Antes de sumergirme en esta reseña, debo advertirles: soy un "poptimista". No creo que toda la música pop tenga defectos inherentes y soy consciente de que algunos Parque Linkin Fans que vienen a leer esta reseña de Una luz más se suscribirá al 'rockismo' y, como resultado, se acercará a su último disco con un sesgo preconcebido, asumiendo que debido a su naturaleza de tendencia pop, es menos impresionante que los trabajos anteriores de la banda.
Entonces, probablemente te estarás preguntando: ¿qué es el popismo y qué es el rockismo?
Rockismo vs Popismo
El término rockismo fue acuñado por el músico inglés Pete Wylie en 1981 para referirse al auge de los fanáticos de la música rock que sentían que la música pop existía en un plano inferior, requiriendo menos esfuerzo o habilidad. El término se refería a la mentalidad predominante entre los fanáticos del rock de que si un artista es "pop", debe ser menos talentoso o menos capaz que sus contemporáneos con inclinaciones rockeras.
Es lamentable tener este punto de vista y, a falta de una palabra mejor, una absoluta estupidez. Pero, lamentablemente, me temo que es un punto de vista que una buena cantidad de personas que criticaron el single "Heavy" de la banda pueden adoptar y eso en sí mismo es la mayor vergüenza de todas.
Porque se perdió deliberadamente el último disco de la banda, Una luz más sería negar a dichos fans la oportunidad de escuchar lo que pueden ser algunas de las pistas mejor grabadas de la banda hasta la fecha.
Hay algo bastante arriesgado y atrevido en lanzarse completamente al pop en esta etapa de sus carreras, especialmente después de su disco más pesado hasta la fecha, La partida de cazaDado que Linkin Park es conocido principalmente como una banda "alternativa", no es ningún secreto que un porcentaje de los más de 60 millones de seguidores de la banda en Facebook probablemente prefieran que su Linkin Park esté lo más alejado posible de la música pop. Pero la verdad es que Linkin Park nunca ha sido ajeno a la música pop.
Con influencias pop que se remontan a “In The End”, Linkin Park siempre ha sido etiquetado por algunos críticos de metal como “demasiado pop para ser metal”. Si bien tales comparaciones pueden haber molestado a la banda antes, Una luz más muestra a Linkin Park jugando con confianza con sus influencias pop en uno de sus lanzamientos más extraños y arriesgados hasta la fecha.
Más personal que nunca…
La naturaleza extranjera de este álbum se hace evidente al instante en temas como “Sorry For Now”, que recuerda a Owl City y muestra un estilo sobresaliente. Mike Shinoda En un momento alegre del álbum, Mike ofrece una especie de disculpa a sus hijos, quienes no pueden entender por qué su padre está constantemente de gira.
En líneas como “Pensando en ti de nuevo en el suelo, allí con fuego ardiendo en tus ojos, sólo me disculpo a medias…” explica que no tienen la edad suficiente para entender que este es el trabajo de papá. Pero, sintiendo que un día apreciarán sus sacrificios, continúa diciendo: “Nunca quise decir adiós…”. Ya es una canción destacada en Una luz más, “Sorry For Now” continúa con las sorpresas al concluir con un puente de rap cantado por Chester, ofreciendo una versión bizarra de Linkin Park donde Mike Shinoda canta y Chester se hace cargo del rap.
El tema del arrepentimiento y el recuerdo continúa en lo que quizás sea la canción más extraña del álbum, “Halfway Right”, que suena como una obra de Broadway con tintes de R&B y trap, tanto vocalmente como musicalmente. Se desarrolla como una conversación entre Chester, un hombre de mediana edad, y su yo adolescente, en la que reflexiona con pesar sobre haber sido tan imprudente con su vida.
En letras como:
"Dime, chico, vas demasiado rápido.
Has brillado demasiado; sabes que nunca durarás…”
Chester finalmente hace las paces con sus demonios de hace tanto tiempo. Los temas principales también continúan en la sorprendente canción “Sharp Edges”, al estilo de Mumford and Sons, que se puede comparar con el éxito de 2007 de la banda “Bleed It Out”, excepto que con un toque country. Avanzando lentamente hacia un instrumental con palmas que parece sacado de una fiesta en el patio trasero, Chester canta sobre las lecciones que su madre siempre ha tratado de decirle:
“Los bordes afilados tienen consecuencias, yo...
