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Pretty cool tbh. You don't have to click on new AO stuff if you don't want guys. Mike is not rehashing the song for us hardcore fans, he's doing it because he can and to spread his reach as a solo artist. In the digital marketing age, you reuse content as much as you can to maximize engagement with your brand. It's not any different than LP doing gimmicky music videos like GATS or LITE, the 360 Welcome video, putting out "Live around the world", teaming up with Mercedes, 8-bit rebellion remixes, recharged remixes, remix contests, releasing acapellas and instrumentals etc. All of these are just maximizing the life and reach of the brand separate from new original pieces of music. We could either sit in silence between AO and the next original Mike song, or see stuff like this that makes us say "neat" and move on. Or, you can choose to be upset and complain, but why waste time like that?

I totally agree with New Divide, GATS and all the Monterrey tracks, but I feel like there are many more recordings of WFTE that are better, although idk if they wouldn't have the intros/outros Can't wait for THP 20th so we can get a few live recordings of those songs on streaming, especially GATS and Wastelands

seems like it. Hopefully a tour is on the horizon and/or another new track in the same vein as AO

Easily Tokyo, the instrumentation is so exciting, and Mike's vocals are pretty stellar too. It's too bad the other songs aren't on this, COG and RTN are such unique versions. I figure he'd want RTN to draw some attention too Anyone know why he has two mics in the Tokyo session? One for dry vocals and the other for verb?

I think Heavy sounds very LP, it just depends on what aspect you're listening to. The drums/guitars in Heavy are there, but they're not mixed to the top like other LP, and obviously stuff like Kiara makes it feels different Since we've gotten the twitch streams and so much Mike solo stuff, I feel you can really hear his production style tricks clearly across everything when you try to figure out what's similar. Like he loves the vinyl texture or some grit that is in everything from Heavy to Not Alone to Wake. He loves panned double guitars no matter what sound. There's almost always secondary percussion to "real" drums, he loves "dead notes" on electric guitars, harmony/double vocal layers that are stereo and add width, etc.

I would have assumed MTV got a final mix in 2002, but the only doubt I have is the quote from Mike that says they tried to revive it later on. Makes me think maybe they tucked it away assuming more work would be done on it. Either way, there's nothing about the song that sounds unfinished to me at all, and with the "15 tracks" quote, it seems completely plausible. I'd love to hear that because MTV has slowly become one of my fav LP tracks ever.

I was a little bummed that it wasn't an LP song but it's cool to have our first live rendition of iMH. The instrumental also sounds more interesting to me when you can hear the organic sounds of the guitar more clearly Also wow, this came out so soon after the last one. I wonder if there's another song on the way or if we're closing out this little era soon, we've gotten quite a lot of content. Maybe I could see an official AO music video since the existing one feels a bit more like a visualizer, or an MV for part 2 or FM mix? One final EP with all the sessions including the LP songs? Maybe a remix contest? Otherwise I feel like they've pulled out nearly all the stops here

I didn't expect him to pull out COG for these sessions, that was really nice. It's also one of the best LP songs for other singers imo with the great harmony parts and the fact it has both a folky but also alternative vibe Now I wanna hear some other melodic LP stuff in these like Roads Untraveled, or even some deeper cuts like Until it breaks (the outro/3 band terror part would be awesome with new voices), In Between or maybe No Roads Left with Mike and new harmony parts

I always loved There They Go and Be Somebody, nice to be able to give those a spin. Idk if I ever listened to the hard way, if I did I didn't appreciate it back then but I'm loving it now! If only the full EP was just uploaded as is

Finally listened 1. Crimson Intro - Definitely has some ATS vibes and I agree it sounds like a mix of Mike's stuff through the years. I also agree that it would have been a lot more interesting if the second bar of the solo did something different since it's just the same from the actual track 2. AO - Still a banger, my favorite Mike solo song since PT 3. AO Reorganized - I love the soundscape here, I do wish though it had some vocals on it or something to make it more interesting like the samples on ATS or the Japanese on Jornada del Muerto 4. Finer - The first half is ok, I miss a lot of elements of the original and the double time snare doesn't feel great here to me. But the ending SLAPS, I've been wanting to hear Mike go off like that for a long time now. I bet when he plays Fine live it'll be the first half of the original and then this ending as an outro. The original fine was begging for something more interesting to drop imo and now we have it 5. AO FM Mix - Still love it, both verses are great. I wish it had a more interesting instrumental ending like Finer though 6. IMH - Feels kinda random to be on this, probably in the bottom half of Mike solo tracks for me and it being on here doesn't really do anything for it or the EP imo 7. Nothing's There - Reminds me of some Living Things or stagelight demos mixed with stuff like Session. I love it, wish the soundscape carried over to another full song 8. Part 2 - I love the new verses and rap verse, but I wish the choruses also had some new lyrics or something new about them. Right now it feels kinda like a demo to AO rather than a part 2. Doesn't feel like a closer to me but it's nice on its own for sure

