So Linkin Park really took the whole too much isn’t enough VERY seriously and dropped a new song (and a deluxe announcement!) mere months after blessing us with From Zero, a world tour, endless LPTV fun and a few new obsessions in the shape of a tall, blonde/curls and gorgeous – pick your fighter, or don’t. Both is always good too.
I’ll pass the fun and excitement that the anticipation that one brought – if you’re reading this, good chances you’ve been following it all along on twitter and you already know every bit of it. If you weren’t, well, go have a look and good luck on sorting the unintelligible chaotic mess that my timeline turned into. Fair warning, we probably yelled fuck more times than Emily did since september – that says it all.
I’m not an arsehole (most days) so let’s sum it all up real quick
What’s the song?
Up From The Bottom
Is it a banger?
Obviously.
Is it the best song you’ll hear this week?
Without a doubt.
Will you play it on repeat for the foreseeable future?
Afraid so.
Was the teasing of this one the best thing ever?
Dad jokes ✓
Screaming crying throwing up ✓
Slight new fear of eyes emoji unlocked ✓
Sudden body temperatures rising ✓ – could also be global warming or you’re just pmsing babe.
Creation of a goddam cult collectively joined by fans, bands, friends and the neighbours next door ✓✓✓
Ha. Yes, the best thing ever indeed. Ahem. Let’s get back on track.
Is the music video any good?
Duh.
Is Mr Hahn (indahouse) a genius director?
Double Duh.
Are all the hot people involved the hottest they ever looked?
Don’t ask stupid questions, I’m running out of duh.
DID LINKIN PARK DID IT AGAIN?
*screams in Emily Armstrong* HELL FUCKIN YES LET’S GO.
Good. That’s now sorted.
But what does it mean?
That video sure had a few different effects on us – we’ve been through that, blame global warming again – but the main question that it spurred was : what the actual fuck did we just watch?
Don’t get me wrong, it’s absolutely brilliant and I love the MV almost as much as my second child but it has a LOT going on, like a lot lot, and that took a few days in my case to process.
That first viewing felt like one of those dreams you wake up from and the more you try to remember what the hell was going on, the less you remember/understand and you’re just left with that 6 o’clock sleepy rage because you know it was so good and hell you were dreaming about Emily Goofball Armstrong stupid alarm clock I hate you so.
Well. Yeah. Something like that.
Fast forward a few days and a few hundred rewatches later – I’m not overdoing this for once, 3 days, over 5M views, I plead guilty – and now I can calmly try to give my two cents on what I think about it all.
Let’s lay down the groundwork first.
It’s all in the title right? There’s a bottom, you wanna be up from it. Not rocket science. But here’s what life taught me about that damn bottom. It’s a shapeshifter and there’s like a few thousands levels of hell underneath. We don’t all hit the same ones, not for the same reasons, and if there was only one way out of it we’d all be shiny happy people – oh wait, wrong example.
All band members have seemingly been sent to their own personal hell and left there to sort their shit out up from the bottom and that’s actually the subject of all these ramblings.
Let’s start with an easy one, our favourite babygirl – sorry Colin, this will never go away – literally making his best Piper Chapman impersonation, or maybe being locked up for being some too cool for school zen guru (he did join the cult after all.)
I’ll cut the silly thoughts now and as the man confirmed it himself (god I love a social media active rockstar), it was a metaphor for being imprisoned by your own thoughts. And that one hit a bit too close to home to be honest. Alone with people around going about with their lives while you’re just stuck overthinking every little thing. Ring a bell? Where are my fellow introverts now? But then. Then. He picks up a book. Oh the sweet symbolism.
Words. Words people, because sometimes the best way to escape your own reality is through someone else’s words. Aren’t we all partly music fans because we find those lyrics we can relate to? Don’t those words written by total strangers sometimes become the very lifeline that helps you get through everyday shit and free you from your own thoughts? I’m taking music as an example because that’s the one thing I know about us all, but it could be a book, a movie, a piece of art, words written on a dirty pavement. Words have power and you’re bound to find the ones that will talk to you in a way that you need. So I’ll drop those here too, don’t give up.
On with Dave – I’m still shook they shoved dad’s arse in the trunk, I might need a disclaimer that no rockstars were harmed in the process of that video Mr Hahn, and why is it ALWAYS the bassist? We’re dope people come on. A bit mad yeah, but nice. Ha. Madness. We all are on some level aren’t we? Some wear it as a badge of honor, some write shit jokes on a dark corner of the internet, and some get hurt. Damn, that escalated quickly even for me.
