Minutes to Midnight

Minutes to Midnight is Linkin Park's third studio album and seemingly the most coolly received. In fact, I'm not sure why I'm bothering to review it, since this is just going to seem like a rehash of what everyone else has said already. However, being a proud owner of all their previous albums, I feel compelled to put in my two cents.

The album is certainly different from their previous efforts. For a start, it's the first to come with a parental advisory (I'm excluding the Reanimation remixes and the Jay-Z Collision Course collaborations). Secondly, fans of the band's distinctive, epic, wall-of-sound sound will be disappointed. The band have stripped down the sound on Minutes to Midnight, giving more prominence to vocals and content. Most notably, Mike Shinoda sings, probably more than he raps, on this album, and shares the vocals somewhat more equitably with Chester Bennington than in previous albums. Their biting, acerbic lyrics still feature heavily, but are more focused than previously (All you've ever wanted was someone to truly look up to you / And six feet underwater I do). In Hands Held High, the best track in the album for me, Mike Shinoda professes anti-Bush sentiments over a military beat and choruses of "Amen", quickly followed by more of the same from Chester Bennington in No More Sorrow. The album is also more introspective, particularly in Leave Out All The Rest, Valentine's Day and the somewhat pointless In Between. Despite their attempt to experiment with new sounds, there's nothing here that's particularly novel, and the band at times sounds like a bad imitation of U2, especially in Shadow of the Day. Fans of the band's distinctive sound on previous albums won't take too kindly to Minutes to Midnight and NME clearly hates it. But I think it grows on you, even if it'll never be as satisfying as Meteora.