I don’t know if any one else picked up LP’s latest offering, but for an album that’s been anticipated for 5 years, it’s pretty fucking lame.

Being a fan of Hybrid and an even bigger fan of Meteora I was looking for this album to be a fucking home run… or at least more of the same, which I wouldn’t have minded.  Shinoda and Chester pretty much split their work load on the album and barely share a single song on the whole disc, along with sparse electronic experimentation, this record seems incredibly void of LP’s traditional style.

Don’t get me wrong, it starts off incredibly well with the short intro track and heavy-hitting “Given Up”.  But the third track slams on the breaks and sounds like a cookie-cutter alternative ballad.  Shinoda finally pops up on a good forth track, but then it’s another three ballads (including their boring-ass single) until you hear Mike again in an incredibly mediocre Fort-Minorish seventh track… where he not only raps, but fucking sings.  Ugh.

No More Sorrow is great, but again, sounds nothing like LP.

Then there’s a few other forgettable songs, including “In Between” where Mike does nothing but sing.  So combine all that with no album extras, throw in some boring album art, you’ve got a horrible step in the wrong direction.

I don’t know if it’s Rick Rubin’s influence or Shinoda trying to wedge in his Fort Minor stuff into the band, but the whole album is a mess.  Outside of three good tracks (Given Up, Bleed It Out, and No More Sorrow), it’s pure fucking shit, to put it technically.

I’ll admit it, I kinda liked Linkin Park ever since Reanimation. When I saw the list of guest producers like Alchemist, Amp Live of Zion I, Evidence of Dilated People and guest rappers Charli 2na of J5, Black Thought of the Roots, Pharoahe Monch, Planet Asia, MC Zion of Zion I, Acelyone…. the Hip hopper inside of me wanted to run to the store and buy the album. It made me take a second look at someone I’d of written off otherwise. I never was much into their albums but the Jay-Z Linkin Park album is infectiously great.

The Fort Minor mixtape was amazingly great too, of course Mike smartly teamed up with some of the Demigodz and others. So when your guest list includes motherfuckin’ Celph Titled and Apathy, shit is gonna be hot. Not mention he also got Lupe Fiasco on it. Now there’s one thing that should never happen in rap and its your Mixtape should never ever be better than your album. Fort Minor was this completely through and through and it was weak. Without Mike’s We Major friend’s list of hard ball spitters and stolen rock samples and only Styles of the beyond album, it was bland.

Too bad, I figured Linkin Park would pony up some guilty pleasures.

Start to suck? I always took Andy for someone older than 14.

CCP - 16 May 2007 11:28 PM

Start to suck? I always took Andy for someone older than 14.

Well, technically I said they’re starting to really suck.

I won’t defend my taste in music, but I really liked the first two albums.  I had a lot of hope for the third.

My brother had something interesting to say after listening to Minutes to Midnight and Fort Minor. That both seem like incomplete albums, like something was missing from each. if you took the good songs from each, you would make a good linkin park album. Which is true imo. While neither are good, neither are bad.

Also, to elaborate on this, Shinoda is essentially missing from the linkin park album. hes there for a few songs, but hes more in the back for the bulk of it. Which is dumb, i want to listen to Linkin Park, not a Chester cd.

Isn’t Mike sorta the unofficial head of Linkin Park, being the guy behind the boards with his Protools effects happy chops sorta giving Linkin Park the Linkin Park sound? Seems like taking him out the equation sorta takes out a big part of the appeal. I thought Mike was alright rapper until the Fort Minor movement where he revealed himself as a very mediocre rapper.

Better than Rising Tied, tracks from We Major.
(Uploading but should be done by the time anyone reads this)
Fort Minor - Bloc Party featuring Apathy and Tak of Styles of Beyond
Fort Minor -All Night featuring Apathy and Tak of Styles of Beyond and Celph Titled
Fort Minor -All Night featuring Apathy and Tak of Styles of Beyond and Celph Titled

Gotta love Celph Titled.... “I’m like a circus show sniper/ I aim for the juggler”

I never get tired of this link

All Linkin Park Songs sound exactly the same.

I saw that done with Nickelback, and it was so similar I thought they had made a song that was just kinda odd. You can hear the tempo adjust algorithm in that one tho’. Takes away from its impact.

Greg G - 17 May 2007 05:16 AM

Fort Minor - Bloc Party featuring Apathy and Tak of Styles of Beyond

Bloc Party is a good band…

I like them.

They sound better with Apathy flowing to chopped up samples of them, just my opinion. Mike sounds lost on that track, but that’s the problem trying to follow up Apathy. He murders tracks so harsh, its not even funny. In a perfect world, Ap would be at the top of the hip hop charts along with Tonedeff and Cunninlynguists.

Can you believe shit is popular?. It makes Mike Shinoda’s subpar mic skills look he’s fucking second coming of Kool G Rap or Rakim or some shit.

Greg G - 17 May 2007 05:33 AM

Can you believe shit is popular?

Not to go off-topic or be too “whitebread”, but it’s popular not because of its musical quality but because it sells a culture and an image.

And yes, I know the question was rhetorical.

Okay so I’m not going to lie, I’m listening to the full clip right now (I hadn’t listened to it before I posted that) and I really like how they changed the tempo up.  I love that song with all my heart so it’s interesting to see beats and parts of it changed, but still cool.

These songs need to be called “Fun with my MacBook copy of GarageBand and my friend”

Gafgarion - 17 May 2007 05:43 AM

it sells a culture and an image.

Indeed, that song is made by and for white people.

StingRhea - 17 May 2007 05:44 AM

These songs need to be called “Fun with my MacBook copy of GarageBand and my friend”

?

I mean that it isn’t groundbreaking or earth-shattering, just some clever sound editing and this guy and his friend’s voices rapping over said sound editing.

Greg G - 17 May 2007 05:16 AM

Isn’t Mike sorta the unofficial head of Linkin Park, being the guy behind the boards with his Protools effects happy chops sorta giving Linkin Park the Linkin Park sound? Seems like taking him out the equation sorta takes out a big part of the appeal. I thought Mike was alright rapper until the Fort Minor movement where he revealed himself as a very mediocre rapper.

Shinoda is still part of the album. you hear him on a couple tracks, but hes more invisible with the musical side of things. And I have no opinion on his rapping abilities or supposed lack of.

I was never a big fan of Linkin Park - I can only take so much screeching whining.

If you want an anticipated album that doesn’t suck, try Wilco or Panda Bear’s new albums.