OOC: This TL takes place after the release of Meteora.
Minutes to Midnight
Release Date: 4-1-2005
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
While Linkin Park's big hits "Breaking the Habit" and "In the End" still garner radio play on popular rock stations, the band has decided to tread familiar territory and not rock the boat with their fans. Hardcore fans get a good serving of the band's typical pop-metal overlaid with rap offerings--a formula that has remained unchanged since Hybrid Theory. It appears that the Theory has become a Law to the band, as they care as careful as they were in Meteora not stray differ from the formula. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the album's second single "What I've Done." The song has some good pop hooks and ends in a 30 second cursing tirade by Chester Bennington--a surprising break from a band that has avoided a Parental Advisory label. Some critics view "What I've Done," "Bleed It Out" and other songs on the album as proof that the aging Linkin Park's angst sounds a little forced. Well, they are a little late as the band was already struggling with their angsty persona since Meteora. However, they pull it off with this album and will likely get a few more hits stuck on playlist on many popular rock stations for some time.
A Thousand Suns
Release Date 7-19-2008
Rating 1.5 out of 5 stars
When Minutes to Midnight went four times platinum, Linkin Park relearned what their experience with Meteora taught them: keep remaking Hybrid Theory and you will get the same four million fanboys to buy the album and go to the concerts.So, it should not surprise anyone that A Thousand Suns is just like the band's three previous offerings in several ways: No song goes over four minutes, there are 12 tracks on the album, the eleventh track is an instrumental, and all the songs combine whining, rapping, and electric guitars. It is no longer a Hybrid Theory, it's The Hybrid Rulebook. Linkin Park fanboys will eat up many of its offerings. In "Robot Boy" Bennington whines about being misunderstood while Shinoda raps about having the strength to overcome. "When They Come For Me" is simply about a high school age kid, presumably Bennington back in the day, that fears getting picked on. The ballad "Waiting For the End" is yet another song about overcoming the pain of a breakup. Some of the band's more observant fans may notice that the lyrics on other offerings on the album have shown an "evolution" in the band's staple of whining-about-overcoming-some-sort-of-pain lyrics. "Black Out" is about a night where Shinoda drank too much and gets "unlucky" because "luck's run out when you black out." "Empty Spaces" is at best an allegory about a girl that the protagonist "wants to nail" until he finds out that his date's bra is stuffed. "Wretches and Kings" is the most rap-heavy song on the album, a throwback to Meteora, where Shinoda compares his own band favorably in light of the "wretches," or every other rock band he views as substandard. Being that a whole verse of the song is dedicated to bashing Nickleback, it appears Linkin Park is looking to stay relevant by creating some pseudo-controversy. So, perhaps Linkin Park's lyrics did not quite evolve or mature, but rather devolved into immaturity. However, being that their music barely sounds any different than any of their three previous albums and many of their hits are still in regular rotation on rock stations, there is no reason to believe that Linkin Park's fans won't be satisfied even though anyone with half a brain will realize the band has nothing new to offer.
Minutes to Midnight
Release Date: 4-1-2005
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
While Linkin Park's big hits "Breaking the Habit" and "In the End" still garner radio play on popular rock stations, the band has decided to tread familiar territory and not rock the boat with their fans. Hardcore fans get a good serving of the band's typical pop-metal overlaid with rap offerings--a formula that has remained unchanged since Hybrid Theory. It appears that the Theory has become a Law to the band, as they care as careful as they were in Meteora not stray differ from the formula. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the album's second single "What I've Done." The song has some good pop hooks and ends in a 30 second cursing tirade by Chester Bennington--a surprising break from a band that has avoided a Parental Advisory label. Some critics view "What I've Done," "Bleed It Out" and other songs on the album as proof that the aging Linkin Park's angst sounds a little forced. Well, they are a little late as the band was already struggling with their angsty persona since Meteora. However, they pull it off with this album and will likely get a few more hits stuck on playlist on many popular rock stations for some time.
A Thousand Suns
Release Date 7-19-2008
Rating 1.5 out of 5 stars
When Minutes to Midnight went four times platinum, Linkin Park relearned what their experience with Meteora taught them: keep remaking Hybrid Theory and you will get the same four million fanboys to buy the album and go to the concerts.So, it should not surprise anyone that A Thousand Suns is just like the band's three previous offerings in several ways: No song goes over four minutes, there are 12 tracks on the album, the eleventh track is an instrumental, and all the songs combine whining, rapping, and electric guitars. It is no longer a Hybrid Theory, it's The Hybrid Rulebook. Linkin Park fanboys will eat up many of its offerings. In "Robot Boy" Bennington whines about being misunderstood while Shinoda raps about having the strength to overcome. "When They Come For Me" is simply about a high school age kid, presumably Bennington back in the day, that fears getting picked on. The ballad "Waiting For the End" is yet another song about overcoming the pain of a breakup. Some of the band's more observant fans may notice that the lyrics on other offerings on the album have shown an "evolution" in the band's staple of whining-about-overcoming-some-sort-of-pain lyrics. "Black Out" is about a night where Shinoda drank too much and gets "unlucky" because "luck's run out when you black out." "Empty Spaces" is at best an allegory about a girl that the protagonist "wants to nail" until he finds out that his date's bra is stuffed. "Wretches and Kings" is the most rap-heavy song on the album, a throwback to Meteora, where Shinoda compares his own band favorably in light of the "wretches," or every other rock band he views as substandard. Being that a whole verse of the song is dedicated to bashing Nickleback, it appears Linkin Park is looking to stay relevant by creating some pseudo-controversy. So, perhaps Linkin Park's lyrics did not quite evolve or mature, but rather devolved into immaturity. However, being that their music barely sounds any different than any of their three previous albums and many of their hits are still in regular rotation on rock stations, there is no reason to believe that Linkin Park's fans won't be satisfied even though anyone with half a brain will realize the band has nothing new to offer.