A was authorized. And the shaving video thingy surfaced end of august (+- 20days ago). To me, it feels like they're making this pre-promo drag for a bit too long, but hey, not a huge deal either - We'll get the song eventually.