Linkin ParkMinutes to Midnight
Everything old is nu-metal.
As Minutes to Midnight plays through its 14 tracks of heavy radio-rock, proggy keyboard dirges and soul-baring rap-core it becomes increasingly harder to pin down the seam where influence and familiarity can bob and weave in tandem. Here's a group that were the flag-bearers of the often-maligned nu-metal scene (other than Limp Bizkit, angst incorporated) now hell-bent to be...less hellish? More melodic? More "indie-rock" (The Postal Service to be exact)? With less Mike Shinoda?
No answer is concrete, here. In ditching their formula, Linkin Park have become so liberated from their previous sound, so worldly with their inspiration that their constant state of influx swallows them whole, leaving a void that longtime fans will take notice to almost immediately. In this musical-take of a "whodunnit?" who is to blame for the overreaching facelift?
The main culprit: Knob-twiddling, formula tinkering, scruffy beard extraordinaire, Rick Rubin.
Now don't get me wrong: Rick Rubin is responsible for laying his Midas Touch on countless artists spanning every possible genre and decade, from the infancy of hip-hop's boom-bap stage (Run-D.M.C.) to the final chapters of legendary honky-tonk outlaw Johnny Cash. Along the way he's de-frisked the funk and big-upped California dreamin' for Red Hot Chili Peppers and layed down some astonishing nu-prog with Mars Volta.
On Minutes to Midnight Rubin plays the piper yet again; the outcome is sure to be the great debate on message boards worldwide. This album effectively draws the line between LP's fanbase--the forward-thinking and past-grasping all the same. If you fall into either camp, prepare to be polarized.
91
could have put 14 or something. 12 isnt much.
They were definitly trying something new, Im aware of that. All
songs on an album won't sound identical, but they'll have one
general style. Someone like Jay-Z will have a hip hop/rap vibe to
an album. Mudvayne will have that metal sound. MtM had punk, pop,
rock, some reggae at one point, rapping...I just found they mixed
too many styles together.
Im not complaining. Im analyzing and saying what I think about the
album.