Linkin Park Band • Page 121

Hit play on Disc 4, which I can't tell whether it has some new stuff or is a compilation of material they had put on LPU releases back in the day. Excited to dive into the unheard stuff in Disc 6.

 

Love most of these Demos but Mike singing Breaking The Habit made me LOL

 

Love the demos.

 

Some cool stuff here. But, part of me wishes the most fully formed tracks didn’t have to live buried amongst live recordings and demos.

Would’ve been interesting to see a posthumous release with the length and sequencing of a proper album, made up of their best non-album tracks from their whole history. Prioritizing fully unreleased tracks, but weaving in stuff from LPU, etc., as well if it leads to a better album. With their approach of always looking forward, I bet they have at least a Meteora-length amount of genuinely good outtakes.

Maybe they’ll be more motivated to see what’s fit to release after the discovery and reception of “Lost.” Maybe some fans will make some satisfying playlists of b-sides and whatnot.

(Maybe I’m just too hungry for more from these guys, lol. Zane Lowe’s framing of certain questions as not his/our business was spot on, but we fans are still gonna be eager for whatever they do, collectively or independently. Promising that Mike’s implied he’s getting to a place where he’ll be comfortable putting new music out with his voice.)

 

There are definitely enough known b-sides and one offs that would be nice to have all in one place, like No Roads Left, Qwerty, and New Divide.

Filling the space with the best of unreleased material would easily make for at least one great compilation.

 

I always liked Blackbirds.

I'm not sure what's previously released LPU stuff and what's truly unreleased, but I'm enjoying going through all this stuff.

 

Is there a breakdown somewhere of what’s unreleased, previously leaked, old b-sides, etc?

 

They're split up like that by the CDs. Disc 4 is LPU tracks, Disc 5 is misc. live stuff (technically these are b-sides since they only ever released live tracks as b-sides for Meteora), and Disc 6 is new, unreleased stuff

 

I’m shocked he released this lmao.

 

someone on this darn website will say they prefer that version

 

Not gonna lie, more people getting to experience that version of Breaking The Habit was a huge part of why I was so excited for this bundle lol

 

Listening to the demos and idly thinking about how many complete vocal takes bands must trash on a regular basis and how wild that is.

 

Listening to Mike mumbling Breaking The Habbit's melodies has me just thinking like... they were so close to the final product but could have gone so many other weird bad ways... but Chester and Don Gilmore come in and whoever finalized the melodies and lyrics.... man... that is probably still my favorite LP song.

 

It's also funny to hear that take in comparison to Mike's later singing, where he's far better.

 

To be even more fair to him, he's WAY out of his range on BTH. He's a baritone trying to sing Chester's parts in the octave Chester would sing at. My man had a losing battle from the get go

 

I don’t know how Massive remained on the shelf for 20 years. This songs a banger

 

Fighting Myself is so good damn. single material

 

Listened to this the other night. Crazy the amount of material left on the cutting room floor, they said they wrote something like 40 songs for this. Also, I have an aversion to demos vs proper studio recording b-sides and typically don't bother with those. Are they worth checking out/

 

Have never chimed in on this thread before, but Hybrid Theory / Meteora were HUGE parts of my life.

This 20th Anniversary treatment is incredible. My only wish was that the Lost Songs were put on vinyl as well.

I've been listening to all the demos today and WOW is Massive such a stand out for me. All of the unreleased songs are such a treat to hear because of how well they encompass the themes of that album and time. Truly a time machine moment.

 

The first 50% or more of Massive gives me Hybrid Theory EP vibes. Healing Foot has been in my head all day.

I wish there would have been an unreleased track that was a RIPPER. Something where Chester let loose on.

100% backed on the "new" tracks not being on vinyl. Criminal.

I recall a YouTube video of a snippet from Chester on a song that I don't think is on this release. I cant find it anymore but its off one of the Making of Meteora vids.

 

If you mean the song that people refer to as the "Thoughts That Take Away My Pride" song, the band confirmed that song is actually "Lost". It's a lyric they ended up not using.

 

Yes that’s it! I found the “longer” clip of it and you can tell that’s Lost for sure. They said in that clip they just rewrote the end of the song for the “97th time”.

 

This came in today!

 

I've been listening to their discography lately as a result of the excitement of the Meteora 20th anniversary, and one thing that's really crystalizing for me about their craft is how determined they were that each album be completely different from the last, and to not be pigeonholed into one kind of approach.

It's like I can hear on songs where if they'd done things differently, it would sound like it belonged on Hybrid Theory or Meteora, but instead, whether consciously or unconsciously, they chose to use different guitar sounds, or electronics, or pretty much anything instead of something familiar, and I respect that.

I also respect just how much they lean into exploring particular sounds on different albums. Living Things, for example, feels very heavily electronic, replacing guitars in places with sounds that replicate guitars. The Hunting Party obviously goes full throttle guitar rock, but a noisy, unclean kind of rock that I think befits the more political tone of the album and the guest stars like Hamilton and Morello.

And then One More Light is very pop, but not an obvious kind of pop from them. I was relistening to it this afternoon and I was surprised by how subdued everything sounded, like they decided to not push their electronic or hip-hop angles so much and go for something a bit more singer-songwritery, unlike their previous work.

On a side note, I'm also noticing just how differently Chester sang on that album, like they'd even begun to want to break the mold of what to expect vocally from them. I mean, they started that with Mike, getting him to sing more over time on his own and with Chester, but on OML it sounded like Chester was trying different approaches.

I just really appreciate what this band brought to the table. Not many bands have the courage to reinvent themselves so frequently and so readily, and I just hope the remaining members are able to come back one day and reinvent themselves again.

 

Yup. Linkin park was a band where if I wasn’t a fan of one album I didn’t give up since they were all so different. It’s rare.