“Faint” by Linkin Park, Thursday, April 20, 2023

 

Twenty years ago, Linkin Park released their sophomore record, Meteora. Throughout the band's career, their sound would shift to various styles of rock music, but Meteora is not much of a departure from the band's debut Hybrid Theory. The album did, however, embrace Asian musical instruments on several tracks. At the time of its release, Meteora not only debuted at number 1 on Billboard's 200 Album charts but also set the record for the most units sold in a week beating Celine Dion's One Heart. In 2003, Nu Metal was the ruling dynasty and Linkin Park was the king of the music.

I CAN'T FEEL THE WAY I DID BEFORE. Speaking of deluxe editions, you can stream Linkin Park's 20th anniversary edition of Meteora--95 tracks of live performances, B-sides, and demos; some of which have been released like their Live in Texas record and some remastered tracks which had never left the vault. Personally, I don't have fond memories of this record. I thought of it as a letdown. Hybrid Theory softened Nu Metal, making it more palatable with melody. The electronic elements, hip-hop, and aggression tested my stereo in ways music had never tested before. But the follow-up felt like B-sides of Hybrid Theory. I wasn't a fan of the lead single "Somewhere I Belong," which sounded like an exhausted fever dream of Theory, rehashing old themes without resolve and only getting more frustrated. The instrumentals on the record felt incidental rather than serving a purpose on the theme. "Breaking the Habit" and "Numb" were pop songs, with the former hardly reaching a climax and the latter feeling like the formula of "In the End." I don't completely agree with my initial reactions to this record, but at the time, I felt betrayed by the band I thought was the most innovative in music, a guiding light to where music was heading. In the end, I turned to Christian Linkin Park imitators like Falling Up and Red to give me aggressive melodic music.

I WON'T BE IGNORED.  But then there was "Faint," Meteora's third single. Beginning as a guitar track written by Linkin Park's guitarist Brad Delson at less than a walking pace of  70-beat-per minute, the band's rapper and co-vocalist Mike Shinoda sped the tempo up to 135 bpm and created one of the band's most iconic concert tracks. While the lyrics deal with the common, early Linkin Park themes of anger, angst, and getting the courage to say exactly what is on your mind to whoever is causing your suffering, it's the high-speed delivery--the hip hop and hard rock, the programmed beats, the feeling it makes you want to jump around your house if you've even had just one cup of coffee, and Chester Bennington's growling vocals on the bridge--that make this one of Linkin Park's best tracks. It's songs like that that make it feasible to believe that a band, on their first studio album continuing was able to tour their own music festival, Projekt Revolution, bridging the gap between rock and hip hop and continuing the festival from 2002 to 2008 and 2011 in Europe. Today's song is hopefully the energy you need to get through the week. There's a time when it feels like you just can't take anymore and then a rage anthem comes on. Sure, it might make some violent, but I think that the music serves as a release. Others feel that the world is as messed up as you and Linkin Park can commiserate. Maybe they can give you the courage to say what you need to say to the person making your life miserable. 

 

Read “Faint” by Linkin Park on Genius