minutes to midnight | Review Column

Tag Archive | "minutes to midnight"

Tags: album review, Linkin Park, minutes to midnight, music review

Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight

Posted on 16 July 2007

ReviewColumn's rating :
4 stars

Minutes to Midnight This band certainly needs no introduction, having formed 11 years ago and since then selling more than 50 million albums and winning 2 Grammies along the way, first known as Xero back in 1996, then as Hybrid Theory, and the band that finally became Linkin Park some time around 1999 is surely one of the most popular rock bands out there. Both of its previous 2 studio albums have been major successes, with Hybrid Theory selling more than 5 million copies and Meteora reaching 6x Platinum. Now, after a 4 year long hiatus of not releasing any studio albums, Linkin Park is finally back with their new album, Minutes to Midnight.

First of all, this album sounds very different from previous Linkin Park albums. The band has indeed strayed away from the nu metal sounds that many fans have come to know and love. Sure there'll still be a few songs that are still similar to the older Linkin Park songs that many fans of Hybrid Theory will surely enjoy as they're familiar with such sounds: Given Up, What I've done, No More Sorrow, and to a certain extent Bleed It Out and In Pieces. Many fans will definitely be able to relate to these songs as they're pretty similar to the Linkin Park they've been listening to for the past 9 years.

However, almost all the other songs on this album is drastically different from the usual Linkin Park song: Shadow of the Day sounds like it could have been from Maroon 5, Valentine's Day just gets boring after awhile, In Between sounds like Matchbox Twenty, while Leave Out All The Rest and The Little Things That Give You Away almost sound like they could have been from Westlife or Backstreet Boys, except it has Chester's vocals. Yes, this album has definitely slowed down a lot as compared to previous Linkin Park albums, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Even the slower songs sound pretty good and were definitely unexpected from LP.

However, while casual listeners will like Minutes to Midnight as almost every song is really great, Linkin Park fans might not be as easily impressed. Many of them have grown accustomed to the good old rock sounds that they have managed to produce time after time in their previous 2 albums. Many of them are obviously dissatisfied with this album, seeing as how it only has a 3.5/5 rating on the iTunes Store, with many reviewers there expressing how disappointed they are with this album, with one of them even proclaiming it as being "pretty fricking emo".

All in all, if you're a hardcore Linkin Park fan, stay away from this album, though you should already have gotten it by now. For those of you who miraculously haven't but are planning to get it soon anyway, be warned that there are only a few songs on this album that will satisfy your cravings for a new Linkin Park album. For the rest of us who aren't as concerned about how Linkin Park actually sounds as a band but are rather just concerned about finding good music, go and get this album now.

Buy "Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight" music album
Rate this music album, give us your rating:
1 Star 2 Stars 3 Stars 4 Stars 5 Stars (1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
Loading ...