Music Time! Linkin Park "Iridescent"

Linkin Park has had some truly spectacular songs in the past, and while iridescent is awesome it doesn’t stack up to a lot of their older, more edgy pieces.

LP is a band of two time periods, one that has displayed their growth as people and musicians through their music. You cannot compare “Paper Cut” to “Leave out All the Rest”, it’s impossible, and yet both songs were created by the same band. “Iridescent” is along the same path as “LoatR” in that it’s softer and not a lot of auto-tune or computer generated sounds, and not a bamboo flute to be heard. And yet, this is a Linkin Park song, no doubt about that.

This is not just because of Chester’s unique voice (you hear that and you know who’s singing), but the tone and message of the song.

It’s called iridescent because it would be shiny if we could all ‘let it go’, but the truth is that it does take a lot to do that. But even as the song says “remember all the sadness and frustration/and let it go”, because you cannot truly let something go unless you have remembered it full. Whether it’s a past love or hurt at the hands of another or the pain of failing at something or never having gotten the chance to succeed, you cannot move past unless you have fully lived it, and accepted it.

Like most LP songs, most of the lyrics are powerful: “When you were standing in the wake of devastation” and “you build up hope, but failure's all you've known” are two of the most powerful lines in the song.

The music video is very weird, and I don’t think I got whatever they were trying to do. I like it enough, but I don’t get it. The Transformers are in there, cool coz I like them, and a couple of religious undertones (the snake, the last supper), but apart from that nothing else stood out. Chester’s eyes freak me out, but that effect was very well done indeed.

I really like this song, regardless of what this review might say. I’ve listened to it a few times and I think it’s a good mix of uplifting message to a downbeat... beat. It will never be called an inspiration song a la “Eye of the Tiger”, but it does have a nice positive message in it at the end.

What does everyone else think? Is it a good song or kind of iffy? Do you miss old school LP or do you prefer this style? Leave it in the comments.

Kathy

Themes: Linkin Park, Iridescent, Chester, LP, LPU, transformes, dark side of the moon