As a life long linkin park fan and a huge fan of Mike Shinodas work both with and after linkin park it pains me too have too critique this album.
For the sake of this blog post im going too be directly comparing this album to the post traumatic ep written just a couple years before. Having seen this album performed live I can say with 100 percent confidence the album is extremely well written and thought out. The songs hit home emotionally and are written about personal and meaningful things in mikes life, one being the passing of best friend Chester. This new album was clearly not thought out and just seems like a assortment of decent ideas all muddled together. The album feels rushed and poor quality in comparison too Mikes previous work. In fairness I know he got a lot of the ideas from his followers who co wrote these songs with him, but it seems strange too release all of these jumbled ideas under an actual album.
“When I start, I usually have very little idea of where it will go. What comes out is a product of the viewers” this quote from Mike really provides some clarity on why the album turned out the way it did. Its very unpredictable and chaotic the whole way through and for the most part features only beats and synthetic instruments. Not too mention the repetitive nature of every single song with only a middle eight section too offer any new material.
Comparing this too post tramatic with popular hits such as “over again” and “about you” ft blackbear, you would never imagine that its the same artist. Post tramatic is well written with great harmony and rhythm throughout. Its well recorded and the rapping is especially good throughout. He’s put thought into getting big names such as Black Bear and K Flay on the album too help ensure the successes and sales. He also released three of the songs months before the release too maintain the excitement about the album. The album broke records for Mike getting number one on its debut for top rock albums in the US, And sixth for album sales.
The only song that comes close too that achievement is “open door” on volume one that has over a million streams. Its also substantially better than the other material on the two volumes and features a whole band and vocals with backing vocals. All in all the song sounds professional and sounds very well recorded and pieced together, just like his earlier work.
Concluding this post, its a decent album just could have been much better. I respect the idea and understand that he got most of the ideas from his twitch following and original game boy sounds, and that he was clearly going for a nostalgic sound. Hopefully he goes back too his old style rap for the next album.
stephen ross music 