I’ve been listening to Linkin Park since I was in middle school, and I own all their main albums. I wasn’t particularly fond of their last two albums, Minutes to Midnight (2007) and A Thousand Suns (2010), but in this album they seem to have gone back to what I consider to be their “old sound.” Which is definitely a good thing in my book.
The songs on this album don’t entirely follow their old formula, so to speak. Instead, it seems like they’ve cut and pasted together the best out of all their albums, making for a blended sound. I do think this is one of their better albums, and hopefully this is a sign that they’re going to make more albums like this in the future.
As I did with my Maroon 5 Overexposed review, I will be bolding the songs that I particularly enjoyed, as well as comments on some of the tracks.
- “LOST IN THE ECHO” – Think this song kind of blends the best of all their albums. I hear some Hybrid Theory, Meteora, and a dash of A Thousand Suns in the instrumental, and the way the lyrics are sung reminds me of “Bleed It Out” from Minutes to Midnight.
- “IN MY REMAINS”
- “BURN IT DOWN”
- “LIES GREED MISERY” – This reminded me of Reanimation‘s sound.
- “I’LL BE GONE” – This sounded to me like a blend of Meteora, Minutes to Midnight, and A Thousand Suns.
- “CASTLE OF GLASS” – I was reminded of “Breaking the Habit” from Meteora when I heard this track.
- “VICTIMIZED”
- “ROADS UNTRAVELED”
- “SKIN TO BONE”
- “UNTIL IT BREAKS”
- “TINFOIL”
- “POWERLESS” – This one kind of reminded me of My December, but at the same time a lot like their slower stuff from Minutes to Midnight and A Thousand Suns.
OVERALL GRADE: A-
I’m not sure if I’d say the lyrics were as strong as they were on their earlier albums, but the sound was definitely reminiscent of those albums, and for me, that’s a step in the right direction.
For anyone interested, here’s a list of my favorite songs from their previous albums (though when you read on, you’ll probably wonder why I even bothered):
- Hybrid Theory (2000) – The whole album. No joke. It was solid.
- Reanimation (2002) – Again, the whole album. I was surprised how much I enjoyed all the remixes when I first heard it.
- Meteora (2003) – This was yet another solid album for me. I liked this album after Hybrid Theory, with Reanimation right after.
- Minutes to Midnight (2007) – “Wake,” “Leave Out All the Rest,” “Bleed It Out,” “Hands Held High,” and “Valentine’s Day”
- A Thousand Suns (2010) – “The Requiem,” “Waiting for the End,” “Wretches and Kings,” “The Catalyst,” and “Blackbirds”
And I know it doesn’t technically count, but here’s a list of my favorite tracks from Mike Shinoda’s brief break from Linkin Park as Fort Minor:
- The Rising Tied [Deluxe Version] (2005) – “Remember the Name,” “Right Now,” “Petrified,” “Where’d You Go,” “Believe Me,” “Get Me Gone,” and “Slip Out the Back”
Well, that’s it for now! See you all again next entry.
Cutting Edge Creativity 
Nice write up. Personally ‘Burn It Down’ is my favourite from the new album, but so many good tracks. I’m refusing to read your Maroon 5 post though, really cant stand that guys voice 🙂
Haha thanks! And I felt like “Burn It Down” was pretty weak and tame for them, but then again, I just like Chester going crazy.
LOL to the Maroon 5 bit though. I’m not surprised; I feel like that’s one of those groups where guys either closet like them, or just don’t like them at all. I think they’re more of a chick thing. The Maroon 5 concert I went to was almost all women and the men there I think were mostly dragged by their gfs/wives.
I know you don’t like horror films as such, but did you see Chester in Saw 3D? He did good I thought
Nope. Lmao. When I know for sure a movie is horror, I steer faaaar clear. I’m glad to hear he was though. 🙂 What role did he play?
A victim in a trap 🙂 Pretty neat trap as it goes, it wasn’t a nice ending for him though!
Oh my, I bet. Was his getting caught in a trap the result of a bad decision or was he taken by surprise?
I’ve always been a fan of Linkin Park regardless of how much crap they get from a lot of people, but I was really disappointed with a lot of their album before this (The Catalyst is actually one of my least favorite songs of theirs) so it’s good to hear that their new album is a return to form. Even Minutes to Midnight was so so for me, I like about half of the songs a lot and respected the band for branching out but the other half felt like it lacked a lot of the energy which made me like them in the first place.
Just curious, if you had to pick your three favorite LP songs what would they be?
Yeah, I think I mentioned in my entry that their last two albums were not that great. I look at the whole criticism thing in a positive way though, I think it happens because people have real high expectations for them. If you’re a fan of their earlier stuff though, I think you’ll like this album.
You ask a really hard question though. Favorite 3? Hahaha. That’s almost impossible. Hmm…”In The End” most definitely…after that, I’d have a really hard time choosing between “Runaway,” “Pushing Me Away,” and “Faint.”
Come to think of it, I forgot to mention in my entry, but I also really enjoyed three of their Jay-Z meshes on their Collision Course album. “Points of Authority/99 Problems/One Step Closer,” “Dirt Off Your Shoulder/Lying from You,” and of course “Numb/Encore.”