Review Summary: Linkin Park, if you sold out, please remain greedy and cynical.
From the second it starts, it is clear that One More Light is going to be unforgiving with the fans of the more aggressive version of Linkin Park. A distorted childlike singing voice introduces the listener to a world of slightly corny innocence and eerie beauty. Chester Bennington is at his utmost emotional -he won’t ease off of the whole album- and lays his voice on a very sweet and mellow instrumentation after singing a capella for a second. When he utters the chorus for the first time it sounds like a lullaby, an irresistibly beautiful lullaby.
The instrumentation is quite simple, as it has always been with the band, there isn’t going to be anything impressive technically here which doesn’t mean that it cannot work perfectly as a whole and be impressive from that point of view, which it is. The shy melodies of the synths and guitars complement the soothing vocals perfectly without ever trying to impress too much, still, they manage to create an incredibly strong and uplifting atmosphere.
As often with Linkin Park once you’ve heard the first track you know what to expect from the rest of the album as most songs reuse the same elements in the exact same way; and when they don’t, the slight variations only underline how similar the other songs are.
In this case, this means very beautiful emotional vocals, choruses and melodies, layers of synths and quirky electro samples. Chester Bennington’s performance is truly impressive, there was always a lot of room given to fragility in Linkin Park but it used to be counterbalanced by aggressiveness, it used to hide behind the heaviness. One More Light feels like Linkin Park not trying to pretend anymore and from that point of view, the accusation of selling-out feels all the more out of place when the band never felt more coherent as on this.
The best qualities (and weaker moments) of the album arise from this tangible sincerity. Each time the music threatens to become gimmicky, hollow or dishonest, it surprisingly doesn’t and even impresses with something that stands out as truly inspired and soulful. A good example being the closing track which at first feels like an impossible attempt at indie-folk that promises to collapse at any moment and ends up being not only convincing but simply great… even if it cheats his way a little bit to (what I assume was) its goal as the many instruments prevent the song from feeling truly stripped-down and from relying solely on the acoustic guitar and Chester’s voice. One More Light could sound like a band going through the motion, giving up, but on the contrary the involvement is felt throughout. More, it is even a courageous effort as it represents an exposure, the admission of a desire that was kept hidden until that moment.
Linkin Park have been experimenting for years, when they were not winking at Hybrid Theory; they felt a bit lost, disoriented. On One More Light, they don’t. The album isn’t devoid of flaws but at least it doesn’t feel torn between the contradictory desires of pleasing the fans and pleasing themselves. This sell-out, this cash-in sounds a lot more like the band eventually following their true desires.
Witnessing someone embracing their fragility (because that’s what it’s all about) can be a bit embarrassing, even more when they used to act tough. The fact that One More Light should be the new Linkin Park ads something to the album in that it’s quite astonishing at times that they even dared expose themselves so much. But undeniably, it’s a convincing effort which contains several stand-out tracks that are amongst the best they’ve ever crafted. More, Linkin Park have never been closer to become more than Linkin Park.
(3.7/4) I just didn't want to give the album a 3.5.
