So I decided to play old good Linkin Park after a long time. I used to worship Hybrid Theory-Reanimation-Meteora albums, then for long time nothing, then „Minutes to Midnight“ and a big change. Linkin Park stopped being Linkin Park and became Linkin Park. They Showed, that they can come with something different than everyone expect...and it was sucsessful, i guess.? I can’t tell, that I didn’t like MtM, but neither that i liked it a lot. There were some nice songs which i like to play even today (times, when i listened to them from morning to evening are over for a quite long time), but it was nothing very special for me. Well, I guess it’s time to finally write what am I trying to do here. This was supposed to be some kind of introduction shortly describing my attitude to this band. So why I decided to play them? Well yes, it was because of new A Thousand Suns album.
So let’s turn on iTunes – artist Linkin Park – album A Thousand Suns – and here we go...
Ambient droning, beats, uuuu...woman voice? It sounds like that, but it’s just modified Chester‘s voice. „The Requiem“ is intro to album, which is concept, the main theme is nuclear warfare. The only sign telling me I’m actually listening what i think is singers unmodified voice which doesn’t come until third song. It’s positions are quite classical, but with very unclassical music foundation. There is only a little of guitars, most of the sounds are keyboards and samples, no Mike‘s rap. It appears in „When They Come for Me“, which continuously enters into „Empty Spaces“ interlude.
„Everybody wants the next thing to be just like the first
And i'm not a robot, i'm not a monkey
I will not dance even if the beat is funky
Opposite of lazy, far from a punk
Ya'll oughta stop talking
Start trying to catch up motherfucker!“
sounds in quite agressive song with sharp drums creating strong and catchy rythm. The record continues in a little motivational and maybe-there-is-a-hope mood with „Robot Boy“ and „Waiting for the End“, there’s also some Chester’s scream in „Blackout“.
The compositions miss typical verse-chorus song schema, they are dynamic and have gradation, even a little hymnical maybe (for example second half of „Iridescent“, which is only song similar to songs from previous album). Each song is different and none is boring for me.
I like the „Wisdom, Justice and Love“ interlude. The piano grounded by ambient sounds offers melancholic basis for speech (of some politician maybe?) about horrors of war, burning people with napalm. Ambient basis slowly increases to point, when only strongly (a little robotic sounding) modified voice remains, repeating words: wisdom, justice and love... . After already well-known synthetical-strongly percussive „The Catalyst“ comes the last song – „The Messenger“ which is surprise. There is acoustic guitar, piano, strings and sweet-hurty lyrics and all this creates nice contrast.
So it’s obvious now, that this-year’s record is completely different than anything this group used to be musically. Without a doubt it’s courageous step, but it shows, that Linkin Park doesn’t care about fans which are expecting next „Meteora“?
The musicians said, that they wanted to experiment a little at „A Thousand Suns“. Experiments are nice, but total change of genre and spit into fans face? Is it really a good idea? I know few artists (e. g. Ulver), which changed their approach to music and not only once. But i’ve never met this at such a „big“ group as Linkin Park. Many listeners after one listen says: „This isn’t Linkin Park and i will not listen to this again.“ I’ve met opinions telling, that they softened and their so-called „experiments“ sound horrible. I don’t agree with them. I think „A Thousand Suns“ is a very good album. Oh well, there’s no „Faint“, „In the End“ or „Numb“. So what? It’s just time to accept Linkin Park are musically somewhere else today than they were seven years ago. I wouldn’t expect mysem to say something like this som time ago, but I have to say it: „I like „A Thousand Suns“ fucking much, let’s push the button and listen it again.
(This is my second translated article, so please be a little tolerant and don’t kill me :-) . I’ll be very happy if you write me what you think about this album/this „review“/my english, so I will know this translation wasn’t just a waste of time.)
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