Linkin Park

I've put in a few listens now.

First, I had to separate the video from the song, since I was using revanced at the time for YouTube. Because the video is rough, in the good way. It hits hard, even knowing what trope they were using maybe a minute in.

The song itself is, out of everything they've released with Emily, live and recorded, the first song that sounds like a new band. Don't get me wrong, the overall vibe is still LP, but the sound is more stripped back than usual, and has a more linear progression both instrumentally and lyrically. A lot of previous LP is built around more surges and cuts back and forth.

This is pretty much their most "pop" song they've done, imo. It's still pop rock, but it's less divergent from the pop rock "feel" than anything on one more light, which gets called their poppiest music sometimes.

The way they've chosen their release of the album, the singles and the live shows, is smart. They gave a bridge between "old" LP and the "new". It worked. If this had been the first song they released, without any of the momentum showing what Emily can do, it would have been too big a departure from expectations. Too jarring to let us transition between the grief and the hope.

I like the song. It's a tad prosaic lyrically, but that's not a bad thing. It isn't prosaic dull, it's prosaic simple and straightforward with a story to tell. Obviously, the line between simple and dull is subjective, but I find it well crafted enough to avoid dullness. The instrumentation is as solid as it gets; the band is a group of professional musicians that know exactly how to craft a song, and it shows clearly.

I'm hyped for the album at this point. I don't know exactly what we'll get, but i can't imagine it being boring.