I was rather vocal about my dislike of this album by Linkin Park upon its release last year. I thought it sounded indulgent, bloated, and was pure electro nonsense, and was arguably the biggest disappointment of the entire year in terms of albums that were released. My work colleague however, who had never heard any of LP’s back catalogue, thought that it was a really good album. I promised myself that one day, once the shock and the utter despair of the first listen was well and truly behind me, I would dig it out again, and give it another try. Perhaps I was too hasty to dismiss it?
I really wish I hadn’t bothered. Turns out that I wasn’t too hasty to dislike the record.
I just don’t get this at all. To me, it is a massive dump on the legacy of Linkin Park, which, until this point had remained unblemished, and was quite staggeringly perfect across the board. I am a huge Linkin Park fan, and I still am in spite of this terrible, terrible album. They defined an entire generation, an entire genre, and everything that they have released up to this point was essential and definitive.
Hybrid Theory is one of the greatest albums of all time, Meteora was a solid progression, bringing more choruses, more hits, and embracing a number of new elements distinct from the debut. The high profile collaboration with Jay-Z was also incredible, and bridged culture gaps between genres. Ignoring Re-Animation, which was a mere stop-gap between releases, a few years later they released Minutes to Midnight, which saw them change it up a bit, and get even bigger in the process. On that record they steered towards stadium bothering greatness, clearly treading a mainstream rock path, so streamlined, that U2 sized audiences were beckoning. They had grown and matured away from the nu-metal sounds of the debut, but had morphed into a band that still remained true to everything they stood for. They still sounded like Linkin Park, just grown up. It was a brilliant record, and only added to their impressive legacy. They had grown up in style.
A Thousand Suns though, is just f*****g terrible. I hated it on first listen. It was the sound of a band trying to change what they are, and indulging in some of the nonsense that would normally be stripped away from a lean, mean rock record. Samples were always a part of the LP formula, but there were too many, there were no out and out rock numbers, no scream/sing tracks which is what they were always known for, no Shinoda rapping (credibly anyway), and nothing of any note really whatsoever.
Had I been in the process of reviewing albums back last year on its release, this would have got a big fat stinking 0 – as I said, it felt like the biggest blemish on what had been a sterling career.
Tonight I have listened to it again, and in all honesty, not a lot has changed. The songs are terrible in places. However, what I didn’t really pick up on at first was that a couple of the tracks are not that bad, and they are listenable. They are perhaps not as cringeworthy as I first thought, but they are still not that great. On second listen, I did pick up on Irridescent and The Messenger, which are not as bad as the rest of the tracks, and if they had been sandwiched in between something on the last record, they might have been ok. Burning In The Skies is not great, but once more, it is not as bad as everything else on the album. However, there is just too much knob twiddling, dirge, and lack of hits. The album just isn’t up to the usual LP standard. Blackout and then Wretches and Kings sound like LP are trying to break out of the shackles, but they don’t manage it, and the songs just fade away.
This was a mess. Even on second listen, I can’t get into it at all. However, the emergence of tracks such as Irridescent and The Messenger, which might slot well into past albums had they been included, mean that this does not get a big fat zero. It only gets a 1 out of 10 though – the world NEEDS something better from LP next.
I am still a fan, and their back catalogue is still phenomenal. I will definitely try and catch them at Download this time, but I do fear the response that they may get to the material from this record. It is not good, and it is not LP’s finest hour.
Hopefully the next album will get them returning to what they do best. I understand that they want to progress and mature etc, and that is fine, but this was regressive, and completely and utter tosh. They needs to be less indulgent, more direct, and bring the anthems back. Nothing on here was remotely memorable, certainly not in the same way some of their earlier material is.
However, I am glad that I gave it a second chance as it (a) confirmed that my initial thoughts weren’t way off, and (b) introduced me to a few tracks that might not be as bad as I thought, and which may grow on me further.
In spite of the tracks that could grow on me, this still gets a one, purely for the sheer disappointment as a total package, and a body of work.
1 out of 1
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