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liugeaux · 5 months

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Linkin Park’s Papercuts: A Track-by-Track Breakdown

A week ago Linkin Park dropped their first "Greatest Hits" collection, or as it's branded "Singles Collection 2000–2023". I have much to say about it and I need to put my feelings out into the world. Let's go!

First things first, LP is one of my favorite artists so there was really no way to screw this up. The criticisms I'll throw out during this piece are more preferential issues I have with the collection. As a whole, this is a hugely welcomed release that puts most of the songs you want to hear all in one place. We needed this 5 years ago.

With that said, if I were in charge, there would be some changes I would have suggested before sending this to manufacturing.

I'm going to break this down track by track, critiquing placement, inclusion, omissions, etc. If I were grading this entire package I'd probably give it a 8 out of 10 and that score is coming from a VERY nit-picky place.

LP chose to go with a custom track listing, rather than the popular chronological order. The latter is a convenient choice that leaves bands not needing to make a decision on what songs should be grouped together. Chronologically also presents the collection as a biography or story, telling the history of the band in a logical order.

If a band chooses to curate a tracklisting for their Greatest Hits they really need to "get it right" for the package to be more compelling than a standard chronological release and I don't know if they do. There's an art to constructing a tracklist just like there's an art to building a live setlist.

That's enough preamble, let's get to the nitty-gritty.

Tracks

1. "Crawling" from Hybrid Theory

"Crawling" has never been a favorite of mine. It's one of the weakest tracks on Hybrid Theory and is a bad song to kick off this collection. The track should definitely be included, but the back half would have been a much better home for it.

2. "Faint" from Meteora

A perfect song in the perfect position, "Faint" batting second gets the blood flowing as the biggest hits should be rolling in. No editorial notes on this one.

3. "Numb/Encore" from (mashup with Jay-Z) Collision Course

The whole Collision Course project was a cool gimmick in 2004, but "Numb/Encore" hasn't aged well, and including a Jay-Z collab this early in the tracklisting is a misfire. If they must include it, the back half is the right place. If we're going with novelty tracks I'd prefer "Pts.OF.Athrty" from Reanimation and even it shouldn't be in the #3 slot. #3 should be an iconic hit. Also, two versions of "Numb" in one collection is tacky, imo.

4. "Papercut" from Hybrid Theory

THIS is your track #1! It kicked off the Hybrid Theory album, is the namesake of this very collection, and would've set the proper tone for what is to follow. Just swapping the track placement of "Crawling" and "Papercut" would make a HUGE difference in the overall package.

5. "Breaking the Habit" from Meteora

At this point, we're 5 tracks into this thing and we've got nothing from Minutes to Midnight, ew. "Breaking the Habit" is a fantastic song and a fan favorite, but it is both a later track on Metora and a later released single from the album. I would have put this one in the final cluster of songs. If you swap its placement with "Leave Out All the Rest" you solve two problems.

6. "In the End" from Hybrid Theory

As one of LP's biggest hits, the #6 slot seems a bit dubious. I'd rather see it at or around #3, but I guess it's fine here.

7. "Bleed It Out" from Minutes to Midnight

As previously stated, there should have been some Minutes to Midnight representation before now. I like "Bleed It Out", I'd rather this include "Shadow of the Day" or "Given Up", but I understand "Bleed" is the bigger hit and more representative of the album as a whole. Ultimately I think "What I've Done" should have been here.

8. "Somewhere I Belong" from Meteora

Perfect placement for this song, but if I were to vote a Meteora song out to be replaced by something from say ... The Hunting Party ... this one would be on the chopping block.

9. "Waiting for the End" from A Thousand Suns

This is one of my favorites and as the lone representative from A Thousand Suns, Track 9 feels right. No notes.

10. "Castle of Glass" from Living Things

Living Things, as an album, is kind of a mess, and I've never loved "Castle of Glass". This should have been omitted in favor of "Guilty All the Same" or one of the missing Minutes to Midnight songs. On a 20-song collection, this being in the 10 spot is a misrepresentation of the collection itself.

11. "One More Light" from One More Light

This song holds a precious spot in my heart and while it 1000% belongs in this collection, I can't even begin to say where in the tracklist it should go. One More Light is such a weird and exciting album it's almost a shame the title track is the only one that ever gets attention, with the obvious reason for that being devastatingly sad.

12. "Burn It Down" from Living Things

This should be the only Living Things track on here and #12 seems to be low enough. No further notes.

13. "What I've Done" from Minutes to Midnight

Track 13? Really? This might be the biggest WTF placement on here. Outside of "Numb" and "In the End", "What I've Done" is THE LP anthem. It's the song that should play during the trailer of the LP biopic. It's a great uniter of a track. 13 is whack. It should be in the first 5, without a doubt.

14. "QWERTY" from LP Underground 6.0

"QWERTY" isn't necessary here. It doesn't fit the theme of the overall package, and it was never a "hit" song. It IS, however, a fan-favorite that's never found its way to official streaming platforms, so while it may be the black sheep, it's welcome to steal a slot. For you fans that might have never heard it before, enjoy!

