It was by text that I heard the news that Chester Bennington, lead singer of Linkin Park, was dead. The day was July 20. His housekeeper found that he had hung himself in his California home. It was surreal for me, given how important Linkin Park's music was to me throughout early high school. Even though at no stage in the last five or so years I have been excited to listen to Linkin Park, there is no denying the impact Linkin Park had on me.
It prompted me to go back and listen to Linkin Park's previous work again, like I had done so many times between the ages of 13 and 15. Hybrid Theory, the surprise smash hit that sold 4.8 million copies in the US during it's first year alone, making it the highest selling album in the country. Meteora, the soundtrack to my junior high school. Minutes To Midnight, their first real departure from their signature nu-metal sound (which also contains my favourite Linkin Park track, "The Little Things Give You Away"). A Thousand Suns, an ambitious further departure into more electronic territory. Living Things, an album that I preordered when it came out in 2012. I was 14. The Hunting Party, a return to more predominantly guitar-driven tunes. And One More Light.
It struck me when I listened to One More Light again in the wake of Bennington's death that I should be feeling something different, that something should have changed in me given that I now have this piece of retrospective information. But I didn't. This got me thinking about other similar instances where a death has hung over an album. There were two big ones for me last year; David Bowie's Blackstar and Architects' All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us.
Now, first of all, it is important to remember that no piece of art is made in a vacuum. I was struck by some comments made in response to Anthony Fantano (of The Needle Drop) and his positive review of Bowie's Blackstar. There were people saying that he "only liked the album because he died" and that music should be kept separate from real life. These comments took me aback on account of how fundamentally I disagreed with them. In the case of Bowie, the album itself was an artistic representation of his inevitable departure, and was made incredibly powerful as a result. Given that he passed only two days after the album's release, his death literally loomed over the album in a way that could not be ignored - it was and still is the essential touchstone of the album and it's themes, and gives the lyrics a spookily prophetic ability to get under your skin.
When Tom Searle of Architects, who had been battling skin melanoma for three years, passed away on August 20 2016 the band's recent release All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us was given an equally surreal prophetic quality and was incredibly hard to listen to with the knowledge that he wrote the lyrics to the album knowing potentially that his time was short. Having seen the band twoce since Searle's death I can say first hand that these songs have taken on a special significance not only with fans but with the band, including drummer and brother of Tom, Dan Searle.
Incidentally, both Blackstar and All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us were among my favourite albums of 2016, and to say that the context behind those two records had nothing to do with the way in which I received them would simply be untrue. Both of those records are profoundly marked by the premature deaths of their major contributors and they directly feed into the experience of the listener.
Other notable instances of a similar nature are that of the music of Nirvana and Joy Division. For me, at least, it is impossible to separate the suicides of Kurt Kobain and Ian Curtis from the listening experience of their respective works. Nirvana tracks like "Something In The Way" and "You Know You're Right" become almost unlistenable.
In the case of One More Light, I never liked it at all to start with. This was never based upon any assumptions of the band and Bennington as people, or had anything to do with any of the band members' personal lives. So to me the idea that my disliking of One More Light is disrespectful to the memory of Bennington is a little absurd. In retrospect the lyrical content of the album does indeed take on a new significance (as does the rest of the band's work), but that is only a portion of what makes up the body of One More Light.
It seems to me that there is a weird moral blind spot in this discussion. It would go without saying that going through a suicide victim's personal journals and notes for signs and an insight into their mind would be completely out of the question. There is a degree of respect and space to be given to the loved ones and family of the deceased, especially of such a high profile public as Bennington. And yet with his music we have unlimited access to his thoughts and diary in a sense, and not a second thought is given to pouring over it to look for signs. I think that the appropriate thing to do is hold an album such as One More Light in the same stead as you would have already - whether that be in high regard or not - without insisting that it is a "misunderstood masterpiece" simply because of Bennington's death.
If you love One More Light, then of course that will be one of the reasons you are drawn to it, in the same way that Blackstar and All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us have taken on further significance for me. But if you don't, don't feel bad because you're missing the point. If you didn't get it before his death, by all means have another listen because of course it will be a different listen, but don't feel that you need to like the music out of some moral obligation to his memory. He was a human being like everyone else, and his memory shouldn't be bound by those 10 songs - that is what worries me when I read about people saying One More Light is Chester's "goodbye that we should remember him by".
If I'm perfectly honest, my opinion on One More Light hasn't changed a whole lot in the same way it did for Blackstar, and album that was almost singularly based around the idea of Bowie's death. Blackstar was essentially a vehicle by which Bowie was able to explore the idea of his own death in different artistic ways and communicate that with his fans from beyond the grave. It's a really spooky, eerie album. One More Light certainly does take on different undertones in the lyrical department, but you have to go searching a lot more to find those direct references that Blackstar is full of (if you haven't, go and watch the seriously creepy but hugely moving video he released for Lazarus). One More Light isn't an album about Chester's death in the way Blackstar is inherently about Bowie's, and so I think the two singers' deaths have fundamentally different presences on their respective albums.
Unfortunately Chester's death doesn't do much, if anything, to make me like One More Light any more than I already did (or didn't), but that's okay! That has nothing to do with the impact his death had on me or my judgement on his decision to end his life (which isn't up to me, or anyone else, to make a judgement on for that matter). Listen to it for the album it is. If you like it, great. If you don't, that's okay. Because music is what music always has been - subjective - and that extends to cases like One More Light. Turning his tragic death into an argument point certainly isn't what he, his band mates or his family would have wanted, I'm sure, but if it makes the album mean more to you then don't let me or anyone else tell you otherwise.
In the meantime, just have a watch of the music video for the title track and tell me it isn't spooky. Keep the tissues handy.
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