Supongo que tuve que descubrirlo por mí mismo…”
Por su naturaleza inesperada, esta es una de mis canciones favoritas que Linkin Park haya escrito, incluso a pesar de su corta duración. Y tal vez esta canción sea aún más discordante e inesperada cuando se combina con la canción que la precedió, la triste, lenta y desgarradora “One More Light”.
La desgarradora canción principal de One More Light
Al comenzar a grabar este álbum, había leído en las entrevistas que la canción principal trataba sobre el fallecimiento de un amigo querido a causa de su lucha contra el cáncer. Sin embargo, como el año pasado perdí inesperadamente a mi padre por un ataque cardíaco, nada me preparó para el impacto emocional absoluto que representaba esa canción. Mi padre siempre dejaba su sombrero en la silla y la noche anterior a su inesperada muerte, lo colocó allí por última vez.
Un año después, ni la silla ni el sombrero se han movido. Con letras como “En la cocina, una silla más de la necesaria” Esta canción seguramente conmoverá a cualquiera que haya perdido a alguien a quien realmente amaba y apreciaba.
No se equivoquen. Este álbum es real y absolutamente... Enlace pop, y la confianza mostrada en este disco demuestra que la banda da Cero mierdas Si eres un rocktivista, este es un álbum para los populistas del mundo. Escucha este disco y puede que tú también te conviertas en uno.
Pero ver el álbum simplemente como un "disco pop" sería ignorar el viaje personal que la banda ha emprendido al escribir y crear One More Light. Hay canciones aquí que son algunas de las más íntimas y, en cierto modo, las más arriesgadas. Después de todo, ¿qué mayor riesgo que lanzar un disco pop cuando has lanzado casi 20 años de música rock aventurera? Si hay algo que demuestra este disco, es que la banda puede literalmente sobresalir en cualquier género que le parezca adecuado. Los riesgos que se muestran en Una luz más Son deliberados, valientes y, por extraño que parezca, decir esto sobre un disco de Linkin Park... ¿Es divertido?
Claro que hay momentos deprimentes en este disco, pero quizás lo que es más emocionante que nunca es el optimismo que se muestra en muchas de estas canciones. Si bien Linkin Park no es ajeno al melodrama en algunas de sus letras, este álbum muestra a una banda que está firmemente en sus 40, mirando hacia el futuro y abordando sus arrepentimientos y su dolor con la madurez que viene con la mediana edad.
Una luz más Parece un nuevo capítulo o quizás un nuevo libro en el universo de Linkin Park. Seguro que habrá mucha gente que no esté de acuerdo con ese sentimiento. Habrá gente que detestará este disco, al igual que habrá gente que pensará que es uno de los mejores discos de la banda. Pero eso es quizás lo que hace que riesgos como estos sean tan emocionantes, ese miedo a lo desconocido de Linkin Park.
LECTURA ADICIONAL: Lea nuestra reseña de Una luz más en vivo, lanzado después de que salió este álbum aquí.
It’s not risky when pop music is the most popular thing on the radio and what everyone listens to
See my reply to Joshua.
If you are Linkin Park and you are well known mostly for screamy rap/rock tunes that contain heavy guitar, it a super huge risk to make a pop record that s not aggressive at all and contains only one rap song. It s like if Coldplay would team up with SOAD for the next record : really risky. It woud have been really safe for LP, in my opinion,to put out a HT part 3 instead of MTM or A Thousand Suns and it would have been safe for them to put out a New Divide type of song instead of Heavy, but they didn t 😉
Michele gets it 100%.
Totally wrong. It isn’t risky. Pop is mainstream you buy music you like. Pop is mainstream because it’s likeable. People don’t care about what band releases which song as long as ist sounds good.
What’s the problem in this case? It’s a lot of people see linkin park changing to mainstream. It’s not challenging at all. Give me 3 minutes and I’ll make a good pop song. A German comedian proved it with a song written by apes…. Sorry but this is bulls***
Thank you for your opinion, but I will respectfully will have to agree to disagree with you on this one.
It is risky when a sizeable section of the fanbase gets offended. Like you, for instance.
