Photo: James Minchin
Earlier today, Linkin Park released the first single from their forthcoming studio album, One More Light. The song’s called “Heavy,” but it’s a blatant grab at top 40 that’s about as heavy as The Chainsmokers. The song is a duet with female singer Kiiara, who Mike Shinoda was introduced to by Beats One’s Zane Lowe. It’s very much in the vein of The Chainsmokers’ “Closer,” with Chester Bennington singing the first verse and Kiiara taking the second. In an interview with Billboard, Mike Shinoda says he wouldn’t use the words “mainstream” or “pop-friendly,” which this song is. But don’t expect the rest of the album to go back to Linkin’s nu-metal roots:
One of the reasons why we chose “Heavy” as the first single is because it is really the core sound of the album. This wasn’t a scenario where the whole album sounds one way and the single sounds different. This is how the album sounds. So we wanted to go out with a song like that, where everybody can get a sense of the direction of this body of work.
So while Linkin Park might’ve been your guilty pleasure back in the day, now they’ll probably be your 12 year-old niece’s favorite band, even if she never heard of them before now. The band will be performing the song live on Facebook at 3pm EST.
