Linkin Park is “One Step Closer” to releasing their new album One More Light, thanks to the lead single, “Good Goodbye.”
Featuring Pusha T and Stormzy, “Good Goodbye” is a rap-rock hybrid with pop sensibilities that allows frontman Mike Shinoda to flex his lyrical muscles.
“Enemies trying to read me,” he raps. “You’re all looking highly illiterate / Blindly forgetting if I’m in the mix / You won’t find an equivalent / I’ve been here killing it / Longer than you’ve been alive, you idiot.”
Following a hook from vocalist Chester Bennington, Pusha T steps to the plate. “King Push,” he proclaims. “They got a chair for him.” Then Stormzy appears with a glimpse at his growth: “Mandem were linking tings in parks / Now I got a chune with Linkin Park.”
The track arrives with a lyric video, which features gloomy fog-filled scenes, rainy nights, and sci-fi special effects. According to Shinoda, however, the song was actually inspired by a sport. “I’m a basketball fan,” he told Genius. “When I was writing this song, I wanted to capture that moment at the game when someone fouls out, and the cheerleaders sing and kick out the ejected player.”
Linkin Park’s seventh album, One More Light, the follow-up to 2014’s The Hunting Party, is due May 19.