Living Things is the first album I will not buy.

I am more of a rhythm and groove guy which I don't feel on this album. Songs like By Myself, With You, Forgotten, One Step Closer, Don't Stay, Hit the Floor have a tangible vibe and groove in my opinion. The new album still has a few parts that tend to groove but it's mostly just a verse through many songs. It all sounds very linear, 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4-...-ish, and way too harmonic for my taste. I like dissonance and other stuff that was naturally done on Hybrid Theory (probably due to just making music instead of thinking about the tones and "rules" of music?); without those things music is too predictable. I was able to hum along the songs in the first listening, not knowing the songs/tones but knowing where the harmonic melodies are going. Pretty boring ... it may sound cleaner but very radio-like. Songs that just tootle in the background.

Pretty much everything I like was dropped after QWERTY which was, ironically, a big hope for a few fans and especially me. It seems the band was influenced by Warner and/or success, although nobody would admit, after Hybrid Theory was mainly influenced by the EP and local success. When Crawling and In The End were greatly successful I already knew the next album(s) would change, they just had a linear feel which would appeal to the masses.

Just sounding aggressive, which still doesn't happen a lot, or "heavy" (I don't actually think this new album is heavy ...) isn't the way to go for me. There is more to it.

Thanks for the music so far, the few songs I still tend to like - maybe 2 on this new album and a few on A Thousand Suns - and the concerts.

Good luck and many fun hours with the band in the future.

* This is not supposed to be a review or bad talking in any way. It simply states that LP went from the top of my favourites to just another band and this is simply due to my musical taste. Nothing else. That's why I disabled comments. You can still like this post I think if you feel like this.