By TJ Gibson
It has been six months nearly to the day since Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington was found dead in his California home after an apparent suicide. The prolific frontman’s passing was felt deeply and immediately, echoing sadness and frustration the world over as a generation grappled with the sobering reality that it has permanently lost one of its greatest icons.
In the wake of this tragic event, countless tributes were made and an endless supply of love was sent to Bennington’s family, as well as his surviving comrades in Linkin Park — both of whom were extremely grateful, yet understandably pretty quiet about the matter. Until now.
After having some time to digest his loss and come to grips with the current state of his life, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda has officially released the first new music from any member of the band since Bennington’s death.
Anyone who has ever heard Linkin Park will know Shinoda as the instantly-recognizable voice behind the raps in iconic songs like “In the End” and “Faint,” but only more hardcore fans of the band will know that Shinoda is quite the well-rounded musician beyond that, playing both guitar and piano with the same skill that he displays in his raps.
Now, in this brutally honest and thoroughly cathartic three-track EP, Shinoda has finally shown the world both what he’s capable of when left to entirely his own devices and how he has chosen to cope with the loss of a dear friend.
We open up with the heart-wrenching and deeply personal “Place To Start.” The shortest track sets the somber throughline of the rest of the EP perfectly — which is fitting given that it’s really more of an intro than a full song in its own right.
That being said, though, there’s no shortage of beauty in this brief piece, from Shinoda’s painfully reflective lyrics to his rarely-showcased singing chops. Even the various synthesizers and sound effects that lay the foundation are beautiful in their execution, even if only because their sparseness serves to enhance the genuine center of the piece — Shinoda’s voice.
Truly, there is an incredibly palpable vulnerability on display in this song, which is capped off by a slew of consoling voicemails that one can only assume were left sometime shortly after Bennington’s passing. If Shinoda’s universally- relatable sentiment of the lack of control that losing a loved one carries with it (communicated in lyrics like, “do I even have a decision? Feelin’ like I’m living in a story already written”) doesn’t quite capture the emotions for you, then these messages should do the trick.
As Shinoda reminds us, sometimes you don’t need to know the end. You just need a place to start.
Next up is “Over Again,” a rap-driven track which is more characteristic of Shinoda’s overall body of work than its predecessor was. Chronicling the emotions felt in the time leading up to and immediately following last October’s “Linkin Park and Friends” tribute concert, the track moves from pain and confusion in the first verse (in which Shinoda expresses his trepidation as to whether he could get through the show) to anger and frustration in the second (with Shinoda lashing out at every Captain Obvious saying that this must be hard with the sentiment that it’s, “only my life’s work hangin’ in the f**kin’ balance”). This evolution makes sense, too.
Depression and anger are equal players in the stages of grief. And Shinoda, for his part, communicates this perfectly. Of the three tracks, this one is really the stand-out — genuine enough to do the record justice but also catchy and accessible enough to find its place on pop radio.
Finally, the EP closes out with the Fort Minor-esque “Watching As I Fall,” another rap-driven piece which is admittedly more upbeat than the others, but no less emotionally-charged. Despite the several layers of synthesizers and somewhat complex beats making it the most instrumentally intricate song on the EP, Shinoda’s words are still its focal point, which is exactly how it should be.
The reason why I say that is because, as the most thematically positive track in the bunch, its message needs to be as clear as possible if the record is to close out with due hope. With statements like, “maybe I should be more grateful that I had to watch it all come undone” and, “maybe I’m just fallin’ to get somewhere they won’t,” Shinoda reminds us to do the most important thing you can in the wake of loss: be thankful for the times you had and remember that every fall makes the next stand stronger.
