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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

Pretty interesting new campaign on Mike's website that teases a "next phase of adoption" a week from now after you play a little interactive game, I wonder what it could be HTTPS://WWW.MIKESHINODA.COM.

Seems likely with the sword emojis. Damn, I thought for a sec there was gonna be an LP angle but it's probably just more LP going on the game along with Mikes new song as a way to promo mikes music

Does it have to be a "reveal"? It could just be about his feelings at a certain time. It could be about a few months ago, a conversation when working on Looking For An Answer years ago, etc. Saying this is some kind of reveal is like saying that "Can't hear you now" is an official press release saying he's only gonna have good days from now on I know convos around the future of LP get tiring, but I don't think it's unreasonable to speculate about his lyrics being about that. It's not like anyone in these forums is saying they are for sure about that or spreading it as misinformation. He called out LP as his "life's work hanging in the balance" in Post Traumatic, and had "Crossing a Line" as a whole promo'd single. I see no reason why he can't revisit those motifs in a new song in 2023, though I also acknowledge that he's not the type to want to dwell. We also know he's had double entendres in the past too

Idk what the lyrics are about but I can't help but interpret them as him trying to make an LP comeback work but having to accept that it's over, which is a big bummer Anyways, excited for new Mike as always. I hope there's more tracks than just this single

His site has a new glitch thing going on, maybe there's a release date for the single in the HTML or something?

Idk if it's new or not but his Spotify banner is updated and so is one of his thumbnail playlists, tho idk if it's actually new or just the IMH branding Edit: JK his banner is just the IMH branding. I wonder when the single will actually drop? Been quite a while of promo now

On the unreleased songs page, both Sir Sly and Pvris are mentioned, but we now have both of their songs: Sir Sly: Are We Having Any Fun? PVRIS: TAKE MY NIRVANA

Ah I must have missed that. Yeah no doubt we will never get, say, a song with him in the verses and Oli Sykes in the chorus/bridge, it would be too similar. But I could see him doing stuff with someone like 100 Gecs who have very aggressive vocals but are doing it in a fresh way (outside of Billie Knows Jamie which is basically nu metal) I thought Lights on Last One To Know was great, she added a brightness and energy that Mike couldn't do himself but it didn't feel at all like a Chester replacement.

There's a full vid on YouTube here: Mike is clearly eager to keep LP material alive on the stage, and G Flip sounds great. I hope this new Mike era includes a lot of this and eventually, he does recorded music with guests like this who can elevate his writing beyond what he can do vocally. I wonder if that comment about is new stuff not having guests is limited to the next song or the entirety of whatever he's planning to release next

What about the BMI entries, I think I saw something about a couple of new entries with Celph Titled? In any case I'm excited, seems like it might be a rougher and angrier sound than stuff like Happy Endings or In My Head