- cross-posted to:
- music@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- music@lemmy.ml
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IMO Hybrid Theory and Meteora were double edged. They made LP extremely popular but also defined them for the rest of their existence. The albums that came after were great (Minutes to Midnight, A Thousand Suns) were great but did not get enough traction because the band deviated from the original formula. A Thousand Suns is my favourite album by them. Even Mike Shinoda’s The Rising Tied was awesome. I wish there was more rap like that but the paradigm has shifted a lot these days.
Living Things was decent but it went downhill from there for me.
I always liked to imagine the book as being Mao’s little red book
"My brother had a book he would hold with pride A little red cover with a broken spine On the back he hand-wrote a quote inside, “When the rich wage war it’s the poor who die.”
According to Genius that’s what it’s referring to and it’s the only little red book I can think of
This is the aural equivalent of unseasoned mashed potatoes.
Let me elaborate:
The dynamics are really flat. The crescendo at the end doesn’t feel that distinct from the chorus. The vocals don’t have more energy, nor does the instrumentation: there’s just a few more layers. The guitar line through the whole song is simple but doesn’t hook. The drums are just a simple military snare, which doesn’t add anything rhythmically (in fact, they fight with the rap flow during the verses). The strings and keys are just there to drive the basic chord progression, instead of having any interesting timbres or textures.
There’s just an overall lack of individuality in the music. Outside of the vocals, what is there in this song?
Compare to David Bazan’s Wolves At The Door: still relying on relatively simple layers, but the instruments tie together or contrast tonally to heighten the emotional impact. The production isn’t sanded perfectly smooth.
