I just got Linkin Park's latest album, [tag]Minutes to Midnight[/tag], and it really is a mixed bag, more inconsistent than [tag]Meteora[/tag] (which I loved). It has some real home runs on the album (like Bleed It Out, What I've Done and Hands Held High), but quite a few misses too. [tag]Linkin Park[/tag] tries quite a few different styles, and they are at their best when they stick to the metal-rock hybrid they are one of the best at. When they go soft, they go off course. And there is not nearly enough of the rap-rock hybrid that is so unique to them and is so mesmerizing. This album has the least amount of MC Shinoda's unique sound of any of their albums, and that is not a welcome change. Because when [tag]MC Shinoda[/tag] and [tag]Chester Bennington[/tag] do blend their styles together in this album, it works magic.
The intro Wake sets the table really well, getting you into the LP mood. Given Up is a classic, and gives you a taste of the anger that permeates the songs of this album. Leave Out All The Rest has some of the anthemic quality of Meteora's Easier to Run. Bleed It Out and No More Sorrow are catchy and will have you lip-syncing the songs a little to loud on the subway, scaring your fellow passengers. Hands Held High was a real surprise, a straight-up political statement against the war, against the president, and against the corporate bedfellows of this administration ("When you can't put gas in your tank/These fuckers are laughing their way to the bank/Cashing a check/Asking you to have compassion and have some respect/For a leader so nervous in an obvious way/Stuttering and mumbling for nightly news to replay."). And What I've Done is vintage LP through and through.
The rest of the album feels a little muddled up. Shadow of the Day sounds an awful lot like a U2 track, which is not a bad thing, but definitely not something you expect from LP. Valentine's Day, In Between and The Little Things Give You Away all fail where Leave Out All The Rest succeeds, proving to be generic ballads that feel out of place. In Pieces might grow on you after a few times.
It's easy to see why this album is dividing LP fans. But if you are an LP fan, you can't miss it.