I don’t consider it risky or daring to make music in the blandest, most easily accessible to the lowest common denominator genre of noise, that can play innocuously in the background of stores and commercials. A Thousands Suns was risky. It was bizarre and challenging and at times completely nonsensical, but it was interesting. Engaging. Admirable. “Heavy” was just about the most anodyne string of vaguely sad platitudes I’ve ever heard. I cannot believe how much I hate this sound. It conforms perfectly with every example I’ve ever used of bad music. Honestly, Linkin Park’s lyrics have never been brilliant, but their delivery, the energy, the bite, is what made them so powerful. This is the opposite of all of that, and every single song on this release gave me the exact opposite of what I wanted to hear from what is one of my favorite bands in the world.
People who tell Linkin Park that they’re not risky because they’ve gone pop fail to realize that they are the ones the band is taking the risk en. The band is risking losing fans like you, and that in itself is risky and daring. You hated the album, and that’s the chance the band was taking! Playing it safe would be making rock for the rest of their careers to appease the ‘rocktivists’ of the world.
verdadero
I feel these people are just crying. Make a hybrid theory part 3? That’d be redundant and boring as hell. Part of why LP is my favorite band is because they take risks. Minutes to midnight is still my favorite album of theirs because it was the first to show that they weren’t afraid to take risks and embrace a poppier sound. Living things is easily their worst album because you can tell they tried to make a record just to please the fans and it came out as crap. If you love old Linkin Park, including tracks such as My December, Breaking the habit, or even A cure for the itch, then you acknowledge that they have been poppy from the get go. That was part of their initial appeal, that they were a hybrid of different genres. That has yet to change. If these people want to keep whining about what the band has been doing for decades now, why are they even here? To stroke their ego and try to tell a worldwide successful band what type of music they should or shouldn’t be making? If you don’t like the new sound (by the way, Heavy sounds just like Pushing me away w out guitars) then don’t buy the album. Just go somewhere else to cry about it, cause y’all sound like spoiled brats who got their candy bar taken away and are refusing to eat the broccoli in front of them, as though broccoli doesn’t hold it’s own.
And broccoli is healthier for you anyways.
Agreed, Broccoli has an extremely high Protein-to-Calorie ratio!!
You failed to disclose any information regarding hiring additional writers for the album, like they’ve never done so outside of collaborations, this most definitely does not sound like Linkin Park, and if it weren’t for Mike and chesters recognizable voices, thsee songs would get lost in the ocean of all the other bland pop music. I’m not crying about Hybrid Theory so don’t pull that card, I’ve never been able to chose my favorite album because I love them all, but so far OML is a horrible representation of what Linkin Park is capable of, everything about the album screams “generic” and “this isn’t us.”
It’s not necessary to disclose said info since Linkin Park are far from being the only band or artist out there who have hired outside writers. And for the record, the band still wrote the tracks. They just had outside writers looking over the lyrics and contributing occasional ideas.
It’s not the first time they’ve done it either. They had outside help on Final Masquerade.
Lastly, you’re not the band. So technically what’s “us” is up to the 6 members of the band.
well said
Been a fan since the start , not going to lie , the new tracks took some adjusting to but now I love them ! As the reviewer said many times in his review , the guys are into there 40’s now , they have mellowed and matured and I’m glad they are willing to take risks, would be boring listening to the same style of music for 20 years.