These are fun and we're lucky that he's doing anything at all instead of just ghost writing or producing imo. Sign me up to see any LP songs he plays live and continue watching these The only thing I find weird is the lack of LP tracks on the streaming releases, maybe there will be one master release later that includes them? I can't imagine it's a rights or royalties issue. Maybe someone is just working through the data on whether it should actually have the LP name attached to it or not.

I love hearing his more classic rock side, it's a shame this isn't out on streaming, and also that we never got more pro-recordings of him doing stuff like Highway to Hell and Paradise City

I think most of what Hybrider listed is fairly reasonable besides the last couple of bullets. I'm sure that for each song, there are dozens of exports from each version. If they bothered to give us as many POA demos as they did, there's no reason to not expect other vocal takes for these songs that we've heard directly exists.

Ok yeah they're not dead, that's an exaggeration. But you must see the vast difference in incentives these days Taylor Swift is a much more recognizeable name than Mike Shinoda since the day he started posting music under his own name, and like you said, these are re-recordings of albums that already existed just like M20 is a special reissue of one. These albums have legacy like Friends or Seinfeld have legacy as sitcoms, while no currently airing sitcom comes close Now that CD players don't even come in many cars, no one is going to have the classic "I remember buying hybrid theory and playing it front to back in my car" experience and that keeps the album construct from being as big as it was. Instead, you start an album on something like Spotify and if you feel the slightest bit bored, you can literally check out any other album or better yet, a playlist with as many artists and songs as you'd like to shuffle through. So artists are just pumping out songs that go out to the playlists, with no incentive to wait and release them all as one album. And if you do want to experience just one artists body of work, you can check out their playlists or profiles Also, with so many artists available to you, it makes sense to send a steady stream of songs over time rather than all at once so they stay top of mind. We can see this all the way back in THP era where we got half the album before the release date. Don't get me wrong, I love albums too and see their artistic merit as cohesive experiences, but I also see that the streaming model doesn't really care about them compared to a year like 2000 where it was the only way.

yeah I wish it had a breakdown like the end of about you, it's great but feels so short

The FM remix is awesome, reminds me of the Skin To Bone recharged remix and About You. I think the community needs to realize that albums are kinda dead in the same way that mid-budget comedies and generation-defining sitcoms are dead. It's the age of EPs that contain extra little content like remixes and slowed/reverbed versions and Mike and the label are playing to it. At least his extra nuggets of content have cool stuff like new verses

I'm disappointed in the lack of open-mindedness, let's at least listen to some of the stuff. The "finer" part seems like he knows it's kinda a joke, I wouldn't take it too seriously

Yeah I thought that was interesting. It would be cool to get some "new" FM music in the form of demos or maybe if it's a Mike song but with a previous FM collaborator that makes him wanna brand it with FM as an artist OR maybe it's hinting that the next piece of music has a FM feel

I'm glad that Welcome will get a little more love and Be Somebody/There They Go are super underrated. Hope this edition is also on streaming Is it an anniversary? Or is this just more of the Shinoda marketing machine pumping to support the new era? Seems like he's getting tons of resources from the label rn

Just because they weren't at the Hollywood bowl doesn't mean we won't get them imo. There was a lot there I thought we wouldn't get, including bleed it out for its "noose" lyrics...

Yeah she killed BIO. I would go to a tour with her so fast. Mike is clearly hungry to bring LP songs back to a stage and keep their legacy alive between this, the evolution EP, the sound of AO, all the M20 promo...all the way back to him trying to figure out a produced version of LFAA

Nice, he seemed to confirm there's more music on the way even though it's not an album on his discord post.

I would have really expected an ATS or LT track, there are a lot of sounds there not really represented by these picks

This song actually rules, it would be a big shame if there's not at least one or two followup songs on the way of a similar energy to really make the mood come alive