The Singles Jukebox

Not that good, and not even a goodbye! I demand a refund.

[Video]
[3.00]

Crystal Leww: Linkin Park’s core structure with a singer, rapper, guitar & drums, and a turntablist have enabled them to adapt much more deftly to the changing tastes in production in pop music. That single with Kiiara worked well, pulling in more elements with EDM and a duet partner for Chester Bennington. “Good Goodbye” works less well because it doesn’t capitalize on Linkin Park’s adaptability, settling for Fort Minor circa 2005 production to showcase Pusha T and Stormzy, which theoretically could have been very interesting but instead just sounds tired. I understand the desire to imbue meaning, but if the last half decade has taught us anything, isn’t it that we can do that with dance production, too?
[4]

Thomas Inskeep: Chester Bennington whines, Mike Shinoda rap-whines, and Pusha T and Stormzy give it a go but can’t help this weak sauce rise above the mire. 
[2]

Rachel Bowles: Those Stranger Things opening synths give false hope. They soon give way to the painfully slow tempo of Good Goodbye’s chorus which is the aural equivalent of watching paint dry. Stormzy is not well versed enough yet in the art of phoning in a half decent verse to elevate a shit song (Nicki Minaj’s specialty.) “Tell ’em I’ve got a tune with Linkin Park.” Why?
[1]

Katie Gill: Honestly, I like Linkin Park providing a backbeat for rappers more than Linkin Park doing their own thing: “Numb/Encore” is literally one of the most underrated songs of the 2000s. However, in “Numb/Encore”, both Jay-Z and Linkin Park actually put in effort. Here, the only person who seems to be giving at least half effort is Stormzy. “Good Goodbye” had such potential and, if everybody gave a little bit more and turned it up a few notches, we’d have something amazing. As it is, we just have something okay.
[5]

Micha Cavaseno: Man, don’t force me to sit through a Fort Minor single and tell me its’ Linkin Park just because you managed to keep Chester around. This might be one of the most boring attempts at ‘motivational rap’ (best exemplified by the banality that was Drake’s “Forever” which you KNOW Mike Shinoda still can’t get sick of). Pusha is particularly terrible and Stormzy is adequately uplifted, but in general this is a song meant to soundtrack ESPN segments, not be listened to.
[2]

Will Rivitz: In which Linkin Park listens to Monstercat/Alan Walker/G-Eazy/any other mediocre and milquetoast producers or artists half-bridging electronic, pop, and rap with none of the benefits of any of those genres and says “Yeah, that’ll do.”
[2]

Hannah Jocelyn: One thing I’ve realized about “Heavy” in the weeks since I reviewed it is how close it is to not being terrible – the chorus melody is anthemic, the lyrics have some good ideas, and even the generic arrangement has moments where it registers. It’s just that somewhere along the line, all the energy was sucked out. On that note, I’m going to paraphrase an often-quoted line from Roger Ebert; if it’s not what a song is about, it’s how the song is about it,”Good Goodbye” more or less hits exactly what it’s going for. By the logic of Ebert’s quote, this is a solid [8], as not even hypothetically would I give a [10] to “I’ve been here killing it/longer than you’ve been alive, you idiot” or an awkward interpolation of “Hit The Road Jack”, of all songs. But unlike “Heavy”, or the rest of One More Light, “Good Goodbye” manages to do everything its creators intended. Also, it contains the line “Mandem we’re linking tings in parks/Now I got a tune with Linkin Park”, and that’s kind of amazing.
[5]