The constant judgement of others and society as a whole on what is deemed sane or not these days can take one hard toll on anyone. So what do we do when it’s the case? We hide it. We take those traumas and bury them at the bottom of our mind and hope that they will disappear on their own eventually. Like a mental pandora box locked away in the dark and a part of you being forgotten for the time being. Well I have shit news, it will have to be opened and faced at some point. Don’t give up on figuring how to deal with it when you’re ready for it.
We all have one of those, sometimes a full luggage set. If you don’t, congratulations and give me the number of your therapist cheers.
Part of the reason I know Joe is a good bean is the fact that he didn’t just send his mates to the bottom of the shithole and filmed from above, he got his hands dirty too and that speaks volume. I think his “place” is the heaviest one in this video for me. Disease. The ultimate prison for the body and the mind and the constant struggle against what is eating you alive. Sometimes unseen, most often than not underestimated, the exhaustion of your self as a whole. That’s a bottom I’m not sure how you get up from. The only thing I know for certain is that you can’t give up. Fight back.
Speaking of fights, here’s our favourite punch thrower. I joked at first that Emily was probably fighting against the Emptiness Machine but in some way it does look like it – if you take TEM as one very accurate satire on society. But here’s the thing. You can’t fight the system hiding behind the mask of decorum. You can’t fight the system just by muttering what’s wrong under the cover of your pulled up sweatshirt like a 12yo brat. You can’t fight the system if you don’t dare breathe freely and let your voice be carried loudly. So there’s that. The best way to fight the emptiness machine is to stop hiding, stand tall and be yourself, loud and fucking proud. I deeply believe that our diversity is the human race’s true superpower and that’s something we need to celebrate, not oppress. And Emily appears as one hell of a role model in that respect, and not just on this MV, so maybe you can give it a try too. Take that deep breath, chin up, and be yourself. Don’t ever give up on that.
I know that’s easier said than done, especially considering the days we live in, and Brad’s place definitely highlights it. We all fall for that one, endless hours of scrolling at a time, the very real virtuality of the black mirror prison. Every waking hour of our existence is now framed around those screens that we can’t help but look at. Yeah but it’s for work. Yeah but it’s for school. Yeah but stop lying to yourself because in between those memes didn’t make themselves out of thin air. The evil of our time right? Not sure our brains had time to evolve and adapt to this new reality yet. A sensory overload of information, noise, images, it’s just too much to process.
Instant access to information and more so disinformation, the urge to keep an eye on everything everywhere all at once, be the first informed, be the first in line, be the first at all time. Well that constant surveillance comes with a cost, it’s a two way street babe and someone, somewhere is doing the same and what was just you looking at your screen quickly turns into a thousand laughs echoing in your direction.
I hate medias and not a day goes by without me toying with it. I hate the news, stopped watching TV when I was 16 because it felt like those images were way too manipulative and still fall for the stupid clickbaits now and then. I abhor social media and spend hours a day on twitter. The hardest fight is the one we’re not aware we need to fight. Ha.
We all know it can be great, but we all know deep down it’s not that great. And when it sends you to the bottom… well, Fuck me and you and everyone.
Maybe that’s what led Brad into a Colin, a Joe, or even a Dave.
But maybe that’s also what led Emily to step up and embrace her fears.
That duality leads us inevitably to Mike. Mike and that rope holding all the symbolism we need. That one that you relentlessly throw above to get out of the dark hole you find yourself into. That’s something universal that can be taken any way you want, because what led you there, could be what gets you out, or maybe with the help of a few friends and the right words you can figure it out and get yourself up from the bottom. I love the fact that of them all, Mike is the keeper of the rope, that’s not always an easy artefact to find – metaphorically – but that man sure has for many many years provided us with countless threads to weave our own. The power of words, remember?
Ha. Yeah. Sometimes it’s all you need to hold onto.
Well I think you got it by now, so I’ll cut this short. That’s what I get from that song and from that music video : Don’t give up. Maybe it’s all wrong, maybe some of it isn’t – that’s only my two cents after all but that’s the beauty of music, it’s up to you to find what you need to hear in it and make it personal. And when a song talks to you like this one does, that’s definitely the mark of a great one – a win for both the artist and the listener.
Enough rambling, enjoy the uplifting vibes of this one and keep in mind that whatever you’re going through, whatever hell is raging in your mind or out there, whatever rock bottom you find yourself into, there’s only one way out of it. Up From The Bottom.
