REVIEW: Linkin Park - Minutes To Midnight
3 / 5 stars
My initial listening of this was “ughhh… wow the Linkin Park I love is gone… this is crap...” and didn’t bother listening to it much more. It felt like all the members of the band went off on their own and wrote a couple songs and then they just mashed them all together, it didn’t feel like an album, just a glob of songs, like some sort of compilation. Anyways I’ve decided to give the album another chance as my buddy Peter insists that it gets better with time.
01 Wake
3 / 5 stars
A decent intro, not amazing but definitely up to Linkin Park standards for its simple coolness. Unfortunately, the cool epic feel that this hints at never gets fulfilled.
02 Given Up
2 / 5 stars
Ugh. Possibly my least track on the album. Some of the guitar riffs are alright, but the lyrics are kind blah, and they swear like crazy. What? First time I heard this it threw me off guard since both of their previous albums are clean. But even despite this, this song sounds like something a 14 year old stoner headbangs to in his parents basement. I.E. mindless crappy music.
03 Leave Out All The Rest
4 / 5 stars
This is starting to sound better — much more of a Linkin Park feel to it. Didn’t stand out too much to me before but now hearing it again, this song is actually pretty good, a decent slow Linkin Park song with good lyrics.
04 Bleed It Out
2 / 5 stars
And here comes the potty mouth again. I like Linkin Park’s rapping when it’s set to rock. But this sounds like some Jay-Z or Mase or whatever rap-crap the kids are listening to these days. And the chorus is so freakin repetitive and not that interesting to begin with, I was bored to tears by the second repeat of the chorus (mind you, there were 12 more chorus repeats to come).
05 Shadow Of The Day
4 / 5 stars
And back to good stuff again. Linkin Park has done a great job with their soft sound on this album. So far the arrangement of this album is very curious. Intro - really fast (crappy) song - good slow song - crappy fast song - good slow song. I would’ve liked a little bit more of the signature Linkin Park “Mr. Hahn” sound in this song but it’s still really good just as it is.
06 What I’ve Done
4 / 5 stars
Actually the first song that sounds like traditional Linkin Park rock. Reminds me a lot of Breaking The Habit from the Meteora album. Would like a little bit more guitars.
07 Hands Held High
1 / 5 stars
Ho-ly crap, this song is AWFUL. The rapping in this song sounds like LFO (crappy 90’s rapper - “Summer Girls"). And… that’s all there is to the song! No real chorus to speak of, then as the song is about to end they suddenly thought “Oh crap, we gotta put something better than this really crappy rapping in this song” and added some quickie little Row Your Boat style repeating singing bit, kinda cool but not enough to justify the horrendous rap style. Oh and peppered with more pointless cussing.
08 No More Sorrow
2 / 5 stars
The cool thing about Chester (lead singer) is he has a beautiful voice that sounds great clean and he also has a great screaming voice. Apparently he forgot how to sing nice because most of his singing sounds like he just can’t remember how to not scream or he’s just sick and lost his voice. This song in particular really illustrates how awful his voice sound can sound.
09 Valentine’s Day
3 / 5 stars
There’s nothing particular bad about this song… but there isn’t anything great about it either. It’s very monotone throughout most of the song, albeit with good lyrics. It finally picks up at the end a little bit but doesn’t take the opportunity to really punch it.
10 In Between
2 / 5 stars
Not an awful song, but man this doesn’t fit on the album at all. This sounds like a +44 song (a band fronted by Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus), and doesn’t fit with anything else on the album. Just another song that boringly doesn’t really have much of a chorus and sounds fairly monotone. Man seriously, this sounds like a guest band track or something… this doesn’t sound a bit like Linkin Park.
11 In Pieces
2 / 5 stars
What’s with the ska guitars? Man this song could be AWESOME if they took that vocal track and put it on top of some signature Linkin Park stuff, some of that hard-hitting Meteora rock would be awesome for this song. There’s definite potential for that melody. Instead this feels like they have seriously lost the ability to make good rock, the music in this is almost just a 4 measure track on repeat for the entire song. It feels like they were in a hurry to finish the album (they only had how many years?) and just needed to lay something behind the vocal melody or something.
12 The Little Things You Give Away
2 / 5 stars
Gaah, still boring and repetitive… where’s the creativity? It’s gets a little better as the song goes on, but not much. And then suddenly, the album is over.
