It’s funny how sometimes the mere title of a song drives your expectations in a certain direction. The anticipation for ‘Let You Fade’ felt like waiting to play some sort of emotional russian roulette. Will it wreck me? Will it heal me? Well, as it is sometimes the case with exceptionally great songs, I found out this morning that it holds the ability to do both.
I’ll keep this short for fear of letting the words overflow like the tears rolling down my cheeks but the feelings conjured up have never been more real. If this is truly the last song of the From Zero era, Linkin Park couldn’t have made a more perfect closer to it all.
From Zero has been all about revisiting what brought this band where they’re at today, what made them, what drove them, and that wild hope that we would join them starting fresh from Zero – and we certainly did. Let You Fade encapsulates that journey perfectly, a testimony to what’s gone woven with that bright promise for what’s next, all in the shape of the warmest embrace you could get from music. That song sounds like what a hug feels for real.
A few piano keys anchoring those feelings we’ve all shared over the years, an enticing riff pushing you forward, that gorgeous bridge that rips your heart open but taps into a level of comfort rarely met and that chorus, ha, that chorus, where the voices of old and new through Mike and Emily, intertwine and delivers that promise that their legacy will live on and the love that brought them to this point will always be a part of it all.
A beautiful testimony to Chester. A beautiful testimony to themselves and who they once were. And for those saying they changed, maybe they did. Maybe we did. Or we’ve just all grown a bit more – and that’s never a bad thing.
One last look back with that glimmer in our eyes turning into a renewed spark because the truth is, more than ever, we all can hear the future Colin and it’s never been brighter.
One song, so many feelings.
We won’t let you fade either guys, promise.
