Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight

good; not as good

I love this band, and I enjoy this album, but, like other reviewers, I don't think it's as good as the first two... Still, it's definitely worth a buy. October 6, 2008

BORING!

This album is just simply boring for most of the tracks. The songs are mostly just too soft. The album starts off with promise after the intro with Given Up, which is a really hard-rocking angst-filled track that I really like. Bleed It Out is a really cool song, and one of the only ones with Shinoda, sounds like Linkin Park from previous albums. Shadow Of The Day is a complete U2 rip-off, but overall is a pretty decent track. What Ive Done is a pretty typical LP ballad track, and the lyrics are great, I definitely like this one. Hands Held High is an anti-Bush song, wow really groundbreaking right, and it is not that good at all. No More Sorrow is another anti-Bush song, but this one is really cool, it is one of the few hard-rocking tracks on the album, the last good song on the album. The ones I didn't mention and the songs after No More Sorrow are all really slow, boring, and absolutely horrible. Overall this album is not very good at all, a true disappointment for Linkin Park, in my and most others opinion! October 6, 2008

Different, but still good in my opinion

The newest album fron Linkin Park titled "Minutes to Midnight" sure is a lot different than "Hybrid Theory" and "Meteora", but I still liked it. It is probably the weakest of their albums, but it does have some very good songs on here.

1. Wake - Just an intro, doesn't need a rating.

2. Given Up - 5/5. The one song on the album that sounds the most like their older music. Really good.

3. Leave Out All The Rest - 5/5. In my opinion, the second best song on the album.

4. Bleed It Out - 3/5. I never could get into this song that much. In my opinion, Mike Shinoda's parts in the song are the only good parts. Chester's parts are just ok.

5. Shadow of the Day 5/5. In my opinion, the best song on the album. I could listen to it over and over.

6. What I've Done - 4/5. Great song, but is a little old now.

7. Hands Held High - 1/5. The worst song from Linkin Park in my opinion. I always skip this one.

8. No More Sorrow - 5/5. Another great song on this album.

9. Valentines Day - 3/10. The only good part of this song is the second half. Not a huge fan of the first half.

10. In Between - 2.5/5. It's ok, but not great.

11. In Pieces 3.5/5 - Alright song.

12. The Little Things That Give You Away - 2/5. I wasn't crazy about this song either.

So overall, I give this album 4 stars. October 5, 2008

Awesome CD

I fully appreciate all the songs, not just the ones they played on the radio. September 13, 2008

An honest review of a controversial album

After listening to the most recent Linkin Park album, it certainly is different. It's got some of the hard rock elements from their Nu-Metal days, and it's got a surprising amount of softer songs (which I really enjoyed but many fans will probably be disappointed). So here's my overall review:

"Wake" is a cool intro, it's a lot different than what Linkin Park has done to start their other 3 albums. Starting with crackling sounds like an old vinyl record playing, numerous other sounds come in and build-up as eventually the band's instruments come to life to get the album going.

"Given Up" has some great pieces of hard rock which I like, but I think the intro clapping-like sounds are stupid and I HATE the cursing. I always thought Linkin Park was a cool group for not needing to curse to have some powerful songs, and they just threw that out the window on this song. The latter half of Given Up is VERY loud and angry which I know a lot of people will like it, but I don't. I'm not emo enough to listen to that part of the song in public.

"Leave Out All The Rest" is a GREAT song, I love it! It's a softer song along the lines of "My December" (it sounds totally different, but it's the same kind of easy-going song), and I found myself reminiscing about my past when listening to this song. I hope this song gets a lot of radio play as this shows some of Chester's great vocal ability. The song reminds me a lot of Saliva's "Rest In Pieces" song.

"Bleed It Out" made me think of a country ho-down when it started (it's got clapping and a lot of people in the background hootin' and hollering). Bleed It Out also marks Mike's first appearance on the album and I'm not sure what genre this song would go into. It's got Mike rapping (kind of) and Chester doing his thing, lots of clapping in the background, and it's a fast paced song (and short too, only about two and half minutes).

"Shadow of The Day" is another slower song, and very different from anything Linkin Park has done before. Chester goes solo on this song as well. It starts out with low tone beats and fills out with some violin and electronic sounds, later on the drums come in. I really like this song too, but if I came across it on the radio I wouldn't have thought it was Linkin Park, so many fans might not like it. It reminds me of a band called Audio Adrenaline. This is one of the longest songs on the album clocking in at 5 minutes.

"What I've Done" everyone already knows about. Another song I like! And many people will like it since it sounds the most like Linkin Park's previous albums out of the rest of the new songs.

