Review Summary: Surprisingly good!!!
You gotta hand it over to Linkin Park though. For a band that became popular by strictly adhering to the blueprint of the "Nu Metal fad" in the late 1990s/early 2000s, they have been quite experimental in their last two albums. Minutes To Midnight saw them "trying" to be a mainstream rock band. Trying mind you. The end result was boring and bland expect for certain highlights like "What I've Done","Shadow Of The Day". Next comes the Radiohead wannabe album. Again, not much of a success.
So when I heard news about their fifth album Living Things, i was more than a little curious about the style they were going to follow. This IS the band that got many of us into the heavy music genres. So no matter how bad their previous albums were, one will give their new album a shot at least for pure nostalgic reasons.Guess what? Living things is basically an amalgam of their first four albums. You can hear traces of the previous albums in almost all songs(I'll Be Gone strongly echoes What I've Done/New Divide from the Minutes To Midnight era, Lost In the Echo seems like an electronic version of a Hybrid Theory/Meteora song). Of course, there are songs that sound quite new(Castle Of Glass, Skin To Bone) which, quite surprisingly , are among the better songs in the album. The supposedly heaviest song LP has ever written, Victimized, while heavy, doesn't quite displace the title holder, QWERTY(Hybrid Theory era).
So the verdict? While the instrumental skills of the band are still pretty poor, the awesome production, Chester's vocals, Mike's rapping and the catchiness of the songs make it a decent album. Heck. This is probably THEIR best album in terms of song writing and instrumentalization. So old fans give this a shot. To LP haters...well...there's nothing here that will change your mind...
1. "Lost in the Echo" 7.5/10(Nice rap,slightly weak chorus)
2. "In My Remains" 7.5/10(A Thousand Suns meets Minutes To Midnight. Decent one)
3. "Burn It Down" 8.5/10(Probably the best song in the album)
4. "Lies Greed Misery" 8/10(Catchy. Nice screams by Chester)
5. "I'll Be Gone" 8/10 (Great chorus. Reminiscent of New Divide/What I've Done)
6. "Castle of Glass" 8/10(Moody and a personal favourite)
7. "Victimized" 7.5/10(Over hyped. Great drumming though)
8. "Roads Untraveled" 7/10(Weakest song in the record)
9. "Skin to Bone" 8/10(Another personal favourite)
10. "Until It Breaks" 7.5/10(Nice rapping)
11. "Tinfoil" 7/10 (Instrumental prelude to Powerless)
12. "Powerless" 7/10(Nothing new. Another weak ballad)
Overall: 7/10