Final Thoughts
Well I do admit… it was better than I had remembered it, but man does it blow in comparison to their other albums. It’s pretty sad that there isn’t a single good heavy song on the album… isn’t Linkin Park a rock band? The slow stuff is pretty decent and I’ll probably put that in some music rotation but none of it is good enough to excuse the rest of the crap that’s on the album. Definitely not recommended.
23 Comments
Chris Harrison
Jun 20 @ 03:52 AM
My first thought when I first heard this album was: is Linkin Park turning emo? wtf? It was definitely not what I was expecting. At least it wasn’t as bad as the new Bjork album. That’s $10 bucks I wish I could have back…
-----
nick
Jun 21 @ 11:38 AM
I just went over to youtube to see if anyone put up their songs… Holy Crap! Anyway, I think they are overly focused on the war. Lyrics suck like you said, there’s no “meat” to them. It’s like they have stopped trying.
Mike
Jun 22 @ 05:17 PM
I have hear Shadow of a Down on the radio (Sirius), and really liked it, but didn’t even realize that it was Linkin Park until I looked at the display.
Nikk Baker
Jun 24 @ 10:04 PM
Likin Park has always had an emo side to it, but they mask it up with the beats and guitar riffs. But on this albumn it seems to go alot into the darker side, what with the lamb of god-like guitar (No More Sorrow) and the most obvious cries of emoness (Given Up) but completley psyches u out with a song that includes praying (Shadow of the Day) it seems that they were into no rush what with the 4 year break between cd’s and them admitting that they wrote 150+ songs. i think the variety is supposed to be samples to see what the masses like, then theyll respond to it in their next cd.
dradk1
Jun 27 @ 04:21 PM
i loved the album but i still prefer there old stuff but
dradk1
Jun 27 @ 04:23 PM
(continuing from last comment)i still can’t stop listen to it its awesome
moses njoroge
Jun 28 @ 03:33 AM
LP lates album is NOT UP TO WHAT i anticipated,the scratching effect is all gone ,but all in all your guys still are good
Ian Sanders
Jun 30 @ 08:34 AM
It’s a very harsh review, and you obviously aren’t keen on it, but to be fair - they always said it would be different, and ‘unlike anything they’ve done before’. To be honest, you just wanted them to make another album exactly the same as Meteora, and not experiment in other directions, and because they didn’t - you are stamping your feet and spitting your dummy out of your pram. I love the new album, but will agree with you whean I say i preferred the ‘old stuff’, but a change is always good… If they’d done ‘Meteora Pt2’ would you be saying how boring it was theat they’ve done the same old stuff over and over again?
Do what I do - put Meteora, Hybrid Theory, Reanimation AND Minutes to Midnight onto an iPod, set it to shuffle, and listen to them all.... I guarantee you’ll see a whole new ‘power’ and ‘level’ to the new album that you have probably shut yourself off to.
Also, in my opinion, the swearing is an important part of the song, intended to work the way it does, and not just put in for the sake of it. These are rockers, not priests!
Cyrus
Jul 04 @ 01:23 AM
Just Great album! By the way, here is some useful
website devoted to the
Minutes to Midnight album: http://linkin-park-minutes-to-midnight.info/
David
Jul 17 @ 12:52 AM
Hey Ian, I think you missed something there. That might be your opinion but you have to also look at it the way other people do, the people that didnt like this album. See, these people (including myself) are fans of the old stuff, the good old In The End and Points of Authority type sound, that is the linkin park we know and love, but the new stuff is completely different. Its a whole new linkin park. Its as if a different band plays but have the same name! But of course you could see this album as an experiment, maybe of they bring a future album it will be better and they will find what they really want. All in all I personally miss the old sound of linkin park. But hey, good songs are timeless and I still listen to the old stuff of course, I mean, it doesnt have to be new.
Ian Sanders
Jul 17 @ 01:40 AM
I do agree with you David, that’s the point I was trying to get across, I love the older stuff, and it will always be my preferrred type of Linkin Park. I stand by my original comments though, the main review was very heavily biased against the new album, purely because it didn’t sound like any other the previous albums!
David
Jul 17 @ 01:45 AM
That is true, people are not looking at it as something new, they are comparing it to the old stuff while having expected it to sound alike. Well, Linkin Park did warn us though, lol.
Ian Sanders
Jul 17 @ 01:45 AM
Of course we mustn’t dismiss the possibility that Chester just can’t carry on the way he is used to.... His fantastic style of vocals surely has to take a toll (try singing along to just one track… hehehe). I saw a video on YouTube of Bleed It Out being performed, and it did look like he was struggling a bit…
God I hope not, but it’s possible I guess....
