I'll start off by declaring my undying love for the band. That should remove some of the bias. Now onto the matter.
It's that time again when the boys have just launched a new album and the wires are buzzing with positive and negative reactions. Within the LP fan base itself there will be completely mixed reviews. One side, like me, will love the album no matter what and will continue to appreciate the bold new direction that the band has embarked on. The opposition's main case would be along the lines that the new album IS a step away from the band's earlier work and that this new direction is nothing but a corporate sell-out and they want the sound that they grew up with back.
I believe that both arguments have fragments of validity. Allow me to elaborate by first informing you of my experience with Linkin Park, or LP, as it has come to be known by the fans. Ahem.
I got into the music when the band and I were both in our youth. I was perhaps 12 and the band had just launched their second album, "Meteora". I was gifted this album by a dear friend of old on my birthday, and I believe that could be considered the genesis of my foray into modern music. Before this I only listened to the offerings of local radio stations and occasionally delved into the desi Sufi rock scene (Junoon <3). It was only after this exposure that I realised that there actually was music outside the country meant for those who were just venturing into awkward teen-hood.
Linkin park was my gateway to the city of adolescent music and I strode in with head held high. "Meteora" became my first love, each song representing a facet of my dreamt-up dramatic life. Teenage angst spilled from every track on the album, touching heart and soul, causing emotional epiphanies and that was pretty much high school. During that time I also checked out "Hybrid Theory" and me and my mates would be humming and singing away our drama day in and day out.
Then we grew up, and apparently so did the band. "Minutes To Midnight" came out and caused great confusion to our under developed minds.
Where was the screaming? Where was the spill of raw emotion? Where was my beloved band that I grew up with?
Some of my friends shunned this new face of LP and moved on. I however would not prove to be so faithless. When I had heard the songs on "Minutes", there was a certain something that clicked. I gave it a second listen and then a third, and suddenly, epic realisation rocked me to my core: this music makes so much sense to me, it's like it they made it specifically for me!
Like I said, that was a confusing time for me and such thought had seemed pretty rational back then.
Objectively speaking, and with a much more mature outlook, "Minutes" was indeed a bold move forward but in my opinion, completely natural.
Putting it simply, LP grew up. Hybrid Theory and Meteora were launched when they too were pretty much college kids. Then they graduated and got a taste of the real world, much like their fans.
Their new sound was much more mature, like I said before, with reduced screaming and more sensible and deeper lyrics. They still had some thrash tracks such as "Given Up" and "No More Sorrow". But even they sounded more grown up, the lyrics of "No More Sorrow" and "Bleed It Out" appealed to my more mature sensibilities.
Some fans were bummed out due to the lack of juvenile anger although majority of the fans were still on the LP Fan Train.
The band went off the radar for a bit after "Minutes". The next we heard from them was when they released "New Divide" for the Transformers sequel. Later when they announced a new album, people were excited because "New Divide" was a hit single quite reminiscent of classic LP. A cloud of high expectations greeted the arrival of "A Thousand Suns".
The expectations of many were thrashed the day the album hit the record stores.
Linkin Park had grown up some more! A lot more.
Their sound had changed considerably. There was much more electronica as compared to the guitars and drums as before. It was like Mr. Hahn had been given a free pass and he had used it well.
Classic instruments were almost non-existent, replaced by electronic bells and whistles. I will not embarrass myself by sharing my pitiful knowledge of techno terminology, so I'll just say beeps and bloops had replaced guitar riffs and the human element.
This was the main complaint of most LP fans. The instruments were there, they were just buried under effects and Mr. Hahn going haywire on the turntables just added to that atmosphere. I'm not gonna lie: I was pretty damn shocked myself.
Most of the songs on the album were even more mellow than before. The absolute raw juggernaut of emotion had been tempered, focused as into a blade which struck deep into the listener's soul. The music was still such that one could take pretty much any meaning away from it and link it to some aspect of one's own life. The music felt more important and with the times.
As such things are wont to be, I fell in love with the new LP. I loved the new edgy futuristic sound, Chester's improved vocals, Mike's rapping, the whole enchilada. It was the turn of the decade after all and I was ready for something new, something that reminded me that yes, we were advancing through the ages.
I later realised that this was the exact same reasoning I had applied to every LP album before this.
The following phrase has seen some really heavy usage, especially in recent times. However that doesn't make it any less true: Linkin Park is music evolution personified.
If you think about it, LP has been constantly upgrading their work with each album. There are differences between Hybrid Theory and Meteora. The former had the grunge, underground garage band feel while the latter had adopted the overtones related to the 21st century, that is, turntable scratching along with cleaner electric guitar riffs.
By Minutes To Midnight, this new sound had become an essential part of Linkin Park's work. They experimented with ballads and softer songs and took the main focus away from loud thrash rock. However, that hard hitting hard rock element was always present, even in the newer albums. It really was traditional to have at least one song to which you could raise your fist and bang your head to like there was no tomorrow.
A Thousand Suns and now with Living Things, the prophecy is complete. Linkin Park have embarked upon a journey of self discovery and constant self improvement. They challenge themselves with new ideas and do what they want no matter the backlash.
Because, hey, they are rock stars.
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| From This ... |
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| To This. |
And since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's two. I guess there really wasn't any point in me writing any of that codswaddle above huh ...
