Linkin Park Release Another Pop Song ‘Good Goodbye,’ ESP Guitars ‘Pleased’ to Not Be a Part of New Album
Linkin Park have released yet another popfest of a track. Teaming up with hip hop artists Pusha T and Stormzy, Linkin Park recorded the song “Good Goodbye,” which sounds unrecognizable from any Linkin Park material that predates 2017.
Longtime Linkin Park fans were hit by a massive surprise when “Heavy” and “Battle Symphony” came out last month. A complete lack of guitars mixed with pop radio production has been a bitter pill to swallow for some, though the like-to-dislike ratio on YouTube has remained largely positive. “If the songs are great, that should be all that matters,” vocalist Chester Bennington said in an interview with RockSound. “We feel like we’re pushing ourselves creatively. If we write a bunch of pop songs that suck, we’ve definitely taken a wrong turn, if we write a bunch of metal songs that suck, we’ve taken a wrong turn.”
“Good Goodbye” sounds like a cut you could bump into while listening to Top 40 radio without even realizing Linkin Park is coming through the speakers. The song is vocally driven by Bennington, who relents to allow LP bandmate Mike Shinoda to deliver rap lines in a repetitive fashion popularized by modern rappers.
“If the only thing you want to listen to is ESP guitars through a rectifier amp then this is not the album for you,” Shinoda told All Things Loud. “Come to a show, though, because there are songs in the set which are for you! This is not your album, though.”
ESP Guitars offered a hilarious response to Shinoda’s quote via their official website:
We’re pretty mellow people at ESP, but we were a little taken aback, at first, when the online magazine All Things Loud published an interview this week with Linkin Park‘s Mike Shinoda. The all-caps headline of the interview, which you can see for yourself here, screams, “LINKIN PARK’S MIKE SHINODA: “IF YOU’RE EXPECTING ESP GUITARS, THEN THIS ALBUM IS NOT FOR YOU”.
We all thought, “Wow, that’s a really bizarre thing to say! What does that even mean?” But then we looked at the context of the interview itself, where Shinoda was explaining the differences between Linkin Park‘s new lighter, poppier sound and the expectations of their fans who enjoyed their previously guitar-driven music. He stated, “Just hearing any song, like Heavy, is just one piece of the whole. That said, though, if the only thing you want to listen to is ESP guitars through a rectifier amp then this is not the album for you. Come to a show, though, because there are songs in the set which are for you! This is not your album, though.”
Okay, fair enough. Once we realized what was being said, which was that ESP Guitars is the iconic representation of the powerful sound of heavy music, and that was exactly what people shouldn’t expect from the new Linkin Park album, we got it. And then we checked out one of the songs from this album, and… yes. Yes indeed. Mike is correct; that is not the sound of ESP Guitars. Most definitely not.
So, in short, ESP is pleased to announce we won’t be on the new Linkin Park album, though of course we wish them the best in their ongoing endeavors.
Ouch! To check out Linkin Park’s newest song, “Good Goodbye,” check out the player above. One More Light will be out May 19 through Warner Bros.
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