Review Summary: Linkin Park has lost all of their original appeal in favor of a boring droning, electronic sound.
Linkin Park has changed since their old days and this album is audible proof that they're trying to get away from their past. Even though this kind of music isn't really my taste anymore I have a soft spot for this group of six angsty, Nü-Metal pioneers. Hybrid Theory and Meteora were albums I was pretty obsessed with back in the day and I still give a few tracks a listen every once in a while, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. But since i'm not 14 anymore, and I'm less angst-filled than I used to be, and a bridge of a song yelling "SHUT UP WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!" isn't so much badass as it is like the annoying little kid at Wal-Mart whining because his mom wouldn't get him Grand Theft Auto: Ballad of the Saucy Crack-Whores.
Which brings me to their new album, A Thousand Suns. Linkin Park's newest album since 2007's Minutes to Midnight. I had moved on from Linkin Park when MtoM came out, and besides "Bleed it Out" (which stuck to their original sound, but more raw and less processed,), I didn't really care for the songs on Minutes to Midnight that I had heard. They had changed from their original, rap mixed with heavy rock chorus, formula that got me to love them in the first place, into a generic alternative rock band. Then their single from the (very disappointing) Transformers: Rise of the Fallen, "New Divide" came out. It sounded pretty much exactly like the already anemic "What I've Done" except lamer. Though it had kind of a cool techno/industrial breakdown in the middle that I enjoyed. But Linkin Park seemed completely lost at this point. Now their new album "A Thousand Suns" has been released, so let's see how it stands, compared to what they've written in the past, and as a new product.
The songs are generally very bland. Songs like "Burning in the Skies", "Robot Boy" and Iridescent are songs where lead singer Chester Bennington drone on and on without any hooks or memorable lyrics to make the song worth listening to. These songs are hardly even considered rock songs, but boring electronica with a hint of distorted guitar noise in the background.
The more interesting songs are the ones with Mike Shinoda rapping. Songs like "When They Come for Me" and "Waiting for the end" feature heavier music (loud clunky guitars) and rapped lyrics that are much more interesting than Chester's droning vocals. But with one of the singles "Waiting for the End", the interesting industrial/Caribbean beat Shinoda is rapping over is interrupted by more of Chester's boring lines.
To make things worse is the filler tracks. Out of the 15 tracks, six of them are shorts that either just add onto other tracks, or are just there. The first two tracks "The Requiem" and "The Radiance" are two parts to the same track, should have been combined, but were they only somewhat enjoyable filler tracks. The rest are just irritating.
The Album Closes with an acoustic track "The Messenger". This track has nothing in common with the rest of the album, which should be a good thing, but fails to really leave an impact. It's another one of the "Do you feel like (insert emotion that all teenagers feel)?" song. It's a step up from Mudvayne's song about whining in a corner and Three Days Grace's song about starting a bitchy riot, but still not very good. Lyrics are cheesy as hell with lines "Loooooooove makes us kiiinnnnnd."
I'm let down by this. I wasn't looking for another Hybrid Theory or Meteora, because those two albums were fairly similar to each other and making a third one would have been almost as big of a mistake as making this album. By the way, I'm leaving Minutes to Midnight out of this, because i really haven't listened to much of it, and I don't want to bring up something when I really don't' know what I'm talking about, but I digress. The point of a band evolving, obviously, is to improve song making, and even if it's not better than their old stuff, it's just as good, but in a different way. Linkin Park has gotten rid of pretty much everything that was good about them back in the day. They had tight, concentrated songs that didn't drag on, were heavy enough to mosh to, but had pop sensibility to make them nice and catchy. Now we're left with mainly boring, droning melodies that in most cases (except for the end of "When they Come for Me") don't have any real excitement. There's hardly any climax to the songs of this album, barley dessert at the end of the meal that makes you think "dang that was awesome, I'd eat that again", no obvious sexual innuendo, just an album that doesn't build in intensity or excitement. Often times, such as the song "Black Out" the beginning or middle is pretty interesting, but is slowed down and hurt by a boring ending. Unfortunately, more often that not, the songs aren't all that interesting in the first time and there are no exciting parts that make the slow parts worth it.
Overall Rating:
2/5
Those 2 points aren't' for the overall quality of the collective songs, that would get a 1.5 at best. Those two stars are for a band that is on the right track of finding something good, but has strayed to from their original sound to be memorable. If they had decided to think somewhat like Hybrid Theory, but include some of the cool electronic sounds from this album, and maybe tweak the verse/chorus/verse/chorus/bridge/chorus/chorus/outro formula they abused in their first two albums, this would have been great. Resting on your laurels for too long isn't a good way to be a band, but completely ditching what made you famous is even worse.
(Edited on 9/15)
