Album Rating: 4.5

I love this album, I don’t give a fuuuuuuccckk. Saw them three times on this tour, Little Things was pretty amazing live.

Album Rating: 2.5

Valentine’s Day, In Pieces and Little Things are the best tracks here no contest, but the six B-sides from these sessions (QWERTY, Across the Line, Blackbirds, No Roads Left, What We Don’t Know and Pretend to Be) are better than half the album lol.

Album Rating: 4.5

Yeah those “leftovers” are damn good, particularly QWERTY.

I hate Valentine's Day so much lmao damn

but yeah the b-sides are pretty great. Blackbirds is one of their best tunes

Album Rating: 2.5

Yeah Valentine’s Day is cheesy af lol

Album Rating: 2.5

^I feel that way about In Between, but I kind of like that VD is a ballad that holds off on any sort of chorus before ramming it into your brain as nauseum at the end.

Album Rating: 2.5

One of, if not the worst song they’ve ever written

Album Rating: 2.5

The midi cello haunts my dreams

Album Rating: 5.0

I've said this before on this thread, but the only thing that I don't really like about the album is the tracklist order. Way too frontloaded with singles which makes the second half awkward and I don't like No More Sorrow being in the second half, it feels really misplaced there.



My ideal tracklist:



Wake

Given Up

Leave Out All The Rest

No More Sorrow

Hands Held High

Shadow of the Day

Valentine's Day

Bleed It Out

In Between

In Pieces

What I've Done

The Little Things Give You Away



Even though a few of the songs on the album are kind of skippable for me, the nostalgia and good memories I have associated with them make them enjoyable enough as a whole for it to be a 5.

Album Rating: 3.0

Given up is still a sweet sweet tune.

I actually think the first half flows super well and is nicely balanced, second half is super jank and that run from 9 to 11 is extremely wack. I always listen to it like this:

Wake
Given Up
Leave Out
Bleed
Shadow
What I've Done
Blackbirds
No More Sorrow
QWERTY
No Roads Left
Across the Line
Hands Held High
Little Things

Album Rating: 2.5

Rowan you’re killing me. No love for In Pieces?!

I like the solo but the rest of it feels like a spruced up demo to me lol. even the solo feels like it was copy pasted in from another song

I think Across the Line does the same style way better

Album Rating: 3.5

I remember genuinely liking Hands Held High how embarrassing is that

Album Rating: 5.0

Hands Held High is good but like you only need to hear it once and then it doesn't have very much replay value.

it's great honestly. second verse is really good stuff

in 5th grade me and my friend did a rap battle and posted it to facebook where i rapped hands held high and he rapped this assassins creed rap from some guy on youtube who was big for doing that 10+ years ago. critics were divided on who won

Album Rating: 3.5

Wow that is a traumatic memory

still convinced everyone rating this over 3.5 is in on some prank

Album Rating: 2.5

Hands Held High suffers from Mike Shinoda syndrome, wherein passable or even good bars are rendered terminally corny by the delivery.



I’ve thought a lot about this, and I genuinely think Shinoda is one of the most tragic figures in hip-hop. He’s managed to trade verses with a veritable who’s who of lyrical rap - Busta, Jay, Ghostface, Lupe, Rakim, Common, Black Thought & Aceyalone - but is cursed with such a corny delivery that his only lasting contribution to the cultural zeitgeist is the carefully distilled memery of bars like “One thing, I don’t know why” and “10% luck, 20% skill”. It’s a shame, cause the bars in tracks like High Voltage are actually decent for the era.