Linkin Park sound lost and desperate
If you are still expecting the Linkin Park that released angsty screamathons like Papercut to reappear any time soon it is probably time to put your Hybrid Theory T-shirt on Trade Me and give up now. It’s not going to happen.
The former nu-metallers indicated with 2007’s horribly bland Minutes to Midnight that they were not interested in metal, nu-metal or even just rocking out any more – they had U2’s stadiumsized career ambitions in mind.
That lofty goal continues on their Rick Rubinproduced fourth album A Thousand Suns, a concept album full of big statements.
It’s full of spoken word segments, piano segues, interludes and song titles like The Requiem and Waiting for the End. It’s also a genre mash-up, with a couple of vibrant hip-hop tracks ( When They Come For Me, Wretches and Kings) appearing alongside One Republic-style piano ballads ( Robot Boy, The Messenger) and futuristic raves ( The Catalyst, Blackout).
There are occasional moments, such as Blackout’s frenetic intensity and Wretches and King’s throbbing beats, where Linkin Park seem to know what they’re doing.
But dual front men Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington can’t come close to the emotional impact of Reznor, with songs like Iridescent full of lyrics so cliched Chris Martin would have rejected them. ‘‘Do you feel cold and lost in desperation?’’ goes one particularly cloying refrain. Linkin Park do and it’s written all over A Thousand Suns.
Back to the drawing board, boys. stuff.co.nz