15. "One Step Closer" from Hybrid Theory

I guess you've got to save at least one big hit for the end of the compilation, and I guess "One Step Closer" is a fine one to fill that role, but this really feels like the slot "Crawling" should be occupying.

16. "New Divide" from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Finally, "New Divide" is on an official LP release and a singles collection is the perfect place for it. It may be a bit too low on the tracklist, but it works here just fine.

17. "Leave Out All the Rest" from Minutes to Midnight

As one of LP's best songs, leaving out "Leave Out All the Rest" would have been a cardinal sin, but since its popularity is nowhere near the bigger hits, number 17 is a fine pace for it.

18. "Lost" from Meteora20

It's good to see even the recent success of "Lost" is being highlighted. No notes.

19. "Numb" from Meteora

It's simple, "Numb" should be last. I get "Friendly Fire" is new and the new stuff on releases like this is usually either first or last, but "Numb" should be the exception. It should be last.

20. "Friendly Fire" from Previously Unreleased

"Friendly Fire" is a great track and its tone lines up nicely with the One More Light album (for which it was originally written). My only note is informed by my love for that album. This track should have been held for an anniversary or special edition of One More Light. I know it's presumptuous to assume anyone wants a deluxe edition of one of their least popular albums, but any extra attention we can throw its way would make me happy.

Total length: 67:57

I'm sure by now someone is jumping into the comments to argue with me and honestly don't care about your opinions. No energy will be wasted fighting over stuff this dumb. What I WILL address though is logistics. With the re-emergence of vinyl as a dominant distribution platform, tracklistings can't be as freeform as they were 20 years ago on Compact Disc.

Your basic CD holds about 80 minutes of music. This collection fits on one disc and easily slots into the few remaining CD shelves at your local Walmarts and Targets. If CD was still the dominant platform, LP and Warner might have shoved 3 more tracks on it to better represent the catalog.

Vinyl is not as forgiving. Sure, since each sind of a 12" record is holds about 20 minutes, a full 80 minutes is still in play, but since their are 3 forced record-flip moments, song length is a huge factor in the final tracklisting.

I've seen weirdness on vinyl releases that specifically address this problem. Like, I've seen the vinyl versions of albums have different track orders to accommodate the 20-minute sides, I've seen mostly empty sides on records, but most egregiously, when blink-182 re-released their 2003 self-titled album on vinyl, Side D was completely blank.

This next section is me trying to build a tracklist that meets my needs as a picky fan-boy, but still fits on the 4 - 20 min sides of 2 vinyl records. Here we go.

Side A - 17:03

"Papercut" 3:05

"Faint" 2:42

"In the End" 3:36

"What I've Done" 3:25

"One More Light" 4:15

Side B - 17:15

"One Step Closer" 2:37

"Bleed It Out" 2:44

"Somewhere I Belong" 3:34

"Waiting for the End" 3:51

"New Divide" 4:29

Side C - 17:42

"Leave Out All the Rest" 3:29

"Burn It Down" 3:50

"Crawling" 3:29

"Pts.OF.Athrty" 3:38

"Breaking the Habit" 3:16

Side D - 17:00

"Shadow of the Day" 4:16

"QWERTY" 3:22

"Lost" 3:19

"Friendly Fire" 2:56

"Numb" 3:07

Well, I thought that would be harder. With most LP tracks being 3-4 minutes in length, the re-arraignment was super modular. All four sides of the records have room to spare. If I really wanted to be a jerk I'd load one or two sides up with short songs to allow the addition of a couple more tracks. Instead, I decided 20 is a nice round number and 5 tracks per side looks good on packaging.

I swapped out "Castle of Glass" and "Numb/Encore" with "Shadow of the Day" and "Pts.OF.Athrty" and it makes the whole thing feel better. I wanted to include something from The Hunting Party, but the best track "All or Nothing" wasn't a single, and the best single "Guilty All the Same" is almost 6 minutes long. Also, after listening to it again, The Hunting Party is not a great representation of the band's best work. I feel comfortable leaving it out completely.

The newer/non-single tracks are bunched up towards the end because that's how it should be and as stated above "Numb" is now last. THIS is a 10/10 collection. I could go deeper and put together a Digital Deluxe collection, or I could throw out all industry standards and rebuild both records with the maximum physical limitation of 25 minutes per side, but that would be overkill (he says after typing 1900 words). Imagine the songs I could put on this baby if given an additional 20 minutes to work with.

Last note, the name of the release is Papercuts (Singles Collection 2000–2023), a fine name, but why include the years? Doing so suggests more is to come. Also, technically, "Friendly Fire" was a single this year so shouldn't it be 2000-2024? Jay Gordon of the band Orgy recently let slip that Linkin Park has a new female singer, but this news has not been corroborated. Is Papercuts simply the end of the Chester era? Is the band working on new music or a tour with a new singer? Is the reason this collection's name stops at 2023 because they plan on releasing more music later this year? Why am I able to come up with so many seemingly justifiable questions from what should be a straightforward Greatest Hits package?

Let me wrap this nonsense up, I'm starting to sound unhinged.

Go listen to Papercuts!

Cheers!

#linkin park #chester bennington #mike shinoda #warner #papercuts #greatest hits #singles collection #nu-metal #2000 rock #rap/rock

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