Bottom Of The Barrel

Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight

Linkin Park's 3rd studio album [not including the remix albums Reanimation and Collision Course or the live album Live In Texas] Minutes to Midnight will be released tomorrow and longtime LP fans might not get what they are expecting from the nu-metal/rapcore rock band. Unlike the previous 2 albums, Minutes features mostly Bennington on lead vocals with Shinoda providing harmonizing vocals instead of his notable rap lyrics. Shinoda does perform lead rap vocals on Bleed It Out and Hands Held High and also sings lead vocals for a full-length track [In Between]. Also noticeably absent is sampling elements by Hahn that helped set LP apart from other artists in the same category. Here is a track list with individual comments for each:

1. Wake - A ever growing instrumental track leads the album just as Foreword opened Meteroa
2. Given Up - Driving hand-clapping rock track which is the most pre-minutes like LP track on the album
3. Leave Out All the Rest - First power ballad on the album but it lakes the likeability that Hahn brought to In The End and Numb
4. Bleed It Out - Shinoda lead rap track which is the only song that features the signature dueling vocalist
5. Shadow of the Day - Sounds like a mashup between NIN's Closer and U2's One, not very LP like
6. What I've Done - Here we finally get some of the Park-like odd timed drum beats, samples and raw guitar riff's on the chorus
7. Hands Held High - Politically charged Fort Minor-esque track however I still prefer the pre-minutes style vs Minor vocals
8. No More Sorrow - Guitar riff's and driving beats which is only descernable from and an old Metallica track by Bennington's signature screaming vocals
9. Valentine's Day - Another power ballad but this one is so stripped down it's hard to believe it's on a LP studio album
10. In Between - A third ballad but this one lacks any power
11. In Pieces - Starting as a ballad but grows into a fury of driving beats and LP like programming and riff's but the ultimate sound is a bit reggae
12. The Little Things Give You Away - The fourth full-on ballad brings the record to an uninspired close

By far this is my least favorite Linkin Park album and I hope they collect themselves for their forth album and go back to their roots keeping in mind the kind of music that has made them so popular in the past 7 years.

Labels: Music

posted by TheWino @ 10:02 AM