2007-05-27
"Minutes to midnight" is probably one of the most anticipated rock albums of the year. For Linkin Park, it is the critical point of their career. It's the "do or drown" and will probably be the album where lots of their old fans will get off, while some new ones will come up.
Only their third album and already Linkin Park got to that place in an artist's discography, where he draws a line between his old style and new style; The album that some will call "their best", and some will say "their worst".
Their debut album "Hybrid Theory" was released in the year 2000, and was one of the albums to define the worst musical genre invented in the last years – Nu metal. In 2002 it even got them the title for "best hard rock performance" on the annual Grammy award. As I see it, they win for being "not as bad" as the other guys were (taking to notice that Rage Against The Machine were too good for the Grammy's).
Both of their previous albums – "Hybrid Theory" and "Meteora" achieved a great commercial success. For a while, there wasn't a single 14 year old girl who wasn't humming "In The End" or a 15 year old boy raging away with "Crawling" just to get some attention, or maybe just trying to be tough.
14 months ago, the six entered the studio once again. Understanding their fans are way past their teenager years, they will have to follow and grow up. This is where skillful Rick Rubin steps in to set things right.
Rick Rubin is mostly familiar for his work with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana, and the last five Johny Cash albums, which were the perfect, spine chilling, beautiful requiem this Country legend could've asked for. In general, Rubin is one of the only rock producers who carries proudly his title, even considering it's meaning during the 70's.
From day one, Rubin put the band through a real boot camp, pushing them to their extreme, trying to squeeze every potential talent and creativity from them. And as usual he does a good work. "Minuets to midnight" is the first Linkin Park album that won't find itself being immediately passed on to a lacking of musical taste friend, or a homeless guy, who's given a bucket full of teenage-idol-rage instead of the five bucks for booze he expected.
There will be no declarations of how this album can be this year's best album, or how it changed my life, but there will be lots of compliments, for they have achieved real progress.
The process Rubin got Linkin Park on doesn’t begin and end on this album. This album is a mid-time report about their progress. Except for "American idol", there are no shortcuts in the transformation from a childish rocker into an actual artist. All of that sums the album into a mixture between their heaviest tracks to date with some overly generic ballades. Adding to that- with nearly every song on the booklet, you will find notes and information about how every song came to be, and what it means for the band. Just like a kid coming back from kindergarten showing his mom the drawings he did, explaining to her what is what (this is the last cynical remark you will get from me).
"Wake", the great instrumental opening track, is the dividing line between the boys who play songs with Jay Z (actually that was a good mix) and the men who really want to matter. The follower, "Given Up", is hard, metallic, dark and angry. There's no rap in here, only screams (not yelling, or shouting, but actual roaring screams): "put me out of my misery", and notice there is no cynical remark from my behalf here. These are truly the heaviest vocals I've ever heard from these guys.
"Bleed It Out" and "Hands Held High" are the only tracks you will find rapping on; to make a point, "Bleed It Out" is one of the rawest songs around, a good blend between styles, and "Hands Held High" is an antiwar bit, dedicated straight to all time rockers' favorite punching bag Mr. capital G himself. Shinoda raps actual meaningful lyrics (not easy to find in rap these days), hovering over army drum rolls and atmospheric keyboards (not beats, but keyboards). The unique blend makes it a great and hard to emotionally define song. On "Shadow Of The Day" you can easily spot that Rubin accidentally forgot U2's "Joshua Tree" in the studio.
"No More Sorrow" goes back to metal riffs, and has good rugged vocals. The only downside is the too obvious chorus, but it finds its way up in the end of it. "The Little Things Give You Away" is a perfect closer for the album; the lyrics get their depth once you know they were written right after a visit in the destroyed New Orleans, the quite guitar and clean vocals, developing into a rockier guitar solo and last harmonic\melodic effort from Chester and Shinoda.
"Minutes To Midnight" is the new Linkin park debut album. It's probably not that meaningful to the musical world as it is meaningful to Linkin Park's own musical world. The freshness in the album is the kind of a kid listening to King Crimson, or Pink Floyd for the first time and gets all excited about it, and starts explaining to his parents (who grew on those bands) why they are so great.
The first two Linkin Park albums were their childhood period, "Minutes To Midnight" is their teenage years; ambivalent and rebellious to its own genre. I hope Rubin will accompany them in their next album as well, and into true adolescence.
As for this album, I will claim it their best for now.
Roy Povarchik
