u/Samdesite

I’d say BTH is probably not even in my top 10 LP songs. It’s good, but not one of my favourites (though it does contain one of my favourite bridges). What I find really cool about this song, however, is the intricacy of the chorus. By nature, choruses are repetitive. Or, perhaps, habitual. They are a repeated behaviour in a song. What BTH does in every chorus is add one modification: the first chorus differs from the second chorus by changing “I know it’s not alright” to “I’ll never be alright”. The third chorus differs from the second chorus by changing “I don’t know why I instigate, and say what I don’t mean” to “but now I have some clarity, to show you what I mean”. Essentially, just by altering some lyrics in each chorus, they are breaking the habit. There’s also no heavy guitar presence in the song, which by LP’s standards, is also breaking the habit. Cool song.

I’ve only recently got into Linkin Park. I am utterly obsessed now, and have been for about 2 months now. All in all, not very long, especially considering HT is about 26 years old.

There are so many reasons to love this band. I’m not gonna talk about the obvious, i.e. Chester’s vocals (which I’ll never be able to do justice with mere words on a page), Mike’s rapping, Emily’s vocals and all the instrumentals and lyrics. Instead I want to talk about a subtle and niche trait that isn’t exclusive to LP per se, but is executed so perfectly. For me, this really makes them stand out and consolidates the fact that they put that extra bit of effort and care into their songs.

It’s the variety within each song. Most other artists’ songs follow a pattern of intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, end - often with a pre-chorus before the first and second chorus. This pattern, or something similar. Linkin Park frequently subscribe to this because, let’s be honest, it works. Most artists will keep the first two pre-choruses and choruses identical, however, LP frequently “enhance” the second pre-chorus in various ways; in Crawling, Chester holds the “SO INSECURRRRRRRRRRRE” for a few seconds longer than that of the first chorus, in Numb, he adds the extra line “and every second I waste is more than I can ta-ake”, in Faint, there’s a slight delay between the second verse/pre-chorus (“but I’ll be here cos you’re all that I got”) and the subsequent chorus, What I’ve Done plays in the first chorus with a beautiful quadruple guitar strum, whereas the second chorus is welcomed by some equally wonderful drums. There are so many examples of this.

It’s not just pre-choruses though. No. LP also tweak the chorus itself - the chorus is usually the part of the song that remains the same (obviously) as it reinforces the main theme, so although enhancing it is difficult, if done correctly it can work so, so well. Papercut is a great example. The second chorus is essentially two choruses back-to-back, which adds so much depth already, but the THIRD chorus is bolstered perfectly. Not only do LP implement the double chorus again, AND continue the bridge as backing vocals (incredible), they then repeat the penultimate line…and then repeat it again, before delivering one of the strongest closing three words of any song I’ve ever listened to.

There are so many examples of all of this, and I’m sure you’ll all have your own favourite LP idiosyncrasies that they let flourish in their music, but that element is my favourite subtle thing that they do.