David
Jul 17 @ 01:50 AM
Im not saying he doesnt sound good (well now he doesnt sound good really but before he did), he uses a vocal technique that is not so healthy for him with his voice. Some voices can endure all of that screaming but his is not really the enduring type. I dont think he will be able to sing much longer. Lets hope he just caught a cold during every recording session, hehe.
Ian Sanders
Jul 17 @ 01:55 AM
Could explain why LP decided to go down the ‘mellower’ route.... Still, at least we have some great albums they’ve already recoreded to listen back to!
David
Jul 17 @ 01:56 AM
Yeah, in fact im listening to my favorite again: Points of Authority :D
Ian Sanders
Jul 17 @ 02:01 AM
Currently got Numb going, lol
Jared
Jul 27 @ 10:09 PM
I am actually appalled. Yeah we were expecting something different...they told us so...but rampant cursing has no excuse...it really doesn’t...and they lost a chunk of fan base because of it.
Also, I dunno if his shot vocals would be a case for a “mellower” route because regardless of the timeline of their songs, they will play their old ones in concerts, so that point’s shot right there. Also, in recording, all Chester has to do is hit the right note, and they use a program to draw out that note as long as they want...so all he has to do is hit it for a second and stop. You can easily tell in some of the songs because it’s completely unwaivering unlike when you hear him live and he wavers. All in all, they traded musical brevity for lyrical harshness and...it’s not going to sell CDs...they have to save their contracts.
mancedo
Jul 30 @ 01:12 AM
I am a Linkin Park fan… I bought this album and I personally think that “What I’ve done” is a great song.. check out there live performance on SNL -awesome! But that is it. I can honestly say that this is a huge disappontment. This album lacks… everything! I have given it a very fair chance listening to it at least 15 times. It has absolutely no creativity, it is so extremely dull and mind numbingly boring you would think what the hell happened?? Its just awful. And Rick Rubin helped produced it?!? It is a very slow and pointless album. I can’t help to think that in 4 years this is what was produced.. 12 songs.. maybe 2-3 that are good/ok.. and then the rest is terrible. What Happened? Don’t waste your money on the album… download the single mp3’s.
Joe
Aug 10 @ 12:47 PM
Hey, who ever wrote this review you call Bleed it out repetive? Look at the other 2 albums and tell me they arnt repetieve there basically same music diffrent lyrics. If they made the trilogy all u complaniners would be mad because they dnt change at all. So now when they change there musical direction you guys are pissed becase they changed “too much”. so then what kind of music do you want them to make then.Woukdnt you rather have a band surprise you with unexpected music rather than Music that u expect from them. and one more thing if they made the trilogy then where would they go from there? Wouldnt it be too late to change then?
dolarich
Aug 18 @ 03:47 AM
It looks to me like a lot of people like the album and a lot of people didn’t, being one of the second, I think that Linkin Park went soft and it doesn’t work. true, they still sold a load of records, but now they appeal to fans of groups like my chemical romance, it’s pop-rock and it’s cheap, nothing like the band that used to tour with metallica limp bizkit slayer or deftones, and I’m not the biggest metal fan, I also like soft-rock like bloc party or billy talent, but they are original and good at doing it and linkin park aren’t.
I never thought I would have to say anything like this about LP one of my favourite bands, but they’ve turned weak, and they need to fix it. Bring back the originality and the intensity that once burnt my cd player!!!!
JP
Aug 22 @ 06:41 AM
Album fantastic!!!!!!! GO LINKIN PARK
my album of the year
nothing sold out about this album.
who requires consistency in an album? do you want to sound like staind? (every song sounds the same)
i cannot stand chemical romance , i love this album
jeze
Feb 18 @ 06:47 PM
Ever since i’ve heard “numb” and “in the end” i’ve been addicted to Linkin Park. Hybrid Theory and Metemora are the best. And i am sad to say their new album sucks and doesn’t kick as ass.I know a lot of people agree and those who have never liked LP probably are thinkung or saying aloud “this proves they’ve sucked since the beginning”.
I know a lot of people who love LP and are addicts like me to the music. Then there are some who think their are way better bands out their.
But in my perception yes some of their songs may seem unpoetics and easy to write/record.But the way it connects to many fans is deeper than it may seem to other people. LP’s music reaches to me by pulling and tugging on my hopes,memories, and relality of life and my perception of it. So you may not think LP is any where near great as some people claim, but all I can say besides that they are one of the best to me and “at least they don’t create utter garbage and pointless songs and are not one hit wonders or just in it for the money.”