"Hands Held High" is song number 2 with Mike (3 if you count his background on What I've Done), more unneeded cursing, starts with some church-like organ, drummer boy percussion, and features background chorus from non-Linkin Park singers. Mike puts out some nice lyrical work here, and Chester comes in at the halfway point. This is a VERY POLITICAL song, which is critical of many of the things going on involving the United States in various places in the world. Cut the cursing and I believe this would be a more powerful song. This song didn't work for me though, felt too much like a song that could have been done by the Beatles or U2 just based on the song's melody.

"No More Sorrow" is a hard rock song with Chester doing his thing. I haven't soaked up the lyrics yet so I can't really say what it's about, but Linkin Park is angry about people with money (maybe another song bashing President Bush?). I was surprised by how abruptly it ended, it just stopped. Another Mike Shinoda drought on this song (I didn't hear a peep out of him), but other than that, its definitely my favorite song on the album since it reminds me why I became a Linkin Park fan to begin with.

"Valentine's Day" is another softer song, not surprising based on the title alone. People listening to this song will probably be able to name a dozen bands that sound just like this, not to say it's not a good song, but it does sound familiar. I do like the song and the second half is really good when it kicks into higher gear.

"In Between" is Mike's biggest song, and it's the first time he's ever just sung lyrics; there's no hip-hop coming from Mike on this song, it's just him out there singing. This is a softer song as well and it's very melodic. I like this song too, but again, it could easily be mistaken for a non-Linkin Park song, and unfortunately it's somewhat repetitive and easy to forget which part of the song you're at.

"In Pieces" reminds me of Reanimation a bit, it's got lots of sound effects and about three quarters of the way through the song guitars will come out in full force (similar to the slow build ups in Reanimation), and is another Chester-only song. This is a good song and is very active and it sounds like it has a guest singer behind Chester but I don't know who. This song had another abrupt ending.

"The Little Things Give You Away" has a very soft-singing Chester start things off. Things build up consistently throughout the song and there is another big guitar piece here. This is also VERY political based on the lyrics, mainly influenced by the events in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. This is the longest song Linkin Park has ever done on an album clocking in at 6 minutes 25 seconds, and Mike is mostly absent from it until the second half. The tone and lyrics don't work with Chester though, it feels more like a song that should have given to perform by a diva. Final song of the CD.

Well, Linkin Park did accomplish one thing they laid out, and that's to totally change their sound. This is, for the most part, nothing like Hybrid Theory, Reanimation, or Meteora. It'll be easy to spot these songs on the radio based solely on Chester's voice, but aside from that these are quite different from previous songs. There are songs here which are hard rock for the Nu-Metal LP fans out there, and there are lots of songs for people, like me, who have always enjoying LP's lighter and more lyrics songs like "My December" and "Numb". I really like "Shadow Of The Day", it's just a very enjoyable song and the sound is smooth with some great lyrical work from Chester.

I've only listened to the album about a half dozen times through and I'm still soaking up the meaning of the songs, and perhaps I've missed Mike's contributions on some songs, but I was still surprised by how little he seems to appear. On the previous albums I always enjoyed how LP mixed opposites, they'd have hard rock pieces with Chester and the hip hop element with Mike, I thought that formula worked. On this album however it's hard to guess where'd Mike will come in and what Chester will do. I guess you could say it's a more seamless sound in the songs. Also, I imagine Joe Hahn must have been bored out of his mind at times, there are very few instances of his trademark turntable work ("What I've Done" would seem to be his biggest song), but I'm sure he did lots of the artwork and that he'll be in charge of Linkin Park's music videos for this album as well.

One thing I was expecting based solely on the title was a kind of story being told throughout the album. When I heard the title would be Minutes to Midnight I thought it might be a build up to a huge song at the end, with a common meaning linking all of the songs together. But that's not present, and even though the last song is the biggest, there isn't a noticeable theme to the album. Three of the songs do have political contexts which are decidedly critical of the Bush administration, and while the members of Linkin Park are entitled to their opinion, I don't appreciate artists trying to shove a political statement in my face. I want to be able to just listen to a song and enjoy it, not to hear political propaganda. Besides, when the United States' involvement in Iraq is wrapped up (and when President Bush leaves office), those 3 political songs will lose their relevance and eventually people will begin to forget their meaning.

All-in-all this is an okay album with some enjoyable songs, and even though it's very different from previous efforts I'm sure real Linkin Park fans will come to love it while alienating other fans of the band at the same time. I hated Reanimation when I first listened to it, but it really grew on me and I think that's what might happen with Linkin Park fans when they first listen to Minutes to Midnight. September 11, 2008

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