My favorite album from Linkin Park by far is Minutes To Midnight, so I’m not one of those fans who only want to hear Hybrid Theory over and over again. I also listen to tons of different kinds of music that is much different than Hybrid Theory. I just cannot get into this album at all from what I’ve heard so far. It’s the exact kind of music that I’ve always hated. I really have never been a fan of R&B or pop done in this style, and I’m also not huge on hip-hop, either. I like a lot of alternative rock, indie rock and electronic based music primarily, so you can see why Minutes To Midnight would be my favorite out of all of their albums. I hated Heavy right from the first listen when it came out way back in February. Battle Symphony wasn’t my cup of tea, either, but I would say it’s probably the least offending of the tracks I’ve so far heard. Good Goodbye was one that I disliked even more than Heavy, and Invisible was probably on par with Battle Symphony. I’ve heard Talking To Myself (Live) and One More Light (Live) and I’m definitely not a fan of Talking To Myself based off of what I heard. One More Light is ok, but I feel like they already accomplished the sound of that song on many songs from Minutes To Midnight. The thing that bothers me the most is that I know Linkin Park can do better than this. In recent years, they have wanted to make the band more of a brand and have come forth publicly about it. Having guest writers and vocal coaches come in for this album also bothers me a lot, especially the vocal coach, because nobody can say that Chester Bennington ever sings badly, he is an amazing singer, and a lot of super groups out there have recognized that over the years, even outside of Linkin Park. It bothers me because Linkin Park used to write all of their own music on their own, just the six of them, and I really respected that about the band. It made for good music. Now, I haven’t really enjoyed Linkin Park’s music since Minutes To Midnight (wasn’t a fan of A Thousand Suns, Living Things or The Hunting Party), so I can’t fully be that upset here, I guess. But I really wanted to like this album, I tried hard to, but in the end, I just couldn’t get into the songs. Maybe the songs I have yet to hear from the album will change my mind, but I doubt, based off of the descriptions.
They make millions of dollars, they don’t give a shit about what the fans want them to make. They make their own music and people will still buy it. If you don’t like it, just don’t listen to it!
First i’m not against LP to take risk in anyway, we all take risks in our life we all try something new, but i wished LP take risk and make something more uniq, and that what i used to hear from LP, more uniq sound, different and wonderful. They made 10 soundtrack or less to tell stories they could do it on singles, or maybe and LPU album, but i’m not agree with a hall pop album, its not i don’t like pop music, but what they are making its not a cooler pop music, its just like LP members talking about stories, that they can tell in 100 different way.
I’ve been Enjoying music from all kind, pop-rock-dance-dubstep…etc but this is not what i was looking for, or what i was expecting, well LP can take any risks they are the band and they are the musicians-composers, but this album not my type … hope next album be good enough.
theyll never ba good enough album! theyve totally lost it! they are not the creative and innovative band they used to be
i think all of the music of one light is good… i mean more than good. i am linkin park fan.. so whatever they did.. i truly love it… so fuck all negative reviews. just enjoy one more light.
If you don’t like this album, I wouldn’t worry so much about the band. Knowing Linkin Park, their next album will be something completely different anyway. This is what has kept them going for so long.
“Owl City-esque” is not something I wanted to read about a song, but, I’ll still be giving it a shot.
I do feel like there’s so much undeserved hate with almost anything LP does, but on the flip, and perhaps because of it, fans feel more need to defend it and lost objectivity when critically analyzing.
It’s all subjective at the end of the day, so, to each their own, I guess.
Thanks for giving me some hope. I must admit I did not like “Heavy”. In fact I have been hearing that song play on the local Top 40 station some people listen to here at work, and I had NO IDEA it was LP! I am all for a band broadening their horizons and I like LP enough to give anything they do a chance.
For the record, we welcome critical opinions of this review. We encourage both people who love the record, as well as people who completely hate the record to comment on this story. This album isn’t for everyone, and that’s both understandable and respectable.
However, comments consisting of personal attacks against other people in this comment thread (including the writer) will not be tolerated. If you cannot express your negative opinions respectfully, maturely or with dignity…please don’t bother wasting energy in replying. Your comments will NOT be approved.
Oh yes, only comments praising new album will be approved. Got it
Since you blindly commented without reading, let’s quote the very post you just replied to: “We encourage both people who love the record, as well as people who completely hate the record to comment on this story. This album isn’t for everyone, and that’s both understandable and respectable.”
How much clearer can you get that both negative and positive comments on the album are welcome than that? Go ahead and talk about how much you hate the album. That’s welcome and encouraged. Just don’t personally attack people.
I personally don’t care either way what type of music they release. I’ve always enjoyed their music, but I’ve never been a hardcore fan. I can say it is quite disappointing as I am a rocktivist (I hate labels), I would have loved more metal related releases from them. But they as a band have the right to make decisions for what they release. It is THEIR music, right?
My only problems is that my girlfriend Kaylee loves them. She has since she was 8 years old, she’s been to several summits and has seen them four times. She is trying her best to maintain her interest but to see them release the generic pop sound that she hates more than I do, it crushes her. She knows they’re better than that.
We are still supporting them either way. #BlinkinPark is going to be a great show!!